The Lemon cake : one of my favourite classics

Each one has its own recipe, its own version of that cake. More or less buttery, acid etc...

I hadn't done it in a few months and suddenly I realized it shoud be on my bog since it's a recipe I've kept in my cookbook for a while now :)

I hope you'll like it as much as I do. Its advantage is that it can be baked in different kind of mold, 

it's really easy to make and it suits all seasons.

Why don't I have an lemon or an orange tree in my garden ?

  Preparation    Easy, it takes 15 minutes to put in the oven

  Tasting    I really do love that cake :) So fresh but amost like a pound cake, delicious !

  To conclude    It's definitly a recipe that I'll keep all my life

Serves 10 to 12

   You will need :   

1 stick softened unsalted butter (4oz)

- vous pouvez arrondir à 100gr en France -

2/3 cup white sugar (4.6oz/130gr)

1 cup 1/3 +1tbsp flour (6oz/175gr)

4tbsp milk :)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 organic meyer lemon

2tsp baking powder

For the icing

2/3 cup powdered sugar (100gr)

lemon juice

Making the cake

Grate the lemon zests. Reserve

Preheat the oven at 360°F

Butter your mold with a cooking spray

Using a food processor

Mix butter and sugar, then add in eggs. Add in the milk, the vanilla. 

Add in the flour and the zests. Mix everything at least 2 minutes.

By hand

Work butter and sugar until creamy,

stir in the eggs until homogeneous.

Stir in milk, vanilla.

Stir in the flour with the baking powder and the zests.

Pour it in your mold unil 2/3 full

Bake 30 to 45 minutes

Check cooking at 30 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the cake to check the moist.

Let cool down 20 minutes before turning out.

Making the lemon icing

Mix the sugar with the lemon juice. Add the emon juice spoon by spoon. 

Stirring after each spoon. And keep adding spoons until you have the right consistency.

It must be a cream, liquid enough to be spread, but not too liquid !

Pour it on your cake when it's out of the oven

Chocolate and lemon cake... Soft and buttery cake !

It doesn't look that great...

But in fact *glups*

I don't know anymore, my favorite chocolate cake recipe may have become this one....

This is a recipe from Sébastien Gaudard's book with Françoise Bernard

"Le Meilleur des desserts"  It's a bible of the most famous classic french family recipe.

 Each of them gives its recipe of a classic cake, his advice and his knowledge of the cake.

It's a really nice book, though the pictures are really bad...

Françoise Bernard gives the classic recipe of the "Quatre-Quart", but Sébastien Gaudard 

proposes a "Cinq-cinquième" with a fifth ingredient in it : CHOCOLATE !

1/5 sugar, 1/5 eggs, 1/5 butter, 1/5 flour, 1/5 chocolate... oh my god.

Try it, it's awsome and really easy :)

Lemon and chocolate are a perfect match...

For 6 to 9 people

   You will need :   

Each ingredient at room temperature

2 eggs, weighted

- mine were 4,4 oz -

Same weight of sugar

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of salted butter

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of flour

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of dark chocolate : 70%

- 4,4 oz -

2 tsp of baking powder

Finely shredded lemon zest (1/3 of a meyer lemon)

Turn the oven on at 350°F

All the ingredients at room temperature

Prepare the zest

Peel the thin skin of the lemon, without grating the white part. Cut it in small pieces. 

- You can use a cheese-grate to peel it -

To avoid having a dry lemon after that, put some plastic film all around it.

Make the cake

Beat the eggs with the sugar and the zests until white

- about 3 minutes at high speed -

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a bowl stirring it each time

- 4x30 secondes - 

When it's melted, stir in the softened butter

Stir in the chocolate-mix to the previous batter. 

Stir by hand to have a soft and souple batter.

Mix flour and baking powder together and stir that mix little by little in the previous batter.

Butter and flour your mold (or use a cooking spray)

Fill the mold to the 2/3

- it raises pretty well -

Put in the oven at least 30 minutes

- mine took 35 minutes -

Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake to check moist.

I hope you will like it as much as I did :)

Marbled cake

I've done all the recipes from Vovoi's book, at least, those working :) I'm back in my cookbooks !

"Exquises pâtisseries pour les Fêtes" de Christophe Felder, 

Choice was rather hard, because all the recipes seem delicious... My first pick is the marbled cake chocolate & vanilla.

I've done this one for a few years now, it must figure on my blog.

To be sure I haven't changed anything in the recipe since I've been using it, I've checked everything one more time. I hadn't changed a thing !

