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!
Love the bottle trick!
I guess the strangest bit of kitchen equipment I own are egg cups, which I suppose aren’t that strange, except that I never eat soft-boiled eggs.
Right now my weirdest “gadget” is an apron that says “kiss the cook’s *ss.” I think I’ll use it only when family is around.
Question: do you think this recipe would work well as cupcakes? I have a friend who’s birthday is coming up and she loooooves marzipan and almond flavors… but she wants cupcakes. I think this cake would be absolutely perfect. Any advice?
One kitchen “gadget” that’s proved its day-to-day usefulness is my inexpensive folding hard plastic measuring spoon. Four spoons are magically hinged around a small square “hub” created by their own handles … hard to describe, but I love how it folds flat to fit in my knife kit, and in the pocket of my chef jacket in class. I was glad I found another one for for home!
A veggie rinser, it was a waste of $10 (luckily the gift giver’s waste not mine)..It is much easier to just do it by hand.
I’d say my oddest kitchen item is probably my tiny cast iron skillet: it’s maybe five inches by five inches, square, and fairly shallow (only a half inch or so). The shape is similar to that of a slice of bread – which is why it’s what I always use to fry my eggs for sandwiches! It fits one egg perfectly, and comes out the same size as the bread!
i can’t wait to try the cake. I think my weirdest kitchen tool is my kitchen scissors. only because they were my sewing shears but they are too dull for fabric now, but still work perfectly to cut herbs or chicken. 🙂
That cake sounds amazing. I love almond paste and I love chiffon cake.
I don’t think of any of my kitchen tools as odd, but I am sure other people might. Maybe my falafel ball maker? You pull the plunger and fill the cavity with falafel batter and then release the plunger to plop the batter ball in the hot oil. I have never been able to get it to work right.
I’m no packrat, so I don’t keep things that I don’t use. My favorite thing, though is a little wooden handled mini spatula. (Not the kind for scraping batter out of a bowl, but the kind used for lifting things.) It’s perfect for serving desserts like brownies, or bar cookies.
Can’t think of a weird one, but my fave is my lemon squeezer…the kind where the lemon half ends up inside out. Oh and also a microplane zester. Running out of lemons is an emergency in my house.
I have hand pie molds from William Sonoma that I have yet to use (but they’re on deck this weekend!) and Mickey Mouse pancake molds, despite the fact that I’m a grown woman with no children (but I love pancakes).
Among my several odd tools is a little metal pronged scooper to remove the ends of strawberries instead of cutting the whole end off and a metal form that sits on top of a stick of butter and as you press down on it, it cuts the butter into perfect pats.
“The chopper” from As seen on TV as a Christmas gift from my brother. Quality was not incorporated in the design of this product, I found that I could actually chop food faster by hand.
My favorite is a garlic press. Quick and easy. Worth cleaning to get garlic that small.
hmmm, oddest thing in my kitchen is probably the GIANT wok we found at a second hand store, but, thanks to my husband, it gets used quite frequently!
Whenever we have corn on the cob, each person gets their own little plastic butter pat cutter. Its curved to help rub the butter on the cob. I think they are a little odd, but very helpful .
It took me a good 20 minutes to identify the weirdest thing in the cupboard. It took five just to establish which side was up. According to the internet, it’s an egg poacher. Apparantly. I haven’t used it yet, but I think I will be able to make single serving Flan or flourless chocolate cakes with it since it’s for immersing in water. I will try this out asap not becuase I need or desire any micro flan. Sheer bloody mindedness.
I have a egg seperator that never works.. it sometimes too small and the egg yolk cracks.. or the egg is to small and it fall thru… I think its living in oscurity in the catch all kitchen drawer were things go to die….
The strangest gadget I have are two old whisking spoons from the 1930s. They were my grandmothers. The look like spoons made of wire. I still use them.
I think the most unusual kitchen gadget I own is a slotted spoon/ Spatula – it is a two for one! Slotted spoon on one end, spatula on the other end!
The oddest kitchen gadget I own was given to me as a gift and I have to admit I’ve only used it once. It’s an avocado slicer and pitter. You need to use a knife to cut the avocado in half and then there’s a strange loopy thing to scoop the pit out and another larger loop that slices. I find it much easier to just use the knife!
The Almond Chiffon cake looks amazing! I just recently made your coconut layer cake and it was phenominal! 🙂
Hrm… I don’t really consider any of my kitchen gadgets “odd” or “weird”, though I suppose the ones people never recognize are my ginger grater (which looks like a v. wee eggplant-shaped spoonrest), oversized cooking chopsticks (best way to flip bacon, ever), and my salad dressing blender (okay, that one is a little weird, but it seriously emulsifies better than anything else I’ve ever used – put all ingredients into the container, blend 30 seconds, done!). ^_^
My oddest kitchen tools include a “wavy cutter” for slicing cucumbers and other veggies into those cute wavy cuts similar to some types of jarred pickles. The list continues….chocolate tempering machine, zoku popsicle maker (really great!), box grater shaped like a lady….
all useful and fun!
Probably my heart shaped pancake maker, or the teddy bear shaped one!
I have an avocado masher from W-S that I actually use often to make guacamole. It’s strong and small and perfect for its job.