Flourless Whole-Citrus Cake

 I had a few blood oranges and a tangerine or two left over from another project I'd made a not long ago, & couldn't decide what to do with them, until I came across a series of recipes for whole-lemon and whole-orange cakes. Naturally, I had to try this, especially as I'm only 75% of the way through our birthday cake season.

Therefore, today is Flourless Whole-Blood-Orange (-and-Maybe-a-Tangerine-Because-Why-Not?) Cake week. 

It begins with a few thoroughly washed citrus fruits, a saucepan, and some water. 

It ends with dessert.

 

Flourless Whole-Citrus Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 large lemons or medium oranges (or, as I did here, go for 3 small blood oranges and 1 small "Cutie" tangerine), divided (for optional icing)

3 Tablespoons Cointreau or other good orange liqueur 

6 large eggs, room temperature, separated

250 grams (approx. 1 1/4 cups) sugar

300 grams almond flour (finely-ground almond meal) 

2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:

Thoroughly wash your citrus fruit, place in saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, drain, rinse, and cover again with cold water. Bring to boil again, then allow to continue boiling for 60 minutes. Drain, and allow to cool completely.

Cut fruit into quarters, remove seeds, place seedless fruit parts – peels and all – into food processor, and blend until smooth. Add Cointreau, mix in completely.  Reserve about 2 tablespoons for icing, if desired.

Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with baking parchment paper (I usually give the parchment a quick spritz of water on each side so it's flexible and sets in place easily).

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

In medium mixer bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar, beating on medium until light and fluffy.  

In separate mixing bowl, whisk together almond flour and baking powder. Stir into egg yolk/sugar mixture along with 1 cup of fruit pulp. Set aside. 

Clean stand mixer's whisk attachment and bowl thoroughly to be sure they are oil-free (I recommend wiping down with vinegar-soaked paper towel) before placing egg whites in the bowl. Beat egg whites on medium until soft peaks form. Gently fold into the flour/pulp/sugar mixture.

Pour into prepared springform pan, smooth top, place on middle rack of oven, and bake at 350º F for 60 minutes* or until toothpick inserted in center comes out sticky but without crumbs.

Allow to cool completely, on cooling rack, before removing from springform pan. Top with icing (recipe below) or sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

 

 Icing (optional):

Ingredients: 

approximately 2 tablespoons citrus pulp (from above) plus 1 teaspoon Cointreau

juice of one small orange or two small tangerines, when combined with pulp, equalling 1/3 cup 

250 grams (about 2 cups) confectioners' – powdered – sugar † 

1 teaspoon butter, melted

Directions:

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine juice, pulp, and powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. 

Add in melted butter, whisk again until smooth and fluid (you can nuke it all for up to 30 seconds, if needed, but if you do, you'll need to allow it to cool a bit before the next step). 

Pour over top of cake. 

Serve or freeze within 2 days.

*If it looks as though the cake is getting too brown too soon, gently cover with foil for the last 5–10 minutes of baking.

†If you prefer a thinner or thicker icing, you can adjust the amount of sugar/liquid to your personal liking.

Further thoughts:
Having tasted the blood orange pulp

3 Blood oranges & 1 "Cutie" after boiling
& being run through the food processor,
with 3 TBS Cointreau yet to be added
(made about 1.2 cups total)

before I put it into the batter, I decided to give it a little extra subtlety by also using a portion of lemon sugar I'd had on hand since Christmas. It didn't change the weight, but if I'd been going for volume, the lemon sugar ended up taking up about 25-30% more room in a measuring cup, ounce for ounce – well, gram for gram, actually – than plain or ultrafine (caster) sugar. (I went with 200 grams sugar, 55 grams lemon sugar, just because.)

I'll have to try this with plain ol' lemons, sometime, or even Meyer lemons or straight-up tangeroonies, next time we get a big box of Cuties. Currently, all my fresh lemons are tied up in the making of a lemon meringue pie, though, so… blood oranges and tangeroonies it is. No complaints, though. Not. One.

Well, maybe one. 

