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 set of Pac Man oven mitts. They are made of silicone so they are very functional in addition to being super cute.
I have a tiny electric hand mixer. The body of it is about 5 inches long, and it comes with three attachments; a whisk/wire beater, a regular beater, and what looks like a dough paddle, each one no more than 3 or 4 inches long. I’ve never used it, as I just don’t think it would mix anything, but it is far too cute and unique to get rid of!
Perhaps the strangest tool I have is my most recent acquisition. I’ve eyeballed this tool for a while and decided to order it a few months ago. Boy, it’s great! It’s the dough whisk from King Arthur Flour. You’d think a whisk is a whisk, but this one is totally different. It pulls batter (any type of batter) together effortlessly. I just love it!
The strangest has to be a horizontal springy whisk I was given a long time ago. It is nothing like my other whisks but works wonders when making salad dressing.
my favorite is my potatoe masher.. it was handed down to me by mom who recieved it for a wedding present back in 1964
I bought a pizzelle maker on a whim, but it’s gotten more use than I ever would have expected.
my favorite cooking tools are the mini set of spatula’s that my 3 year old daughter “helps” me make just about everything with . . she adds such a special touch to everything we make together 🙂
A solid wood, mushroom shaped, garlic smasher. That is its only purpose. It lives in the back of my cupboard and has been used only 2-3 times in 10 years. Just so much easier to use the blade of the knife. It is pretty though.
I have a little tupperware type container that’s designed to hold one cupcake. I used it a few times to bring a muffin to work before I became a stay-at-home-mom.
I think your average breakfast while traveling looks delicious!
i don’t know about odd, but i do have a favorite–my pastry cutter!
My oddest kitchen gadget would be my duck shaped measuring cups.
I would have to say banana slicer.
I have a semi-antique bottle opener from the 30’s or 40’s that slips over the top of a bottle. You squeeze the two handles at the top and then tilt the opener, and it grasps the whole bottle cap and pulls it off. Very cool, and so unique. It works great!
My favorite kitchen tool/gadget is probably my garlic press. I use fresh garlic in most of my recipes.Love,love,love it.I love to cook along with my husband,who in the past 3 yrs has become a great cook – but I mostly love to bake, in fact I started actually selling my cakes & baked goods to most of my husband coworkers, because they couldn’t get enough of my cakes, especially carrot cake, chocolate cake & my lemon cake, just to mention a few…
I have a shot glass measuring cup to measure teaspoons, tablespoons and ounces
I have a tuperware banana saver that I got for Christmas last year- haven’t used it but you never know when you’ll need it I guess! I also have plastic stencils that are supposed to be for dusting confectioners sugar onto cupcakes to make a design- very intricate, but also never used!
The oddest kitchen utensil that I own is a mortar and pestle or the heart shaped frames to make eggs or whatever in.
I am new to this blog but am falling inlove with it! I haven’t made anything, yet, but the to do list is growing every day I come check it out. I am becoming interested in gluten free baking as well as expanding my cake baking/decorating skills, so this blog is awesome 🙂
I don’t think they are odd, but I have a lefse griddle (only for lefse) and a lefse turner (it looks like a yard stick that’s been whittled to a thin, rounded end with a handle on the other end) also sandbakkel moulds and a krumkaka iron. My Mother in Law wanted me to keep the traditions of Christmas going…and I do!
Rocket grill. Gift from wellmeaning mother in law that never gets used!
I have a tasting spoon. Wooden spoon, bowl at each end (one bowl smaller than the other), and a channel running down the middle of the handle connecting the two bowls. You dip one end in the hot soup, let it roll down the groove to the other end, and taste it, by which time it has cooled. No burnt mouth, and no germs in the soup. My sister found it in some store and gave it to me. I love it and use it all the time. Never seen another like it.
I also have the tiny whisk others mentioned (very useful!). My other odd gadget is a measuring cup, bought in France, that converts a weight measure into volume. It has columns of printing on the side, showing what volume of sugar, flour, rice, semolina, cocoa powder, and potato starch to use if you want 100, 150, 200 etc grams. Handy in the absence of a scale, or when precise measurements don’t work. I have scales, but use this sometimes too. It also has liquid measures on the side.
Thanks for doing the giveaway, Zoe! Love your site, your books, and your bread. Made those doughnuts recently and they were a HUGE hit!
My knife rack is a mans body you stick the knives into!
I’m wondering also about inverting the pan over the neck of a bottle to cool this lovely cake, I’m assuming you haven’t had the cake fall out?
Thanks
I own a hard boiled egg slicer. I don’t think it’s that weird, but a lot of people do:) I have used it a time or two.
I think the strangest and most unused kitchen gadget I own is a tea bag squeezer. It was a gift, so it makes me feel better that I never use it. It is basically two spoons joined together like tongs, but it is really hard to get the tea bag in between the two spoons. Useless. Who needed to simplify squeezing a tea bag????
The strangest kitchen tool I can come up with that I still use is a double edged serrated grapefruit knife. The knife is even bent at the tip to accommodate for the curved shaped of the grapefruit. Works great! Thanks for sharing your yummy adventures and recipes!