There are several perks to writing a food blog, the best being the excuse to have delicious cakes, like this almond chiffon cake, in the house at all times. The only person who has an issue with this is my personal trainer, but I just remind him what job security it is for him. I also have an extensive (300+) cookbook library that I attribute to “research” when my husband asks where we will put them all, now that my book shelves are over flowing. Then there are the products companies send me to critique and review. I have received everything from peanut flour (which I adore) to a confectionery funnel (which is for portion control of pancakes and other runny stuff. Really, you have to make your pancakes the exact same size???). I will never review or endorse a product I don’t actually love and find value in.
Now back to the baking…this cake was inspired by my trip to Italy this past summer. The man who owned the home we rented introduced me to his favorite cookie, the ricciarelli. They are made from almond paste and egg whites baked into little rich clouds and dusted with pure white confectioners’ sugar. I was completely addicted to them after the first bite. They are available all over Tuscany and when baked fresh you want to sing their praises. The stale ones you buy in the tin are to be avoided and unfortunately that is what most of us have tried. After writing this description I realize I need to create and post a recipe for the actual cookie, but for now I have a cake that it inspired. It is light and spongy, but at the same time decadent because of the almond paste. The cake is great on its own with a cup of coffee for breakfast or with ice cream or coulis for dessert.
For recipe…
Ricciarelli cookies on the counter in San Gimignano (the best I had).
A typical day’s sampling of the local Tuscan bakery.
(My average breakfast when traveling. Now you see why I need the personal trainer.)
Ricciarelli (rich-ee-a-relly) Chiffon Cake
2 cups (220g) Cake Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 ounces (200g) Almond Paste
5 egg yolks
1 cup (200g) sugar
1/2 cup (118 ml) oil (I used 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable oil)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
8 egg whites
confectioner’s sugar for the top
To make the cake: preheat the oven to 350 degrees
In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Cream the almond paste until smooth and then add egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, water and extracts. Cream together until smooth, about 3 minutes, set aside.
Whip the egg whites until foamy then add 1/2 cup sugar and whip until stiff peaks, they should be stiff enough to hold onto the whip when lifted out of the bowl, but the peak will be soft enough to flop over like a dairy queen ice cream cone. (If you over whip the egg whites they will not have any elasticity left to rise when they get to the oven.) Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture over the whites and fold it in gently using a rubber spatula. Repeat two more times with remaining flour.
Fold the egg white mixture into the almond paste mixture, again in 3 additions.
Place the batter into an ungreased 10-Inch Tube Pan
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Remove almond chiffon cake from the oven and invert the pan over the neck of a bottle to cool. This guarantees that the cake will not collapse while cooling.
Dust almond chiffon cake with lots of confectioners’ sugar and enjoy!
I have a weakness for all sorts of kitchen gadgets and the kitchen and baking section of a store is where I always gravitate to. I have fallen for everything from garlic peelers, the butlers friend cork puller, cookie guns, silicone egg poachers, heart shaped ice cube molds, and collect quirky kitchen gizmos the way other women collect shoes!My favourite tool tho is a gift from my mother in law – a brass mold for making stringhoppers that we use every time she visits!
Here is a picture of it – I just love it so!
http://magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/09/kerala-kitchen-idiyappam-noolappam.html
Probably cute little cheese cutting board with a peacock on it. And the little knife has a space carved out so it fits right in the cutting board.
I not only have a hello kitty toaster, I also have a hello kitty waffle iron, hello kitty popcorn maker, and a tiny hello kitty water cooler! But the toaster is the only one I keep out and use!
I have a pancake mold shaped like a…um…penis. Impulse buying at its best. How could I resist?
Maybe my Moulinex veggie grater? I don’t know that it’s strange, but it did take me awhile to find one on eBay. An absolute necessity for making French grated carrot salad the way my husband loves it.
I have a wood working tool I brought years ago before microplane graters became available. I bought it many years ago for grating parmesan but now use it for grating whole nutmegs.
I love kitchen gadgets! One of my favorites if my beater blade for the Kitchen Aid mixer. It saves on a lot of scraping.
Riding my bike for over 2,000 miles through Southeast Asia last year, I passed up many a strange kitchen tool along the way! Nearing the end of my trip, about to cross from Cambodia to Thailand, I finally caved! With bungy cords and various plastic bags I had used to carry my mangoes from the morning markets, I ended up strapping an enormous, 1.5 foot, hand carved, wooden mortar and pestle over the next 150 miles! It was HUGE. I figured the pestle could double as a weapon if I ever got jumped. Well worth the weight, as I use it all the time to make big batches of curry pastes…and as a mini baseball bat 🙂
My ‘oddest’ kitchen implement is my set of measuring cups that are shaped like Russian nesting dolls. I love them.