Somebody doesn't like citrus

Gitchi gitchi ya ya Mixed Citrus and Honey Marmalade

There was this sale, you see…

One of the local stores had lemons, limes, and other citrus fruits marked at a price I could by no means resist. And, yet, there is no way on God's green earth that I could eat a baker's dozen of lemons, three pounds of key limes, three pounds of Clementines, or two pounds of standard limes.

At least, not as they were.

So I started experimenting with putting them by. Some of the processes will take a month or more to establish whether or not they were successful (I'm pickling some key limes, for the fun of it, with a little sliced chili pepper and a mess of salt, and tomorrow I start in on another option for limes). But today, I made marmalade.

Yes, marmalade.

Not your typical marmalade, either.  I used some wild honey and mixed my fruits until I had an entertaining blend of flavors and colors. I suppose, if you wanted to, you could do this with one single variety of citrus fruit (maybe Meyer lemons). But I went with what I had and what I had a craving for.

And it wasn't until I was completely finished with the process of canning the stuff and sitting down to supper that the LaBelle song bubbled up from deeeeep inside me.




Still, I have to say, Patti LaBelle notwithstanding, the day was a success.


I made jellied citrus. So. There.

It may even become Christmas prezzies, if I'm in a really good mood, come winter.

But the recipe went something like this:



Mixed Citrus and Honey Marmalade

Ingredients:

8 cups citrus fruits (my blend was 6 cups thin-skinned lemons, 1 cup tangerines, 1 cup key limes). This amounts to, roughly, 14 lemons, 4 "cuties" tangerines, and 10 key limes, but that will vary according to the size of your fruits. You're likely to need a little more than 3 lbs of whatever fruit you choose.
2 cups strong honey something like wild honey or sorghum honey.  I went wild.
1 1/2 cups water
4 cups sugar
2 packets liquid pectin (do not use powder!!!!!)

jelly jars to contain approximately 20 cups

Directions:

Carefully wash fruit (with a vegetable wash, not soap. If you don't have veggie wash, rinse carefully, allow to soak for a few hours or overnight, drain away water, rinse, and allow them to soak as you prepare everything else.

Give your jars a hot bath and soak the flat lids in simmering water until you need them. I have a good dishwasher with hot-bath setting, so I prepped the jars in that, and put the lids in a small saucepan, separated, covered with simmering water.

Trim away stem ends and slice lemons* into small sections, approximately 1 centimeter wide and very thin (but not paper-thin). I found the easiest way to do this was to cut the lemon in half lengthwise (cutting through from blossom to stem end), then cut each half into 4 equal lengthwise wedges, and finally slice crosswise into small, thin bits. You will want a very sharp knife to do this well.

When all your lemons have been cut, combine them with honey, sugar, and water in a large (at least 5 quart), nonreactive saucepan. Stir well, bring to boil, immediately reduce heat and simmer very low for 30 minutes (overheating amplifies the bitterness of the skins).

Prepare work surface for hawtness of a traditional kind while this is simmering. If you are a little sloppy, the way I am, put out a large jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with walls) on a flat surface near the stove. Have ready your ladle, funnel, lid rings, and tongs (for fishing out lid flats from hot bath and for fishing jars out of hot bath, if necessary).

Add in liquid pectin, bring to low boil for 5 minutes, remove from heat immediately. Working quickly, ladle into jars, putting lids & rings on each one as you go, and turning upside-down to help them seal. When they are sufficiently cooled, turn them right-side-up and wash any stickiness away before labeling them. (You will know they are sealed if you press the center of the lid and it doesn't "pop" or otherwise make a noise.)

Enjoy a jar or two at a later date, or, if you must, share with loved ones, but when I make jellies, I always make sure one jar "accidentally" fails to seal, so I can have it for dessert that evening. This can be accomplished by re-using a flat lid, or by using a jar & lid from some store-bought preserved food (I don't recommend using one which used to hold peppers, though, unless you really want that added flavor in your first bite of this marmalade).


*For the sake of brevity, I am calling all citrus "lemons" at this point. If you're using others, go ahead and pretend I've included the rest of them in the description.

