Having your cake…

Every so often I get on a cake kick, and I had some sliced almonds I needed to use, so…

Back in the day, one of the features of Neiman-Marcus’ flagship location in downtown Dallas was its bakeshop, located on Commerce Street and accessed from the street, not through the store. It’s hard to imagine how many office, birthday, and other celebrations featured cakes and/or other goodies from that location, but the Coffee Angel Food Cake anecdotally topped the list of all-time favorites. When I made one, and shared it with friends and neighbors, more than one commented that it was, hands down, their favorite cake ever; one with so many memories attached.

In all honesty, the recipe and process can appear intimidating, but you can bank on the fact that the result is worth every bit of effort.

You can find the recipe here, and I hope you’ll give it a shot sometime. You won’t regret it.

But wait, there’s more!!!

How about lemon three ways?

After making a lemon tart (a delightful marriage of a pastry case and lemon curd) for a neighbor, I found myself with some lemon curd left over. As fate would have it, I happened across a recipe for an orange ricotta cake, and feeling adventurous, thought that lemon would work as well as orange.

Once you make the ricotta cake, construction is relatively easy. Using a bread knife (or a cake cutter if you have one), cut the cooled cake horizontally into two layers. Place one on the serving plate, then spread a layer of lemon curd. When making lemon curd, if you’re going to use it in this context, let it get quite thick, so that once cooled you can spread some on the top of what will be your botton layer, and it won’t run all over the edges.

Next, place the second layer on top. You’ll be able to move it around to get it just right.

Did I say three ways? Take about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of powdered sugar,, and add about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix it up, adding just a bit of lemon juuice at time, until you get to a pouring consistency that’s not too runny. Then just pour it over the top, letting it run as artictically as you like over the edges.

This cake is best chilled before cutting and serving. Enjoy, and prepare to pucker up!!!