Find an Excuse, Make This Now: Lemon and Almond Streamliner Cake from Vintage Cakes

It's not that I don't like cake—I'm just very particular about it. But I sensed great things from this Streamliner Cake as soon as I saw it in the pages of Vintage Cakes, a new cookbook by Julie Richardson. I felt sure, given the presence of both buttermilk and almond paste among the ingredients, that this cake would not taste like fluffy styrofoam. And with a lemon custard topping, this cake would not be consigned to the halls of stodgy frosted doom. No, this cake had definite potential.

I measured. I stirred. I worried that my almond paste was too grainy and that my curd had perhaps bubbled for too long. My cake particular-ness means that I don't bake many of them, and this inevitably results in a great deal of fretting when I do. But I forged ahead, smoothed the batter into the pan, and poured a glass of wine while it baked.

I presented the finished cake to my group of work-from-home friends at our weekly work-from-somewhere-else gathering the next day. The lemon custard was so creamy it practically glowed. The almond cake was just the right shade of golden and so fragrant that we had to keep it in the kitchen until snack time. Serving it was a messy affair with many blobs of custard dripped onto plates and licked from fingers, but eventually we all had a slice.

Yes, this cake more than lived up to its potential. I couldn't get over how well the tartness of the lemon custard played off the sweet almond flavor in the cake. It was just so perfect. And the cake itself was the right amount of dense with a moist and tender crumb. It made a fantastic mid-morning snack, not too heavy or too appetite-spoiling. Just right.

I'm a little head over heels for this book by Julie Richardson. It's true, I'm not really a cake person, and yet the recipes in this book make me want to throw birthday parties for all my friends, enter bake sales, and manufacture whatever excuses I can just to bake a cake.

My success with the Streamliner Cake has buoyed me. I'd better bake another one while the cake mojo is still good.

Lemon and Almond Streamliner Cake
From Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson (available on Amazon for $14)

Bake time: 42-45 minutes
Pan: 9 by 2-inch round cake pan, greased and bottom lined with a parchment paper circle

Custard

Grated zest of 2 lemons

3/4 cup whole milk

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar

4 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup lemon juice (from approximately 3 lemons)

1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Cake

1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) sifted cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup (6 ounces) almond paste, 
at room temperature

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup (4 2/3 ounces) sugar

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

To make the lemon custard, combine the lemon zest, milk, and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until just hot. Meanwhile, in a bowl, thoroughly whisk together the egg yolks, the remaining1/4 cup of sugar, and the salt until well combined, then whisk in the cornstarch, then the lemon juice. Slowly whisk a third of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the hot milk and cook over medium-low heat, whisking steadily, until the custard begins to thicken and bubble for 1 minute (you will need to stop whisking for a moment to check if it is bubbling). Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl and whisk in the butter until it has melted. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly upon the surface of the custard and place in the refrigerator to cool for about 2 hours. The custard is easiest to work with once it has set.

Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 350°F.

To make the cake, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, then whisk the mixture to ensure that the ingredients are well mixed.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the almond paste, butter, sugar, canola oil, and vanilla on low speed until blended; gradually increase the speed to high and cream until very light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes, stopping the mixer frequently to scrape the paddle and the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Blend in the eggs one at a time, adding the next one as soon as the previous one has disappeared into the batter. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour. After each addition, mix until just barely blended and stop and scrape the bowl. Stop the mixer before the last of the flour has been incorporated and complete the blending by hand with a rubber spatula to ensure you do not overbeat the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Rap the pan firmly on the counter to release any air bubbles. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the cake is a deep golden color and a wooden skewer poked in the middle comes out just barely clean, 42 to 45 minutes. The cake might crack on the surface as it bakes; don’t worry, this simply provides a way for the cake to soak up more of the lemon custard.

Cool the cake in its pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Gently invert the cake onto the rack, leaving on the parchment paper until you assemble the cake. Flip the cake right side up and continue to cool the cake on the rack until it reaches room temperature.

To finish the cake, remove the parchment paper and place the cake right side up on a flat plate. Using a metal spatula, spread a thin layer of the lemon custard on the sides of the cake to seal the cake and give it a light shine. Put the rest of the lemon custard on top of the cake, spreading it just barely out to the edge. Use your spatula to make a swirly design in the custard on the top of the cake. Allow the assembled cake (or really, the lemon custard) to set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Bring the cake to room temperature before serving (this will take about an hour). Any leftover cake keeps in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Vintage Cakes: Timeless Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Snack, Chiffon and Icebox Cakes for Today’s Sweet Tooth by Julie Richardson, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

This cookbook was given to me by the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this article are my own.

Trust in Salad. And Also Husbands.

Last week, the creative wellspring for Awesome-Yet-Quick Dinner Ideas had run dry. I half-heartedly clicked through the recipes saved in my browser and thumbed a few cookbooks. Nothing. Not a single recipe caught my eye or made me interested in picking up a knife.

Finally, I grabbed the copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's newest cookbook River Cottage Every Day from the pile on my desk and plunked it down in front of Scott.

"Pick," I said. "Anything. Just pick a recipe for us to eat this week. Please."

