I have a confession to make. I haven’t picked up my knitting for weeks – possibly a month. Nothing. Not a stitch. I did prepare some fiber (dyed mohair locks) and spin for all of an hour recently, and then nothing. I’m a bit mystified as to why, but there is no lack of making going on.
Just today, I have made/will make:
One loaf of bread
Three pairs of dangly earrings
A jug of soymilk and a
… Golden Perfume Summer Tea Cake
Wet phase:
– 1 cup whole milk (farmer’s market) yogurt
– 1/2 c turbinado sugar
– 1/2 c white sugar
– 1/2 c melted butter (or oil, but I only had extra virgin olive oil)
– 2 VERY LARGE farmer’s market eggs – or three more average eggs
– 1/4 tsp almond extract
– 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
– zest of one small (or large, or medium – mine was small) lemon, preferably organic
Ground fine:
– 2 small dried rosebuds (just the petals, please – no stem/leaves)
– 2-4 saffron threads
Dry phase:
– 1 1/2 c all purpose flour
– 1/2 cup whole spelt flour (nuttier flavor, less gluten)
– 1 Tbsp baking powder
– 1/4 tsp salt
How to:
Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
Mix yogurt, sugars, and melted butter. Add eggs one at a time, then extracts/zest, and ground aromatics (rose & saffron). Promptly forget that you were baking a cake and go do something else for a few minutes, giving the saffron and rose a chance to infuse. Don’t worry about the raw eggs; you’re baking them for almost an hour soon.
Cut parchment paper (or greased foil, if you don’t have parchment) to fit the bottom of a 10 in cake pan. Don’t use a smaller one – it practically oozed out the sides of my 10 inch. Grease and flour the sides, plop in the parchment. Set aside.
Mix dry ingredients in another bowl, with a fork or a whisk, or fingers if you’re really bored.
Add wet to dry and fold/stir in whatever manner you like to use to minimize stirring (and therefore minimize gluten development/toughness). Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick, after being inserted, comes out clean. Or until it’s done, you know – bake enough cakes and it tends to be reasonably obvious. There is nothing tricky about this here cake. Trust me on this.
Cool on rack for five to fifteen minutes, then turn over on rack to cool a little longer – turn back over to plop on a plate, original crust side up, when you feel like it – the crust is apparently one of the lovely parts. Devour.
And then consider checking out the recipe’s inspiration, over at the marvelous Clothilde’s blog, Chocolate and Zucchini..
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