Lemon Queen Cake

 

 Edna the mixer kept talking about 'queen' cakes. They sounded good until she got to the part about them being not quite cooked. WHAT???

 So, I had to try it out. I've always been told that the cake MUST BE COOKED completely. If I'd known raw cake was okay to serve, I wouldn't have had to poke so many cakes in my life. All those little sticks. All those little holes. All those wasted minutes.

If this worked out, I might never have to time a cake again. I'd just cook it... halfway.

Beat together (Isn't that the way all good recipes start??)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tbs grated lemon zest. MMMMM.

4 eggs separated (no lawyer needed)

Add to this mixture

1/2 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 tsp salt

Whisk the leftover egg whites until fluffy and fold into batter gently.

Pour into buttered ramekins.

I think you actually have to have them for this recipe. Edna said these could be cooked into oven safe teacups, but that kind of glassware is RARE around here. :) Vintage glass like this... if you see it, snatch it up and make queen cakes!

Set each ramekin in an inch or so of water.

30-32 minutes at 350, until firm on top. Here's the thing, there's no need to poke them! The bottom is pudding! Crazy, huh? I guess it gets hot enough that the uncooked cake won't kill you. Edna was telling me the bottom is like the best lemon cream I've ever tasted.

I was still thinking, "RAW! DANGER!" (Look at those pretty food poisoning microbes!)

 But hey, Edna knows best.

So, now whip 4 egg whites, 1 cup sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt into a stiff meringue. Add it to the top. Now, if you have one of those uber-cool kitchen blow torches, now would be the time to bring that out. But I did not. so I put it in the oven under broil.

Uhhhhhh, apparently there's approximately a 1.3 second window for the browning of the meringue. The leisure you gain by not having to actually poke the cake is taken back from you ten-fold with the meringue.

Ok, this is better, now that I know I actually have to PAY ATTENTION.

So, here's the bottom of one of the cakes.

Layers of meringue, lemon cake, and then a smooth lemon pudding... Really, really fancy. I can see why they call them 'queen cakes'!

Until Next Time!