Dear husband that he is, he did. And wowzers did he pick well.

This cookbook River Cottage Every Day is one of the best to grace my kitchen in a very long while. It's fun and playful (cartoon doodles all over the pages of pirates, catapulting strawberries, and the like take care of that), and the food is simple and appealing. But best of all, it's not boring. All the flavors are familiar - earthy grains, fresh spring peas, braised beef, tart rhubarb - but Fearnley-Whittingstall makes every dish seem somehow more. He's magical, I think.

Scott picked this recipe for Tabula Kisir, a sort of reverse tabbouleh with more vegetables and a zesty tomato sauce. At first, I was dismayed. Of all the fabulous recipes in this book, he picked tabbouleh? But on second glance, I saw the toasted walnuts that get tossed with parsley, mint, and dill - the trifecta of summertime herbs. I saw the intriguing sauce of lemon juice and tomato paste blended with cumin and paprika. I saw that we could stuff the salad into fresh pita bread.

And then Scott innocently offered the coup de resistance: we could top everything off with a few hard-boiled eggs.

Turns out I should trust both my husband and Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall. They obviously know what they're talking about.

My Notes on the Recipe:

Instead of the bulgur, I substituted the same amount of barley in this recipe. This is because I love barley to bits...and also maybe because I had no bulgur and didn't want to go to the store. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. It's a lot of chopping, but then the salad itself comes together quickly.

I am in love with that combination of parsley, mint, and dill. They're all such strong herbs individually that I was worried they'd just end up a muddled mess when thrown together. Again, I should just trust Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The parsley and dill got along together like best buds, accentuating each other's best features. The mint is surprisingly subdued and adds just the right perky note of sweetness every now and then.

For dinner, we stuffed the salad inside fresh-made pitas (get the recipe on The Kitchn HERE) along with the hard-boiled eggs. After we ran out of pita, we ate it with a slice of bread alongside.

• Buy Yourself a Copy of the Book: River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, $22 on Amazon

Tabula Kisir
From River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Serves 4-6

1 cup bulgur wheat
1/3 cup walnuts
12 ounces ripe tomatoes
3 to 4 green onions, top green part discarded
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
1 green bell pepper, cored and seeded
5 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

For the dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons canola or extra-virgin olive oil

To serve:
Pita bread and/or Little Gem or romain lettuce

Place the bulgur wheat in a large bowl, pour over 3/4 cup boiling water, stir, and then cover and leave for 20 minutes. The bulgur should retain some bite at this stage. (For barley, I usually boil it like pasta in a large a mount of salted water and strain it when tender to the bite.)

Meanwhile, make the dressing. Mix together hte lemon juice, tomato paste, pepper flakes, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper, then whisk in the oil. Pour the dressing over the warm bulgur (or barley!) and stir well. Let cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Put the walnuts in a pie pan and toast in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely.

Meanwhile, core, seed, and dice the tomatoes. Slice the green onions finely, and cut the peppers into dice.

Once the bulgur is cool, combine it with the tomatoes, peppers, green onions, walnuts, and herbs. Let stand for at least 20 minutes so the flavors can mingle, then taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt, pepper, and/or pepper flakes if you like. Serve with pita bread and/or lettuce leaves.

(Recipe Copyright (c) 2009 by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, published by Ten Speed Press)

Ask Away! Have a Really Good Pulled Pork Recipe?

Say hello to Cheater's Pulled Pork. So good! (reviewed on The Kitchn)

From my lovely mother-in-law: Hey Emma, one of my friends is asking for a really simple pulled pork recipe. Any suggestions?

Glad you asked! In fact, I do have a really simple pork recipe. And doubly in fact, it's my most favorite pulled pork recipe ever. This is owing to the fact that it makes the best, most tenderest, and most flavorful pulled pork I have ever had the pleasure to put in my mouth.

I can't claim credit though. That goes to Mindy Merrell and R. B. Quinn, their book Cheater BBQ, and The Splendid Table radioshow for bringing the recipe to my attention in the first place. Here it is:

• Ultimate Cheater's Pulled Pork via The Splendid Table

There are two secrets to this recipe. One is the use of a slow-cooker, which allows the tough pork butt (or shoulder) to slowly and gently cook into fork-tender perfection. The other is the addition of liquid smoke.

Now, friends, liquid smoke is not as scary as it sounds. It's really just smoke (real actual smoke) that's been distilled with water. It's legit. No artificial hocus pocus here. And it gives this cheater's pulled pork that infused smoky essence as if it has been sitting in a smoker for eight hours instead of just chillin' in the slow-cooker.

That's it! I love this recipe to porky little bits and have made it a great many times over the years, always to much critical acclaim. By the by, this slow-cooker method works equally well for cooking goat, beef, or lamb. Since I'm not always in the mood to taste camp fire, I sometimes leave out the liquid smoke and sub in some chicken or beef broth instead. Excellent stuff!

Go forth, friends. Go forth and pull.

• Get The Book: Cheater BBQ: Barbecue Any Time, In Any Weather by Mindy Merrell and R. B. Quinn
• Read the Full Recipe Review: Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork on The Kitchn