"Won't it just explode?"
"Will it turn into a raisin?"
"That'll just be foul."
It seems kind of fun to me though, like champagne cupcakes with flavor but also a burst of texture. Ooh, considering that, lychee cupcakes could be delicious. Okay, on my to-do list. So,
Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which was quite a riveting read, but made realize how much of the food that I eat is imported from places far, far away. I need to work on that.
But first the grape cake.
I found this recipe, and thought it would be pretty easy to replicate, but now that I'm back at school I have a more limited number of ingredients at my disposable. Here's my adapted version:
Almond Grape Cake
1 1/2 sticks sweet butter (at room temperature, annoying, but important)
1 c. sugar
5 egg whites (I had a lot leftover from all the yolks used in the custard)
1/4 c. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract (the recipe called for almond, which I would have much preferred, but you work with what you got)
1 c. almond slivers (ground up as much as possible), or almond meal if you have it
1/2 tsp. baking soda (recipe called for 2 tsp. baking powder, but I couldn't find any)
1 c. grapes (however much you want really)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray an 8 by 8 glass baking pan or maybe it could fit in a 9 inch pie pan. I think a rounder shape would be prettier actually if you can finagle that.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until it fluffs. Hopefully you don't have to do this with a hand held mixer where the butter flies in you face.
3. Add the eggs gradually. Make sure they combine fully with the sugary butter. Add the vanilla/almond extract and the milk.
4. In another bowl, mix the flour, almonds, and baking powder/soda. Carefully combine the dry and wet ingredients careful not to overmix.
5. Pour the batter into a pan of your choice and put the grapes on top, pushing them in slightly. In retrospect I should have made a smiley face or some picture instead of just rows, but oh well.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes or so. When I took my pan out there was a little bit of moisture bubbling atop, I'm guessing from the grapes. I just poured it out. Also this might be fun with some sort of syrup poured on top to make it moister--like an amaretto syrup, mmmm.
Oh and someone told me the green grapes looked like olives, so maybe you should use red/purplish grapes instead if you care about that sort of thing.
Oh and Anna should know that I really like the new format, but am curious about who all the taste buds belong to.
-Amanda
I think if I make this I'll use different colors of grape. Ooo maybe make a gradient. I was telling Hannah about my idea/plan to make a 'sunset pie' something like strawberry pie filling on the bottom, mango filling on top, and a mixture of the two in the middle. maybe a layer of sliced lemons on top of that. Or a layer of sliced oranges in the middle instead of the mango/strawberry mix, if that looks not too great. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteAlso this cake texture looks so good
Also my taste buds, of course!
Green grapes >>> red grapes yo
ReplyDeletetrue, but kyoho grapes> green + red grapes
ReplyDelete