It's Spring! My heart is on fire and I can't cook fast enough. I want to breathe in the earthy musty scent of each and every flower. I am delirious with ideas and I am thinking asparagus, morels, strawberries, lilacs, cherry blossoms! cherries to start... egads. I'm going to be busy this year.
But, this post is about a delicious Almond Butter cake draped with lemon curd and of course, I've paired this cake with a bouquet of flowers; the lovely daffodil, the first to pop her lovely head through the soil and forsythia, steady and brilliantly yellow forsythia. I am thinking sunshine, brilliant yellow, egg yolks, butter- It's finally spring and it is such a wonder to wake up to a bouquet of screaming, yellow blooms.
It makes me laugh with delight! :-)
Now onto cooking something delicious and lemony!
I love this Microplane Zester from Williams Sonoma. It's not very expensive, comes with a cover, is so easy to use and creates the finest zest. Just what I need for my Lemon Curd recipe. And of course, I need lemons. And eggs.
My eggs are always farmfresh. And I've mentioned before, I get my eggs where I get my delicious syrup; from Mayfield's Farm in Mayfield. Wayne's chickens eat naturally and the yolks prove it. They are an intense yellow and I always feel as though I am eating a nutritious and delish egg. Farm fresh eggs are bountiful in Traverse City.
I found the original recipe on the New York Times Cooking Recipes website. The original recipe is by Regina Schrambling and can be found in her book Not The Usual Chef on the Shelf. I've made a few modifications to the recipe, so if you'd like to review the original, you can find it here.
I've ordered Regina's cook book, because when i find one recipe that I like, I can usually find another. The NYT says that this cake is the "ultimate citrus tart, without the heartbreak of a pie crust. " Very true indeed. Not only that, it's easy enough to make and will make you look like the head Pastry Chef at a chi chi restaurant! Add some beautiful floral garnishes and you'll have a show stopper!
I added the extra Lemon Curd to the already cooked cake. It just made it that much more creamy and luscious.
Adding a dollop of whip cream will make your taste buds pop with the tartness of lemon contrasted with the creaminess of the whip cream.
Divine!
Lemon-Almond Butter Cake
original recipe by Regina Schrambling
Lemon Curd
Grated zest and the juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup plus 2 T white sugar
4 extra large farm fresh eggs
6 T unsalted butter, partitioned up
Combine the juice of the lemons, zest, sugar and eggs in the top of a small double boiler and beat well. Add the butter and stir constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens into a curd, about 5 minutes. Strain this mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to keep the skin from forming. Refrigerate.
Almond Butter Cake
9 T unsalted butter
1 cup plus 1 T flour
3/4 cup sugar plus 1 T sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 extra large eggs or 3 medium eggs
1/2 cup almond flour
2 T toasted sliced almonds
1 teaspoon amaretto or other almond flavoring ( not necessary)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch spring-form pan with 1 T butter, and dust with 1 T flour. Discard the excess
2. With an electric mixer, cream the remaining butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Combine the 1 cup flour, baking powder and salt and stir with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and combine thoroughly. In another bowl, whisk the 2 eggs until they start to foam up. Add amaretto to the eggs. Add the eggs and the ground almonds to the batter and mix well without over beating, or the cake will be tough. 3. With a rubber spatula, pour the batter into the prepared spring-form pan. The batter is very thick and dense. Spread the batter around until it is evenly disbursed in the pan. Leave a 1 inch border and drop 8 T of lemon curd around the perimeter of the pan. Drop another 3-4 T of curd into the center of the batter. Refrigerate the remaining curd. Sprinkle the edge of the cake with toasted almonds. Sprinkle 1 T of sugar around the perimeter of the cake. 4. Bake the cake until it is toasty brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the cake, not the curd, comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let the cake cool for 30 minutes+ and then top with the remaining lemon curd before you are ready to serve. 5. Top with whip cream and enjoy! If you happen to have any daffodils on hand... Divine!
