Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. Nineteen years! I'm getting old. Yikes! So I decided to make a simple cake to celebrate. I searched "The Textbook" and picked the Lemon Chiffon Cake. It looked easy and sounded tasty.
The five eggs had been carefully separated and brought to room temperature with the rest of the ingredients mise en place waiting to be added. The oven was preheated and the pan greased waiting for the batter.
I read over the instructions first to get familiar with the recipe. First you combine the egg yolks and oil with the lemon juice and zest. Hmmm...interesting. The recipe did not tell me how much lemon juice or zest I would need. Which was odd since I thought baking recipes had to have exact measurements or the recipe would fail. But all right, I could decide how much lemon juice I wanted in my cake. That was no problem. After the above-mentioned ingredients are whisked together, then I was to sift the flour, sugar, wait a minute- what sugar? The only mention of sugar is under the ingredient list for the French meringue. Did I miss the sugar somewhere? Maybe I didn't read the recipe close enough. I reread it again and no, not one mention of sugar in the cake batter. Just to be sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me, which sometimes they do, I had my hubby check the recipe and nope, no sugar measurement. Okay, now what? I have five eggs at room temperature and a recipe that's incomplete. How frustrating! I was tempted to guess on the sugar amount, but I didn't want to possibly waste ingredients.
After searching high and low for a recipe that took 5 warm eggs, I found Paula Deen's recipe for pound cake. Thank goodness, Mrs. Paula Deen saved the day!
Hallelujah! It took five eggs! They didn't have to be separated, but that was an easy fix I just reunited my separated eggs into one bowl, which made them happy.
Now there are a couple of reasons why I don't have any picture of me making this cake. Number one, I was too annoyed by the messed up Lemon Chiffon Cake recipe and the second; my hubby was helping me make the cake. He wouldn't have minded if I had taken some pictures, but as it was getting dark, I would have had to use my light box and well, it would have taken too long and I was annoyed-wait I already mentioned that.
But I did take some of the finished cake. It was so good it made my annoyance melt away.
If you have never made it you need to try it. The crust that forms on this cake is sooo good! It is so moist it melts on your tongue and if your feeling annoyed and angry at a cookbook like someone I won't mention, then it will put them in a better mood.
Thanks Paula for saving the day!
Here's a link if you would like to make it and eat all your worries away.
Mama's Pound Cake Recipe
P.S. She's so wonderful she even tells you how much sugar goes into the cake! :)