As good as usual, I can eat humongous piece of it !

- Creamcheese and chocolate icing -

For 1 big cake, or 2 middle sized cake (8inch by 4)

  You will need :   

for the batter

2 eggs

2cup and 1tbsp of flour (9.7 oz / 275gr)

6.1 oz of unsalted, softened butter (16tbsp / 175gr)

- sout of the fridge 1hour in advance -

1 cup 1/2 granulated sugar (13.2 oz / 375gr )

8.5 fl.oz  half & half (25cL)

1tsp of baking powder (0.2 oz/5gr)

3/4tsp  salt

flavours

4tsp unsweetened cocoa (0.9oz/25gr) de cacao amer en poudre

1tbsp vanilla extract

Turn your oven on at 375°C

In his recipe, Christophe Felder says to mix everything in a robot with a tool for working dough...

I don't have any, so here is what I've done :

Stir by hand, with a wooden spoon doing fluid but quick moves, rising the dough. the butter with sugar and salt to have a creamy batter

Add the eggs and stir until homogeneous

Finally stir in the flour with the baking powder

You have a soft and homogeneous batter

Divide it in two equal halves, in the first one, whisk in the cocoa.

In the other one, whisk in the vanilla

Use a whisk or a spatula by doing quick moves : cut and rise the batterMélangez au fouet ou par mouvement rapide en coupant/soulevant avec une spatule

Butter and flour your cakepan

- Christophe Felder says to spread melted butter on it and cover them with a parchment paper -

Start by pouring a thin layer with the cocoa batter (1/2inch) Do the same with the vanilla one etc...

Don't go further than 2/3 of your cakepan, it will rise a lot during baking :)

Bake it 40 minutes, without opening the oven. Depending on your cakepan, it often goes to 50 minutes.

Check the cooking by inserting a pick or a clean smooth knife in the center, 

if it comes out clean, it's baked !

Let it cool down at room temperature before turning out.

Christophe Felder gives the recipe for a chocolate icing made of "vegetaline" since I don't have any and I don't even know where to buy it in California, I will explain a Chocolate & creamcheese icing.

Chocolate & creamcheese icing

   You will need :   

1oz unsweetened chocolate

0.75 oz unsweetened cocoa

2.8 oz creamcheese

3.5oz powdered sugar

2tsp vanilla extract

3tbsp half & half  or water

2 pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate in the microwave with 2tbsp of water

Soften the creamcheese with an electric beater for 2 minutes, mix in the cocoa, the vanilla and the melted chocolate at medium speed

Mix in the sugar and the salt little by little, go on medieum/high speed.

Add in some water or half and half to obtain the perfect consistancy 

to spread on the cake.

- so good -

My carrot Cake - Happy Birthday to me !

I've worked a lot on this one, usually carrot cakes are a bit too heavy/buttery for me, 

I can't eat it all without filling a bit sick.

My recipe contains no butter and no oil and a lot less flour than the usual one, it's a lighter cake,

with a surprisingly smooth texture, a bith firmer than the usual one

 but with as much or more flavour in it.

This recipe is one of my favourite, that's why I did it for my birthday :)

We went on a little road trip for Thanksgiving, we brought it with us :)

- Me : My cake is so cute -

- Him : My Poupoule is so cute (Poupoule is my nickname) -

For 8 to 10 people

   You will need :   

for the cake

4 oz of brown sugar (120gr)

2/3 cup of flour (80gr) de farine

1tsp of baking powder

-5gr-

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp of almond meal, grounded almonds (80gr)

4 eggs

10.5 oz of carrots (300gr)

- 5 to 6 carrots -

3 tbsp of lemon juice

1/2 lemon zest, grated

1.5 oz of coarsely grounded nuts (40gr) 

3tsp of ground ginger

3tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of salt

for the icing

3.5 oz of creamcheese (100gr) 

2tsp of lemon juice

1/2 lemon zest, grated

4 to 5 tbsp of confectionner's sugar (powdered)

Prepare the carrots

Rinse, peel and grate the carrots

put them in a bowl with lemon juice, salt and half of the sugar

- 1.7 oz / 50gr  of sugar -

Put in in the fridge for at least 1 hour

Prepare the nuts

Blend them coarsely and add a hint of salt in it, set aside

turn the oven on at 420°F

Prepare the cake

Beat the eggs with what is left of sugar in a bowl for at least 3 minutes, it has to be foamy

In another bowl, stir the flour and the baking powder, make a well in it and stir in the eggs+sugar mix

Stir by hand until smooth and stir in the almond powder, the spices and the lemon zest

Stir for at least 2 more minutes, the dough has to be soft

Finally, stir in the carrots and the nuts

- 1st: eggs and sugar, 2nd: added flour and almond, 3rd: added nuts and spices -

Pour everything to fill your buttered mold at 3/4 

Cook approximatively 45 minutes

Check the cooking by inserting a smooth and clean knife in the middle, if it gets out clean, it's cooked!

