Ravings of a Textual Deviant

This recipe is based on the Lemon Gravi-Tea Cake that I made and promptly dropped a couple of years ago. I prefer lime to lemon, but lime powder and lime oil are hard to come by; I’ve only found one source. But find it I did, and I’ve made good use of it.

Lime Gravi-Tea Cake

* 5 oz. room-temperature butter (1 1/4 sticks)
* 2/3 C granulated sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1/2 t lime powder
* 1 C + 1 T self-rising flour (or 1 C + 1T AP flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder)
* 1/4 tsp. lime oil
* 1/4 tsp. vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Prepare a cake pan with butter and flour (and baking parchment, if you like).

Beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add lime powder, lime oil, and vanilla. sift the flour into the mixture and fold until well combined. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (Your oven may vary).

While the cake is in the oven, dissolve 4 tablespoons of sugar in 4 tablespoons of lime juice. Pour over the cake immediately after it comes out of the oven. Release the cake from the pan after 10 or so minutes.

We ate the cake as-is out of the oven, but if I wanted to dress it up, I’d probably go for some unsweetened whipped cream, or perhaps a dusting of crushed macadamia nuts; possibly a sprinkling of white chocolate curls. Or, more likely, all three.

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday, and so naturally, I had to bake. Mom likes yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and while good chocolate buttercream is simple and straightforward, I have never been satisfied with my basic yellow cake recipe.

Until now.

I remembered seeing a flavoring extract in a catalog called “bakery flavoring” or some such. So I thought about it and realized that what really makes a yellow cake taste…um…yellow…is a) butter and b) eggs yolks. The fact that my basic cake recipe starts with melting a stick of butter and proceeds to beating in an egg notwithstanding, it never really tasted deeply, intensely…yellow.

Go figure.

Therefore, my best option was to contemplate the essential nature of “bakery flavor”. The key flavors seem to be butter and vanilla. Sometimes there’s a little whiff of almond or citrus, depending on the bakery, but at the core, it’s the butter and vanilla. Specifically, I decided, it’s the intense buttery flavor, because I already use vanilla in the cake.

Changing the recipe to include more butter was not an option; baking being all about chemistry and balance and ratios of wet ingredients to dry and such…even if mom’s birthday cake were a fit subject for experimentation. So I asked the interwebz whether there was such a thing as butter-flavored extract.

Lo and behold, there is. And oddly enough, the craft store sold it but the grocery didn’t. Fortunately the craft store was open on Sunday morning, and I trotted right out to acquire a bottle of Artificial Butter Flavoring. (It’s made by a Big Name cake-decorating company that you would recognize if you spend much time in craft stores.) As much as it goes against my natural inclination (so to speak) to use artificial anything in a cake made with organic butter, organic whole milk, and farmer’s market eggs, I have to say it did the trick. I think that was probably the best, yellowest, yellow cake I’ve ever made.

This is a recipe that I cobbled together for a friend’s baby shower last weekend. We also had cucumber sandwiches and pimento cheese sandwiches.

Cashew Chicken Curry Pâté

1/3 C cashew pieces (I use low-salt)

1 large can of chicken (like the tuna cans, only bigger)

4 oz. cream cheese or Neufchatel, at room temperature (I warm mine up in the microwave)

1½ tablespoons (or more, to taste) curry powder

Blitz the cashews in a food processor. Drain the liquid out of the chicken can and use it to distract the cats that are no doubt circling your ankles in hopes of a floor snack. While the cats are busy, pulse the chicken and cashews together into a coarse pâté. Add the curry powder and pulse to blend. Add the cream cheese and pulse to combine.

Dead simple; all you do is open some packages, put everything in a pot, and let it simmer while you go about your business.

Go to Trader Joe’s. You will need to acquire:

1 jar of Thai green curry sauce
1 package of halibut chunks (or substitute other fish as it suits you)
1 package of sliced baby portobella mushrooms
1 package of frozen chopped spinach
1 package of Thai rice noodles

Combine the fish, half of the package of spinach, half of the package of mushrooms, and the curry sauce in a pot that has a lid. Set the heat on medium-low, put the lid on the pot, and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fish is cooked through.

