Music and Cats

Meet the newest addition to my baking repertoire. It may be plain-looking — Paul says it looks like cornbread — but it’s a beauty on the tongue; light and sweet, its flavor a subtle blend of lemon, cinnamon and almond. And its aroma is dizzying, like a warm spring day.

When Shauna and I made plans to have coffee at my house, I knew I’d be trying a new recipe this weekend. For almost anyone else, I would have baked a batch of my favorite Mexican chocolate or ginger cookies, or a simple fruit-studded cake. But, as anyone who reads her beautiful blog knows, Shauna is gluten-intolerant. My favorite wheat-based baked goods would make her ill. What little I know about baking with gluten-free flours I’ve learned from Shauna’s blog, and delicious though her recipes may be, I wasn’t going to bake one of Shauna’s recipes for her. I figured I’d just skip the flour altogether.

I have a few lovely flourless chocolate cakes in my limited baking repertoire, but they are extremely rich. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; I love rich chocolate desserts, but to my mind, Saturday afternoon calls for something a little lighter. While I’m sure I could have found a suitable recipe in one of my cookbooks, sitting down to browse through a cookbook or two was sadly not in the schedule, so I checked epicurious. A search for “flourless cake + not chocolate” yielded only one recipe: flourless lemon-almond cake. Lemons, almonds, eggs and sugar — what’s not to love? And, even better, I already had all of the ingredients at hand… or so I thought.

The second line in the recipe read, “Butter and flour 9-inch-diameter cake pan.” Flour… The cake recipe might be flourless, but the pan preparation was not. I couldn’t use wheat flour to prep the cake pan this time. I added rice flour to the weekend grocery list. (When I ran into Shauna at the grocery store yesterday, it was in the baking supplies aisle, where I’d gone for the rice flour. Life is full of funny coincidences.)

All of the flourless cakes that I know depend on beaten egg whites for leavening. Is there any other way? Beyond that, they fall into two categories: those that are a sort of souffle (though they invariably fall after baking), and those in which finely ground nuts do the work of flour. This cake is of the latter sort.

The recipe called for slivered almonds, to be ground in a food processor with some of the sugar. As I had a bag of almond meal, I opted to use it rather than grinding almonds. (I do grind my own coffee beans. I didn’t always, but I live in Seattle now.) Here’s a puzzle for you: if you grind 1 1/3 cups of slivered almonds into a fine meal, how many cups of almond meal will you have? I didn’t know (and still don’t), but I guessed 1 cup. When I stirred that full cup of almond meal into the combined egg yolks, sugar, zest and cinnamon, the mixture seemed drier than it ought to be. I squeezed in a bit of lemon juice, and stirred, and squeezed a little more, and stirred, until the consistency seemed right; it took about a teaspoon of juice. Incorporating the first spoonful of beaten egg whites took some work, but the remaining whites folded in beautifully, resulting in a batter flecked with sunny bits of lemon zest.

While this cake is baking, your kitchen will smell wonderful. When the cake comes out of the oven, it will perfume your entire home.

Epicurious suggests serving this cake with almond ice cream. I think the combination of almond and lemon is just asking for fruit — particularly stone fruits, which have a particular affinity for almond. The cherries and apricots are still months away, so I served the cake topped with sliced strawberries, the season’s first, from California.

Transcribed below are the modifications that I made when baking this cake yesterday. Next time, I’ll reduce the sugar by a tablespoon; the cake is not too sweet as is, but I think I’d prefer a little less sweetness.

Flourless Lemon-Almond Cake
adapted from epicurious.com

4 large eggs, separated
8 tablespoons sugar
Zest of 2 large lemons (about 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup almond meal
Butter and rice flour for pan

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of waxed paper or buttered parchment paper.

Combine the egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, beat until thick and smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the lemon zest, then stir in the almond meal.

In a second bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually add 4 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff but not dry. Fold a large spoonful of the whites into the almond mixture, until well combined. Then gently fold in the remaining whites.

Spoon the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack. Use a thin knife to loosen the sides of the cake, then turn out onto a large plate. Remove the waxed paper or parchment. Serve plain, or topped with almond ice cream, or fresh fruit, or perhaps both.

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