Creamcheese and lemon icing 

Soften the creamcheese with your electric beater at low speed for 2 minutes,

add in the lemon juice and the zest, keep mixing at low speed

Add in the sugar, spoon by spoon, you can go up at medium speed,

it must be thick enough, but soften enough to be spread

Keep it in the fridge until use !

Bon appetite :3

Pear cake with honey and lemon

      

Original and with a lot of flavours, this recipe is Camille Lesecq's recipe, pastry Chef of Le meurice, Paris. I changed a few things in the recipe, because I've baked it a few times already.

- did I get fat ? -

Really soft and tender, it can be made in a meat loaf pan,

it has always been a huge success :)

For 6 people

   You will need :   

Pears

2 pears

3.5 oz of honey (100g)

- pine honey -

2.8 oz of butter (80gr)

- Camille Lesecq puts 3.5 oz -

the dough

4.2 oz of white sugar (120gr)

1.8 oz of butter (50gr)

4.4 oz of flour (125gr)

1.7 fl oz of milk (5cL)

1.7 fl oz of olive oil (5cL)

- Camille Lesecq puts 2.5 fl oz -

- you can use vegetal oil if you prefer -

2 eggs

1 grated lemon zest

3tbsp of lemon juice

0.2 oz of baking powder (6gr)

Prepare the pears

In a casserole, melt the butter with the honey on low heat.

Rinse, peal the pears and remove the heart with the seeds. Cut them in dice of 1/2 inch

- Camille Lesecq cuts them in 8, not in dice -

Add them to the melted butter, cover and let it cook at medium heat for 20 minutes.

Let it cool down in the butter sauce. They must be translucid. Set aside.

Turn the oven on at 375°F

Prepare the cake

Beat the sugar with the egss and the lemon zest for at least 3 minutes,

it must be light and foamy

Pour the milk slowly while stirring

Integrate the flour and the baking powder with a wooden spoon 

by doing small circular movements from the center

Finally, stir the lemon juice, the melted butter and the oil

By hand, stir it all together 2 to 3 minutes. Set Aside

Dry of the pears with a colander, use a clean absorbent paper to remove delicatly the excedient butter

In a buttered pan (you can use the butter +honey sauce to butter it), pour 2/3 of the dough, them place the pears carefully with a spoon, and pour the rest of the dough on top of them

- Camille Lesecq puts the pears aside the cake, but I like it better in it -

Put in the oven for 35 to 50 minutes, depending on your mold

Check the cooking by inserting a clean and smooth knife in the middle of the cake, 

it must come out clean

Thanks to Camille for this recipe, the first time I made it, I followed all the instructions, it had 300 gr of butter in it (12oz of butter...)

It's a bit too much butter for me :D

"Cake aux poires juste confites" is the exact name of that cake

Pain de Gêne, Almond Bread !

Think almond cream, frangipane... oh my god this cake is sooo good :)

evrybody agreed :

" This cake si soooo good ! "

For 8 to 10 people

   Il vous faut :   

0,5lb of almond powder/ground almond

0,5 lb of white sugar

1.2 oz of butter (120gr)

4 eggs

3.5 oz of flour (100gr) de farine

3 tsp of kirsch

- more almonds ! -

Turn on the oven at 450°F

Melt the butter in a casserole on low heat, it must be tepid, not hot

Stir the grounded almonds with the sugar,

do a well in it and add the beaten eggs, 

stir it with a wooden spoon from the center of the bowl

stir in the melted butter

Add the flour, stir it by hand

At the end, stir in the kirsch

Pour in a buttered pan or with parchment paper

Put in the oven and change the settings to 370°F

Vovoi says 40 minutes cooking, but it took me 1h20 in a silicone mold...

It was a pretty thick mold

Take a regulat meat loaf pan :)

By using so much almond powder, I'll have to bring back some more from France ! :)

It's kinda hard to find here, but I saw an "almond meal" that looked like it at Trader's Joe, it might be interesting to check it out.