Summer Storms and the Perfect Cake

I walk across the heated streets that are under the weight of the water vapors, heavy-laden with books, papers to grade, copies of essays, short stories, which are waiting to be read, talked about, analyzed, pulled apart and pieced together. On my right hand I have a coffee mug that understands I need energy for the day, so it graciously allows some of the aroma to escape its seal and reach my nose. The air smells wet, like the earth, like coffee, like the little flower petals that last night's storm has forced to whiten the concrete pavement. It was a beautiful storm; the lightings were innumerable, surprising, and exciting: "The rumbling sound is coming," Jack would say in the lowest tone possible while slowly wiggling his fingers as menacingly as he could (it actually was just cute and fun). Summer school is about to end and I am happy for it. So many projects and recipes awaiting my attention; so many daydreamings paused half way; so many stories left unwritten. I have big plans for the next two months. :)

I have previously mentioned in passing how I am not the best baker. This is partly due to the fact that I never learned to appreciate its precision and I never learned about each ingredient's role. While teaching my students about the rhetorical triangle, and how each paragraph, each word, each sentence plays a major role in determining voice, emotional, logical, and ethical appeal, and also, how, depending upon audience and the rhetorical situation, one may choose to use more of one appeal over the others, I realized that it is the same thing with baking. You have flour, egg, butter or oil, baking soda or baking powder, salt, etc. All of these elements need to play their role, and depending on the product that one is baking, the proportions of each ingredient varies. It suddenly made sense.


I had purchased a couple of months ago The Secrets of Baking, in an attempt to learn these secrets that always eluded me. I had previously been really embarrassed by a chocolate liqueur cake that turned into a very dense, alcoholic sweet bread, or by chocolate chip cookies that looked like sorry pancakes, or by brownies hard as rocks. Really, if you want to learn all about my baking (and cooking) failures, all you have to do is ask Bryan. He always likes to tease me about my baking adventures. It is simple. I have a disability: when it comes to recipes, I find it very very very hard to follow them. Substituting yoghurt for the oil sounds like a splendid idea, right?

I decided to start learning how to bake well, hence the aforementioned purchase. Sherry Yard, the writer, is a professional pastry chef, and her approach is simple, elegant, and very enlightening. She provides master recipes which she proceeds to tweak with different flavors and pairings. It's a thoughtful and beautiful book. One of the recipes that I had marked was for a cake named Financier. Strange name, I know. I made it, with changes, of course, but they were minor and the cake was heavenly. I could eat the whole thing by myself. I served it at a 4th of July dinner party with some beautiful fresh strawberries dressed in Camilla's basil simple syrup. It was delicious and it will be one of those cakes that I will make again and again, because it is easy to vary the toppings and the spices that flavor it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your week is filled with sunshine, loved ones, and beautiful food.

Vanilla Financier with Summer Strawberries and Basil Syrup

Ingredients:

2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups of almond meal
¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups of powdered sugar
8 large egg whites at room temperature
2 teaspoons of vanilla

For the Strawberries and Basil Syrup:

4 cups of quartered strawberries
Juice of one lemon
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of packed basil leaves

Preparation:

-In a saucepan slowly melt the butter, stirring occasionally, until it has browned (7-10 minutes). Remove the butter from heat and let cool for 30 minutes or more. It is important that the butter is not warm when you add it to the cake batter.
-Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a 10 inch cake pan or Bundt pan with baking spray (make the pan is well coated).
-Toast half of the almond meal in the oven (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) for 3-5 minutes.
-In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, the toasted and untoasted almond meal, and the sugar. Add the larger almond pieces after all the loose ingredients have gone through the sifter.
-Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk.
-Add the egg whites and mix for about 1-2 minutes with a hand held mixer at medium-low speed.
-Add the melted, cooled butter all at once, as well as the vanilla, and mix with the hand held mixer for another minute until the mixture is well combined.
-Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through to insure uniform baking.
-Let the cake cool completely before inverting it onto a plate or a cake stand.

Straberry and Basil Syrup preparation:

-Toss the strawberries in the lemon juice and keep them refrigerated.
-Pour the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often until sugar has dissolved.
-Lower heat and add to the syrup the basil leaves. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes on low. Remove from the heat and let cool.
-Strain the basil leaves and refrigerate the syrup.
-Right before serving toss the strawberries with half of the syrup and serve them on top of the cake slices.

Ju bëftë mirë!
-E.