While the curry is simmering, cook the rice noodles according to the package directions. Drain the noodles very well and toss them into the pot with the curry. Makes about 4 modest portions or three if you’re pigs like we are.

Over the holidays, I bought some non-chocolate chips, and the time had come to do something with them. I chose option 3.

Back-of-the-package Cookie Dough

2 stick of butter (softened)
3/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp salt (or less if nuts are salted)
2 1/4 C flour

Combine dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugars together in a stand mixer (easy way) or by hand (hard way). Beat in the egg. Add dry ingredients slowly, in 4-5 batches. Mix until combined.
Add your choice of mix-ins.

Mix-Ins

Option 1: 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (optionally, add 8 oz. walnuts)
Option 2: 12 oz. white chocolate chips and 8 oz. chopped macadamia nuts
Option 3: 12 oz. vanilla chips and 8 oz. shelled pistachios
Option 4: 12 oz. butterscotch chips and 8 oz. chopped pecans
Option 5: 12 oz. cinnamon chips and 8 oz. chopped pecans
Option 6: 12 oz. mint chips and 8 oz. pine nuts

Drop about 1 tsp dough per cookie onto the cookie sheet (I recommend lining with baking parchment or foil). I use a cookie scoop for this and it makes it ever so much faster and easier. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes before attempting to eat.

ETA: I have found (and acquired) cappuccino chips! Option 7: 12 oz. Cappuccino chips and 8 oz. chopped hazelnuts!

I promised this recipe to my awesome massage therapist (if you’re local to the Indy area and need a good massage therapist, let me know—this lady must’ve been on the honor role at massage therapy school), and it only seemed fair to share it with the rest of the Reading Public. As usual, my quantities are kind of sketchy, and I bought my ingredients at Trader Joe’s, so you may have to get creative about substituting…but I have faith in you.

1 package frozen potstickers, any kind, no need to thaw
3-4 C chicken, or vegetable broth
1 package shredded cabbage
1 package broccoli slaw mix (or shredded carrots)
8-12 ounces of the protein of your choice (chicken, shrimp, tofu, etc.)
Rice noodles or bean thread noodles
Thai fish sauce
Crushed garlic
Ginger powder
Toasted sesame oil

Pour the chicken broth into a large pot and bring it to a low boil. Drop in your potstickers (carefully, with minimal splashing), and let the heat come back up, stirring occasionally. Stir in as much fish sauce, garlic and ginger as you like; it’s very much a matter of personal taste. When the broth is seasoned to your exacting specifications, add in a couple of handfuls each of the shredded cabbage and slaw mix/carrots. Stir for a bit. If your protein is already cooked, add it and the noodles together. If not, let the protein cook about halfway, then add noodles. Stir in the toasted sesame oil right before you remove the soup from the pot.

Personally, I have never made it with beef and beef broth, but I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work. Also, feel free to play around with the vegetables. I’ve used a combination of green onions, broccoli, frozen chopped spinach, edamame, shredded carrots, and asparagus with excellent results. On various occasions, I’ve also added shallots or mushrooms, depending on mood and what was to hand at the time. Last night, I added some powdered saffron at the same time as the garlic to excellent effect.

My friend D., who makes this for Thanksgiving every year, tells me that when corn is out of season “like, er, now”, a one-pound bag of frozen corn is an acceptable substitute. Personally, I seem to recall that Trader Joe’s sells a roasted corn that would probably be very acceptable indeed.

6 fresh ears of corn
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. milk
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 beaten egg

With sharp knife, make cuts through center of kernels. Cut corn off cob; scrape cob. In saucepan combine corn, water, onion, and the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in 3 1/2 cups of the milk, butter, the 1 teaspoon salt and white pepper. Blend together remaining 1/2 cup milk and flour; stir into corn mixture in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes more. Garnish with snipped chives and paprika if desired. Makes 6 servings.

As a side note, when I make corn soup, I like to dress it up by stirring in sauteed red peppers, pancetta, and “crab” surimi, which makes it utterly unsuitable for my vegetarian and kosher friends, but sometimes that’s how the  gluten-free cookie crumbles.