The Easter Bunny was very good to us. Well, to be more accurate, my mother was very
good to us. She prepared a magnificent
day-long feast for my father, Bertie and me.
I thought, especially since you all seem to enjoy the “Treat of the
Week,” that I would share images from that wonderful day with all of you.
I actually had the luxury of being at their house all
weekend and I was granted a sneak peek into the inner workings of my mother’s
magic kitchen. She actually let me help
a few times. By “help,” I mean, I got to
take pictures and cut out the parchment paper circles that lined the bottom of
the cake pans. But, to toot my own horn,
I’m responsible each year for the stirring of the Easter risotto. This, of course, is a job which could be done
by a patient chimp, but it’s my proud contribution.
On Holy Saturday, while my father worked in the garden, my
mother worked on the exceptional Easter cake.
We’re a cake family. We love our
cake, so, of course, we take every opportunity to eat as much cake as
possible. For almost two years now, you’ve
looked at dozens of my mother’s homemade scratch cakes, but this one is truly
grand. Since I was a little boy, my
mother has made checker-board cakes. You’ve
seen one on this site, in fact—last Easter.
But, this year, instead of chocolate and vanilla, my mother wanted to
make a cake that would complement the flavor palette of the dinner she’d
planned for Easter. So, she concocted a
new recipe. Instead of chocolate, some
of the squares in the cake would be flavored with lemon and saffron.
For those who aren’t familiar with saffron, it’s one of the
dearest and most luxurious of the spices.
It’s the vivid red stigma of the crocus flower. Each flower has three of them. When cooked, they add a rich golden color and
a subtle, elegant flavor. Following her
own instincts, my mother infused limoncello (a lemon liqueur) with
saffron. She heated this mixture very
briefly so that the saffron’s color and flavor would be released. Then, she added lemon juice and lemon zest. This mixture would be added to half of the
cake batter. This flavor was selected
since saffron is one of the primary seasonings in the risotto (see right) we’d be having
with Easter dinner.
The process went like this...
The process went like this...
The cake batter came about after the separation of eggs, the
creaming of butter, sugar and cake flower and the whipping of egg whites. The egg whites were whipped into soft
peaks. See the video below--if you're using an iPad, the video may not work. which is curious since it was shot on an iPad. It’s just as if you were making meringue. The fluffy egg whites were folded into the
batter. Then, half of the batter was
infused with the saffron mixture.
It looked like this...
It looked like this...
Using the same checkerboard cake pans she’s used since I was
a wee lad, my mother arranged the two batters into the circles that, when cut,
would show in the interior of the cake as a checkerboard.
And, cooling. There
was enough batter to make two little Bundt cakes which we enjoyed on Saturday
night.
And, then…icing.
First, lemon curd was spread atop each layer. Then, my mother piped a wall of the butter
cream icing she’d just made around the edge of each layer to keep the lemon
curd filling in place.
The butter cream was separated into wee bowls. The largest portion remained white to ice the
cake. The rest was divided into colored
with gel food coloring into five springtime hues.
And, then, the artistic genius came in. I was allowed to pipe one flower. It wasn’t as pretty as the ones my mom did.
On Easter morning, we began with a breakfast of sausage and
Easter Eggs. I look forward every year
to dying the eggs with my mom and dad. I
know, I’m thirty-eight and probably shouldn’t be as chuffed about these things
as I am, but, I do anyway. We always
marbleize the eggs. This is accomplished
by first dying them one (or more) base colors.
Then, the dyed eggs are rolled in dishes containing food coloring and
vinegar, and a little oil. The oil doesn’t
combine with the other media and, therefore, causes a marbling effect on the surface
of the egg. The finished eggs are then
gently buffed to a shine with paper towels.
After breakfast, my mother began dinner—a lengthy process,
but very much worth it. We enjoyed
roasted chickens with a sweet compote of oranges and berries, glazed carrots, a creamy risotto with saffron and peas, rolls
and a lovely new dish—an asparagus and gruyere tart in a lovely homemade pastry
shell. Wonderful stuff!
The delicious meal ended with the gorgeous cake. And, then, we watched Shari Lewis’ Lambchop’s Passover Surprise because we’re
always interested in every culture, and I like puppets and, well…we’re just
plain weird. This was the only video I could find of it. It's good enough to give you an idea of the sheer glory of it all. If you watch it, the Passover Panda will make an extra trip to your house.
17 comments:
Gorgeous! You guys know how to live.
I was miffed this wasn't up yesterday, pumpkin. I'm kidding. I hope you're feeling better. What a beautiful cake and a gorgeous meal. You must have had a great day.
How beautiful! Now, THAT is the way to celebrate Easter! Everything from start to finish looks so wonderful. This should be a magazine spread! Yay for you and Yay for your mom and dad!!
This was worth waiting for. All so pretty and great house. Love the cake and want to try the asparagus dish.
Awesome!
Taking a break from awful gig. Now I'm hungry thanks to you.
It's all so beautiful, but I really like the cake and asparagus tart. I bet the risotto is great and I think the eggs are so pretty.
A wonderful treat! Cheers!
I'm so jealous.
My wife made ham again. We have ham for all holidays. I wondered what you would have since your food is always more interesting. I think this is the most attractive meal I have ever seen. I bet it all tasted very good.
I just love seeing this.
Yum! All of it!
My gosh.......this is all great.
I like hoe you showed all the pics of how to do8 it.
Oh my God, how fantastic is this? Your family is so elegant. I wish you had a restaurant. Everything looks so special, I'll tell you. And, you watched Lambchop! I don't think you are weird, mister, I think you are beautiful. So lovely. And I luv, luv the new online book! Keep up the good work, boy.
I'm impressed.
Good gracious! How pretty!
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