I’ve been wondering why limes so bad so much faster than lemons.
I like to squeeze lime on papayas.
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Our KA is one of the really old ones, much longer lasting, and very heavy. My arthritis makes it very difficult for me to move it even from a kitchen cabinet to a close by plug. I make this lemonade very infrequently, so when I do, it’s a good use of my limited joints to do it by hand.
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Testing for my English tea continues.
I remembered I owned a Nordic Ware pan that makes one-or-two bite tiny bundts, like petit-four sized. @Nannybakes pointed me to this recipe and a separate technique for making a decorative glaze that contains jam. This is attractive because I have shelves of homemade jam downstairs begging for a raison d’etre.
I made half a recipe of the cake and a third recipe for the glaze. The cake recipe is straightforward, except that you need to whip egg whites separately and fold in at the end. At scale, this would be tedious and create a lot of orphaned egg yolks. I could consider making lemon curd with them for the tea, though, so that’s an idea.
Anyway, the cake recipe is almond-flavored, but I swapped the almond extract for orange oil. I was a little worried about how defined the tiny bundts would be, because the nonstick spray often creates little bubbles or air pockets. I took the uncharacteristic step of brushing the (Pam with Flour) baking spray with a pastry brush in each well after spraying, in an attempt to make it more even. Ultimately it still created a mottled surface on the little cakes, which detracts from their visual appeal. I also overfilled the tiny wells, and several of the cakes had pronounced feet as a result.
By themselves, the cakes were quite good. I guessed at the orange oil amount, but it was nicely flavored without being overpowering.
I took a stab at the jam glaze, using homemade strawberry jam. I should’ve known not to include the vanilla in that recipe. For some unknown reason, I have an aversion to strawb+vanilla. I discovered this the first summer I learned to jam and can, when I made a batch of strawberry vanilla jam and disliked it so much I wanted to throw it into the sea.
Not surprisingly, the orange cake PLUS strawb jam PLUS vanilla was… a lot, even for a tiny bite of a cake.
We agreed the orange cakes were very nice on their own, without the glaze. I might try another half-batch with a chocolate glaze, but not dipped. Applied more sparsely. And no sprinkles.
Another challenge with these is that I can only make 12 at a time, so it would be… quite laborious to make 75+ of these suckers.
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Very purty looking but definitely too labor intensive for 75 pieces. I dm you regarding an alternative method that might be helpful.
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The past few months haven’t afforded me the opportunity to do as much baking as I would like. After traveling in Italy, and doing zero cooking, I came home and had to make it happen. I made two successful recipes from KAF, with minor tweaks.
Whole Grain Banana Bread - used all white whole wheat, sugar was 3/4 cup, and half olive oil and half yogurt. Stirred in mini chocolate chips (husband’s preference) and topped with pepitas. Will be my standby “healthy” banana bread.
Blueberry Breakfast Cake - I was looking for a something like the cheesecake that was served at our Italian agriturismo and this scratched the itch. (I will still be playing around with this idea, though!) This was not very sweet, and fruit forward which I love. I used quark and ricotta and left out the additional 2 tbs. of sugar.
Thanks to the kind folks who answered my query about bundt cakes! I will share my results here, as well.
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Perhaps squeeze and freeze?
Ginger Meringues
Another batch of meringues, these have freshly grated ginger in them and flaked almonds on the base. I used a #40 scoop for these. I routinely reduce the sugar in meringues with no ill affect.
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Day 2 taste test of the mini-bundts: predictably, I love them. The clashy flavors and, most importantly, the hideous vanilla-strawb taste are all mellowed.
The invites for the Tea event went out today, so fairly soon I’ll start having an idea of how many people are coming.
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Got the cutest thank you-love you-miss you text messages from my cousin’s kids for the cake, one with a pic of him eating it (the pre-teen), the other with more mushy sentiment his teen self would never speak out loud. Love 'em. Immediate and extended family and closest friends are all full of boys, and it is kind of adorable how they mush out with this doting aunt. 
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Orange-cinnamon Morning Buns, inspired by Sarah Kieffer’s Morning Buns on the Vanilla Bean Blog, which were themselves inspired by Chad Robertson’s Morning Buns from the Tartine bakery.
I chose to work with Violet Bakery’s no-yeast cinnamon-cardemom dough, using the zesty orange filling from Tartine, and topping with just a smear of an OJ-and-vanilla spiked butter-and-sugar glaze.
I made a total of six, but two glazed buns disappeared as samples. A very nice version of this bun (the dough for which I’m enamored with). Next, I hope to try the same bun with Kieffer’s filling for Apple Morning Buns.
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I love cardamom, but it never comes through strongly enough for me in baked goods.
Just saw this – has anyone made Doolsho / Somali cardamom sponge cake before?
The one comment on the cake was that the person had put in 1/2 t and she could still taste the cardamom. So maybe 1t would be sufficient?
Have you ever made the Cardamom Cake from My Bombay Kitchen?
I love this recipe, originally from Sweden, and I can smell and taste the Cardamom … I grind it fresh before adding to the batter.
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Yes, I have
Rhubarb upside down cake, using the 2nd to last packet of frozen rhubarb from 2023. This year’s crop is growing quickly and leaves are now visible from the kitchen window. First harvest ETA May 17.
Recipe posted here on HO a couple of years ago.
Baked in a 2 quart casserole since my 8x8 pans are full of egg bake from this morning. And it took 55 minutes to get the deep golden brown crispy top crust we prefer. Already 2/3 gone - afternoon snack and supper dessert.
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Ha! I just made rhubarb muffins with the last of the rhubarb in the freezer!
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“For muffins” is the note on my final bag - diced smaller than for upside down cake or crisp.
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I had pie crust dough in the freezer, and a lot of jam to use up, so hand pies it was. I made 9 peach and 2 cherry. Very rustic, they wept butter and leaked jam all over the place. Nobody here cares – with hand pies, it’s all about a flaky crust with the crunch of sugar and a schmear of jam. They’ll be gone in a couple of days, and I have two less open jars of jam to purpose.
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FYI there’s a new Cooking From thread for RLB:
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