A Spot of Orange: Yellow Cake, Chocolate Frosting Revisited

I had a leftover white cake mix from when I made the birthday cake for my favorite local Monkey Boy, and I don't much care for letting those things take up space in the pantry, unless there's nothing else I can do. But today, while waiting for laundry and paint (well, varnish) to dry, I had the opportunity to play in the kitchen, again.

Aside from the cake mix, I had a little fresh orange juice…well, actually, more than a little. I had neglected to grate off the rind from them before I juiced them, so I hadn't really thought the process would serve all that well, except that I still had a bowlful of clementine tangerines (not cuties brand, but about the same size and sweetness), all of which could be peeled and tossed into a salad for tonight's supper, so there I had what I needed.

So, I baked a cake and frosted it, using up a few leftovers.*

Cleaning house, with real gusto.

Preheat oven to temp recommended on mix box (mine said 350º F). Take out butter and cream cheese for frosting, let warm up to room temp. If it's a cool day, soften slightly in microwave oven. Do not allow to melt!

For the cake

Ingredients:
1 box of your favorite white cake mix (I usually prefer Aldi's, but today's was a Major Name Brand with pudding in the mix. Still, any good mix will do in a pinch)
1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon fresh orange juice
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs (or, for lower cholesterol, 4 egg whites)
1 teaspoon tangerine rind, finely grated


Mix cake ingredients according to instructions on box, substituting orange juice for water and adding in grated rind. Pour batter into well-greased cake pan lightly dusted with flour. Bake according to box instructions, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out of the center clean.

Cool completely, remove from pan.

For the frosting

Ingredients:
1 brick (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened to room temperature
1Teaspoon finely grated tangerine rind 
1 lb (4 cups) confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

While cake is baking, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in fruit rind. With mixer on low, add 1 cup sugar, mix well. Add 1-2 Tablespoons cocoa power, mix well. Add another cup powdered sugar, mix, add more cocoa, and continue mixing and adding portions until all blended. With mixer on high, gradually add in orange juice and vanilla, keep mixing until frosting is lightly fluffy.

Cool in refrigerator at least 1/2 hour before applying to cake.



*This cake comes out somewhere between light and fluffy and dense as a pound cake. If you want a lighter, fluffier version, use a no-pudding-in-the-mix variety and add an extra egg white.

My Harry Nilsson Rum Cake

I have discovered a good use for spirits, besides capping off my evening with a sip of something pleasantly smoky.

I bought some rum for a specific recipe last fall, and, for the life of me, I can't recall what the heck that recipe was. And, seeing as how I'm a Scotch kind of girl, having a full bottle of rum did not turn me into a pirate. It sat on the shelf, mocking me.

Worse, I had a nearly full container of Coco Real sitting on the shelf, also mocking me because I had allowed it to sit until its sell-by date was upon us both.

And then, there was the lime. And the grated coconut.



And the cake mix.

And my best friend packing up to move two states away.  I had a belly ache.

So, I followed Harry's doctor's advice, and put the lime in the coconut.

And then, there was rum.

You can see where this went:


My Harry Nilsson Rum Cake

Ingredients:

Rum concoction:

2 Tablespoons very finely grated lime zest
2/3 cup lime juice (if you can get key lime, it's the best)
1 cup coconut creme, thoroughly mixed
2/3 cup light rum


cake:
One plain cake mix, your choice of yellow or white (I used white)
eggs (see what your mix requires)
oil (see what your mix requires)
water (see mix instructions and note, below)*
1 cup rum concoction, plus more for brushing on during and after baking

frosting:
2 8-oz bricks cream cheese, softened to room temp
1/3 cup rum concoction
2 cups (or more) confectioner's sugar
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut

Directions:

Grease pans thoroughly (I recommend two 9" pans, for maximum effect, but use what you have), line bottoms with parchment, if you have it, and grease top of parchment.  If you don't have parchment, use a little bit of the cake mix to "dust" the pans.

In a drink shaker or a quart jar, combine lime juice, lime zest, coconut creme, and rum. Shake well. (If you want to do so, you can toss it in a blender, but that's more cleanup than I like to do.)