I have 2 items which are not only unusual but loaded with nostalgia. One is what appears to be a small pair of metal sewing scissors with artistic chicken shaped handles and the cutting edges shaped into hollow circles that fit one over the other. It is for cutting the top off a cooked egg in an egg cup (which I also have!). The nostalgic part is that I grew up on an egg farm in New Jersey in the company of thousands of chickens, still enjoy eating eggs, collecting chicken chachkes and lived in England where we ate eggs in egg cups and tapped off the tops with a spoon when we did not have this device. The second is one half of an old wooden bowl which my mother uses for chopping her gefilte fish by hand. She bought it in Brooklyn broken that way in 1947-ish for a few cents after coming to U.S. from Europe. My mother used this bowl exclusively for hand chopping her gefilite fish. My mother is tiny and the half-size is perfect for her to hold on her lap with one arm while chopping with the other!! She lovingly lets me keep it in my kitchen for her.
the oddest kitchen gadget I have is a black and decker jar opener! received as a present a couple of Christmases ago.
The cake looks awesome! My mother in law passed away a couple of days ago, she loved almond and chiffon cakes. I am making dessert for a family dinner tomorrow night, think the cake would be a great tribute to her! Thanks Zoe!
The strangest piece of equipment I have is an apple peeler/slicer that attaches to the counter. It peels, cores and thinly slices at the same time. I used to use it alot then just stopped, not sure why really. But, I have been thinking about getting it out, dusting it off and using it again. I could never part with it in any case.
That is a gorgeous cake and you present it so beautifully! I will be trying that recipe soon. There are no strange pieces of equipment in my kitchen but lots I rarely use. One such piece is a real “tamis” – sturdy and beautifully made, purchased to make a special fish dish. It was wonderful for the fish but anything else I have tried to put through it doesn’t seem to want to go. It is such a good piece that I hesitate to part with it. Thanks for such a great post.
I have many old things in my kitchen from my mother and one is used to cut potatoes or carrot slices in a sort of rick-rack fashion (it cuts them in a little wavy line). It makes vegetables look very interesting on an appitizer tray.
Hands down, the strangest thing I have was a Valentine’s Day gift from my parents a couple of years ago. It’s a little (and I do mean little–probably four inches in diameter, max) pan for frying a single egg, with a pink silicone handle and the imprint of a pig on its nonstick surface. Because eating a fried egg that looks like a pig would be the coolest thing ever… ? I have actually use it once, and the egg didn’t come out looking all that pig-like.
My pair of Onion Goggles! It’s true… Someone gave them to me years ago. I’ve never worn them, but my two boys sure got a lot of use out of them when they were little – still makes me smile remembering their sweet cheeks squished together under my onion goggles!
Mine is called an Egg Cuber…if you’re tired of the same old egg-shaped hard boiled eggs, you can turn them into cute cube-shaped hard boiled eggs. I think it’s hilarious and have never used it, but I imagine it would be a real conversation started if I used it to make deviled eggs for a party! You wouldn’t have to worry about them rolling off the plate 🙂
That cylindrical pasta cooker that was advertised on tv. Never used it. You have to boil the water anyway, just stick the pasta in the pot!
I can’t think of anything I have that is an odd kitchen gadget, maybe just because I’m used to having everything I have… I do have a Whirley Pop which I love dearly and use multiple times a week.
Mine is a mango slicer, goes right around the funky “pit”…….I love it!
I don’t have an odd one but my all time favorite would have to be the Microplane Zester!
Lu
A push pin to poke holes in eggs so they don’t crack while boiling. It resides in my casserole dish that holds my condiments.
I have an olive spoon. It’s long handled and the bowl is round like a melon baller but with a couple holes in the bottom for draining the brine. But it only holds one olive at a time; far too annoying to use!
It’s snowing up here in the northeast and I’m forced to stay home. A good reason to be cooking & baking! 🙂 Well, my strangest kitchen equipment is a small japanese sesame seed grinder – left behind by one of my friends who stayed at my place for a summer. It allows me to choose between “coarse” and “fine”. I never thought I might use it since sesame seeds are small enough already, but hey, it works!
I would say that the oddest thing in my kitchen is also my favorite…my 4 year old son. He is a little on the odd side (although his parents are too 🙂 ) but he is certainly my favorite…definitely a great kitchen helper!