Curds And Tarts

I've finally got a couple of Meyer lemons from our little tree and a ton of egg yolks left over from the angel food cake the other day. Oh, what to do? What to do?....

• Alton Brown's Lemon Curd recipe on FoodNetwork.com looks good but I don't have enough lemons this time.
• These little Lemon Tarts from SugarLaws via tastespotting.com look great and have a no-shrink vodka crust.
• I've made Martha Stewart's beautiful Caramelized Lemon Tart* once before when faced with a glut of egg yolks. Luscious, rich and lemony (and a brulée top)!
• Also from Martha, a Butterless Lemon Curd**. Meant as a filling for her Lemon Angel Food Cake, I bet it would make for a great little tart too!

*page 492, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, 2000; and Martha Stewart Living magazine, April/May 1992 issue.
**page 510, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, 1995

Angel Food Fix

Here it is more than a month after my "oops!" with the Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake and I hadn't done anything with the erroneous flour-sugar combo other than pack it up and stuff it in the pantry. Didn't want to waste it, but it sure would have been helpful to have noted how much flour and sugar was actually in there. All I remember is that I had measured some of the sugar in with the sifted flour before realizing that it was the wrong kind of sugar.

...and it's been staring at me from the pantry shelf ever since.

The first thing to do was to go back to the beginning (a very good place to start).* I got out the Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake recipe thinking that if nothing else, I could just try the same recipe using regular sugar or a combination. On the following page was a Lemon Angel Food Cake filled with lemon curd. That would be a sweet way to deal with all those extra yolks!

Alas, I used my only two lemons on the rum cake disaster last weekend. However, I noticed that the only difference between the lemon and brown sugar cake recipes (other than the type of sugar) was the addition of lemon zest. So you could say, I made the Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake with white sugar. Or did I make the Lemon Angel Food Cake without the lemon? All of the amounts were identical. For instance, the eggs. Fourteen of them. Leaving me once again with... 14 egg yolks looking for a purpose. Stay tuned.

Adapted from Lemon Angel Food Cake, page 510, The Martha Stewart Cookbook, 1995

Notes: I measured out the flour/sugar combo into another bowl and subtracted the known quantity of the flour. From that I was able to determine how much sugar was in there and add to it. Since I didn't have anything to make a sauce with for this one, I was worried that the cake would be too plain by itself. It was too late to sub cocoa powder for some of the flour (darn), but I looked up a basic angel food recipe** and added 1 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp of almond extract according to that recipe. Baked it for 50 min. Could have gone maybe 5 more. Not sure I'm in love with the almond flavor, but overall it's lovely cake, and I would happily serve it to people I like.

*Everything I need to know about life... I learned from The Princess Bride (and The Sound Of Music).
**Angel Food Cake, page 725, How To Cook Everything, Mark Bittman, 1998

Super (Bowl) Citrus Cake

Orange Cake, page 359, The Silver Palate Cookbook, 2007 (25th anniversary edition)
Don't have this cookbook? (you really should), here's the recipe along with another review of this excellent cake at the blog Matarást-Love of Food

Notes: Went totally by the book and everything went like clockwork. Except for the glaze. I forgot to set the timer on the stove and got distracted by a design project I'm playing around with. Oops. I made caramel. I didn't need caramel, I needed glaze. So, I took the rest of the juice from the oranges and just whisked in powdered sugar until it reached a glaze-y consistency. 

The cake was moist and flavorful without being too sweet, and the simple glaze was perfect with it. I needed a crowd-sized dessert though, and while I thought my Bundt pan was the right size for the recipe, the cake was at least an inch shy of the top of the pan. Survey says... diminutive yet delicious. A keeper for sure, but will only serve about 8 fans. Of course, I could just make two of them and solve it that way...

See also: Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake, page 206-207, Barefoot Contessa: Parties!, Ina Garten, 2001

Better Luck Next Time Rum Cake

Rum Cake, page 66, Desperate Measures, Kevin Crafts, 1993

Sweet Little Sour-Bombs

As if from some alternate reality, the skin of the kumquat is the sweet part and the fruit inside is sour. Really sour. If you've eaten one, you will either love it or hate it. They may look like cute little shrinky-dink oranges, but they pack one heck of a sour-patch punch.

During the course of your life you just might find yourself living near someone with a kumquat tree, or working with someone who has a kumquat tree at home - you'll know it if you do. These people will love you to pieces if you take a bunch of them off their hands; they will thank you profusely and may even want to hug you.

In my experience, the people who have kumquat trees in their yards are generally not the ones who actually planted the tree. The trees are there in the yard when they move in and it's such a great place and "Oh look! It even has a fruit tree of some kind! Won't that be nice? I wonder what it is?". These people are soon desperate to unload the enormous bounty of sour little fruits on anyone who will take them. And then they yank the tree out.

For the life of me, I cannot remember where I found this recipe,* but it sounded kind of good, and I'm curious to try it out. All I need now is a fruit-laden neighbor and a party to serve these at...

Cream Cheese and Ginger-Stuffed Kumquats

1. Slice one pound of kumquats in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh.
   
2. Trim flesh to remove any tough or woody parts and remove the seeds.
   
3. Combine the flesh, 4 ounces of cream cheese and 4-6 slices of crystallized ginger in a food processor until well blended.
   
4. Using a pastry bag and medium tip, fill kumquat shells with the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until ready to serve.
   

Read more about kumquats here.
*As soon as I find the source, I'll add a link to it.