Recipe: Kumquat Cake with Almond and Lavender Cream (A Fruit A Month Entry)

The path to this recipe is convoluted and admittedly kind of strange.  As regular readers are already aware, I've been trying to make myself a better baker.  Since I don't have a lot of baking resources close to hand, I've been kind of trolling the blogosphere to see what other people are baking and trying to repeat their results.  This has had mixed success, although I can safely say that I don't think I screwed up so badly on anything that they didn't taste good.  Not yet, anyway.  Well, My Plate, My World posted a picture of a recipe from Epicurious, along with some great little tips on working with the recipe.  The recipe was for a Meyer Lemon Cake with Lavender Cream, and I think I was mostly attracted to it because of the lavender.  I decided that I was going to make the cake.  It was challenging - it involved making your own lemon curd, and multiple layers, and then there was the lavender cream to contend with, but I wanted it so it was going to happen.  After all, I'd seen Meyer lemons at Whole Foods only the week before I decided to make it. 

 

At the same time, I had previously noticed a posting for a blogging event celebrating kumquats.  I noticed it, and I even put it on my calendar, but I didn't think much about it beyond that.  I had heard of kumquats, but that was in junior high and mostly accompanied by a lot of snickering.  I was certain that kumquats would not be available to me in Braintree, and even if they were I would probably not recognize them even if they bit me on the knee.  I went to Whole Foods to do my weekly grocery shopping, but to my intense dismay there were no Meyer lemons.  They may have been there, but I certainly didn't see them.  What I did see was.... yes, kumquats.  I bought a couple pints worth and brought them home, gleefully cackling about my coup.  No one else was going to have a kumquat cake!  Ha ha ha!  The evil-genius gears in my brain, which are located just above the cerebral cortex, began turning maniacally. 

 

Unfortunately, like most evil geniuses, I was thwarted in an unexpected corner.  You see, I am the proud companion of a nine-month-old Golden Retriever named Yogi.  I've posted before about his fondness for fruit, specifically grapes.  Well, his fondness for fruit extended past grapes.  I had left the kumquats on the counter to remind me to make the cake, and one day while we were out Yogi jumped onto the counter and ate several of them.  I know that he ate them because the pint containers were on the floor, and there were little kumquats scattered about everywhere.  I gathered up what kumquats remained and put them into a bowl, intending to wash them and use them anyway because kumquats are pricey.  Well, before I got that chance, they began to turn green and moldy.  I reluctantly discarded them.... but not my dream of making a kumquat cake.  I'd gotten the bug.  The very next Sunday I went to Whole Foods, picked up more kumquats and started making the cake as soon as I got them home. 

 

First, let me tell you that getting the juice out of those kumquats was NOT EASY.  There are lots of them, and they are very small.  It took me a whole pint just to get the 3 tablespoons of juice required for the cake batter!  There was no way I was going to be able to eke the three quarters of a cup necessary to make kumquat curd.  I had to think of something else, something that would match decently with citrus.  What did I come up with?  Almond cream.  I love almonds and had really enjoyed the almond cream I made for a tart recipe a couple of months ago.  I made a double batch of the almond cream recipe from that post, although that turned out to be a lot more than  I needed, and I used it as a kind of frosting instead of merely as a filling.  My spring-form cake pans were a lot larger than the original called for, so like My Plate, My World my cake wasn't as tall.  In fact, it only made enough for two layers, not the three in the original. 

 

At the end of the day, while the story behind making this cake was kind of long and probably a lot more complicated than it needed to be, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  We were both pretty happy with the cake itself.  It was moist, and the kumquat flavor came through brilliantly.  The kumquats did match well with the almond cream, as I strongly suspected that they would.  I liked the lavender cream, but my husband did not.  He's not a fan of lavender in food, associating the herb with laundry soap which rarely tastes good.  So thank you to My Plate, My World for the idea, Epicurious for the recipe that I proceeded to mangle, and Coffee and Vanilla for hosting an event with kumquats as the theme.  This is my entry for the A Fruit A Month event. 

 

Kumquat Cake (Serves 8, approx. $0.91/serving not counting almond cream)

Cooking Spray

5 large eggs, separated

3/4 cup turbinado sugar, divided

3/4 cup olive oil

1 pint kumquats

1 cup flour, not self-rising

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 recipes Almond Cream

Equipment

• Stand Mixer
• Hand Mixer
• Spring-form pan
• Mini food processor

1. Make the cake the day before you plan to serve it.  Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees.
2. Lubricate the inside of an 8.5" springform pan generously with cooking spray. 
3. Prepare your kumquats.  Squeeze out the juice of the entire pint of kumquats.  When you've done this, grind the rinds in your mini processor until they're pretty well chopped up.  They won't be perfectly, fully "ground" but this will do. 
4. In the bowl of your standing mixer, mix the egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar on high speed until they are thickened and creamy. 
5. Reduce the speed to medium and add the olive oil, kumquat rinds and kumquat juice until well mixed.
6. Reduce the speed to low and sift in the flour.  Mix until just combined and not beyond. 
7. In a clean bowl with your hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt until foamy. 
8. Add the remaining sugar slowly and beat until the soft-peak stage.
9. Return to the stand mixer.  Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture.  Note that if your stand mixer does not have a fold setting you will need to do this by hand. 
10. Fold the remaining egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture.  This is your batter. 
11. Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  Smooth out the surface and gently tap against the counter surface to discourage air bubbles. 
12. Bake 40 - 50 minutes, until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.
13. Cool the cake for ten minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
14. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 
15. The next day, carefully separate the cake into two layers.
16. Top the bottom layer with the almond cream. 
17. Put the top layer on and frost with the almond cream.
18. Slice into wedges. 

You can either serve this cake by itself or with the lavender cream.

Lavender Cream

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons buckwheat honey

3 teaspoons dried lavender blossoms

Equipment

• Small saucepan
• Hand mixer

1. In the small saucepan, combine all three ingredients and bring just to a boil. 
2. When the boil is reached, remove from heat immediately, cover and let steep for at least 1/2 hour.
3. Strain into an airtight vessel.  Discard the solids and chill the liquid for several hours.  I cheated by using two vessels, the bottom  vessel containing a quantity of ice. 
4. With your hand mixer, whip the chilled cream until it holds firm peaks and resembles whipped cream, which is basically what it is. 
5. Serve alongside your cake.  You could also use this to top a delicate ice cream, like a honey ice cream. 

Technorati Tags: Epicurious,lavender cream,My Plate My World,Coffee and Vanila,A Fruit A Month,blogging events,kumquat,cake,dessert,sweets,almond cream

Comments

[Christie @ fig&cherry]

What a creative combination! I'm definitely going to give this a try... It's Mother's Day in Oz in a few weeks and my mum loves Lavender!

[Coffee and Vanilla]

Thank you for your entry Jessica :)
Round up will be posted on the beginning of May, I will let you know by email.
Greetings, Margot

[Coffee and Vanilla]

Hi,

Just a short note to let you know that April's AFAM (Kumquats) round-up is now online:

http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com/?p=2213

Margot