Preheat oven to the temperature recommended on your cake mix box (usually 350º F).  In a medium mixing bowl, combine 1cup of the above rum concoction, cake mix, eggs, oil, and water. Mix, pour into pans, and bake according to package instructions.

About 10 minutes before cake is done, brush top of cake with rum concoction, finish baking.

As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, brush top again with rum concoction.

Allow to cool, remove from pans, brush again with rum concoction, all sides.

When cake is completely cool, in a small mixer bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/3 cup rum concoction**, and 1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar, using mixer at medium speed. Continue to add sugar until thickened enough to hold its shape in soft peaks.  Stir in flaked coconut.  Slather on cake like there's no tomorrow. If you so desire, add more flaked coconut on top.


I fixed this cake on another occasion, replacing, with the rum mix, all the water the white cake mix called for, and then baking it in a jelly roll pan. It comes out a little denser than the usual cake – sort of halfway between standard fluffy white cake and pound cake.  Once cooled, it was then easy to cut in half, layer with frosting (this also has some green frosting color added), & stack before finishing the frosting as you see here. 

Chill (both you and the cake) about an hour. Serve cool, perhaps even topping with some dried pineapple decorating the top (but then, it's heading toward becoming a Pina Colada cake, and that's a whole nother song).



*Your mix may call for more or less than 1 cup water. The rum concoction should replace no more than 1 cup of the liquid required, so add water according to the needs of the mix.

**You are likely to have some rum concoction left over. Do not let it go to waste. Pour it over ice and sip it through a straw, while watching Beach Blanket Bingo, or some other sandy, bikini-laden and teen-star-studded delight.

Blimey! It's limey! Lime Curd

I bought a couple little bags of little limes, last week, at which time the Bat asked me what I intended to do with them. When I say "little limes," I mean approximately the size of cherry tomatoes. These are not your typical bartender's limes, but closer to key limes (see pic above. That's not a giant lemon, just a regular one, slightly smaller than a baseball). They require some work to juice, since they won't fit into the average citrus juice press. Natch, the Bat was not volunteering to sit all afternoon squidging the little things on one of her gadgets.

I knew that ahead of time. I did some warm-up exercises before I started, today.

Now, you already know the big downside to itsy bitsy citsy... er, um, citrusy things. You're going to have a sore arm, stiff fingers, and a very angry wrist. The upside is, you get a lot more zest per tablespoon of juice. All those little guys have a touch more surface area than one or two big guys. This means, when I got going, I had plenty of extra zest to put into a little tub and pop into the freezer for a later occasion. Plus, some of those peels went down the garbage disposal, making the kitchen smell like... well, like lovely, lovely limes.

Meanwhile, I had, from my two pounds of limes, a little over 1.75 cups of juice and about five tablespoons of zest, and I was ready to roll. So I fixed me up a mess o' curd.

Lime Curd

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice

2 Tablespoons lime zest

4 eggs, well-beaten

Directions:

Place double boiler on high heat. Put sugar, butter, lime juice, and zest in upper level, stir until butter melts.

In a separate small bowl, thoroughly beat the eggs (but not so they're frothy), then whisk two tablespoons of the hot lime mixture into the eggs, stirring to blend well.

Reduce heat to medium until water is just simmering. Gradually add the egg into the lime mix, whisking constantly. Cook in top of double boiler until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon (about 20-25 minutes).

Ladle into clean jars, put lids on them, allow to seal*, and refrigerate when cooled to lukewarm. Best if eaten within a few days.

*the bat taught me the basic trick to sealing foods into a jar... make sure the jars are absolutely clean, still warm. Put fresh new lids into simmering water, allow to stand a few minutes to soften the rubberized seal. Using a canner's funnel, fill your jars with what it is you're planning to preserve. Make sure the rim of the jar is clean. Using tongs, take lid from hot water, place carefully over the top of the jar, then clamp it down with a screw-on canning ring. (At this time, you may also wish to put them through a hot water bath, for greatest degree of canning safety, if you're not planning to refrigerate or to eat within a few days). If you've done it all correctly, as it cools you will hear a little "ping" or "pop" from the creation of a vacuum seal. If it doesn't seal, just pig out or pop it in the fridge.