Real Lemon Cake (with a side serving personal history, long)

[crazysoph]

I was rooting through our copy of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, when a wodge of paper fell out from between the pages and inside cover.

What treasures! Especially the 3x5 card I'd written years ago, coping the recipe for Lemon Cake from the file of my friend who now lives in Bristol, when we knew one another in The Netherlands. Ai! I'd been

Comments

[bibliofile]

What a story--and what I long way you've come since then, eh? And I do love lemony baked goods; I'll probably remember this story the first time I make it, too.

[crazysoph]

I'm touched by your generous gesture - it hadn't actually occurred to me that in telling the story of "real" lemon cake, that it would escape and become part of someone else's memory, too.

Thank you. Indeed a long way, great relief presently, from a still damn-vivid memory of that past.

Crazy(and don't you know it, eh?)Soph

[surliminal]

That's a great story. I might try making the cake. I'm very impressed by dear_hubby I wish I could have confided like that in my then partner in a sort of similar situation.

[crazysoph]

I'm sorry you didn't have that kind of confidant when needed; to say that it's improved my quality of life doesn't even begin to cover the experience.

I'm going to get very soppy in a minute (ahem) so I'll excuse myself and wish you luck on that cake; let me know how it turns out (which, I hope, anyone who makes it gives some feedback on their result).

Crazy(and thinking good thoughts for those other times of yours)Soph

[redbird]

That is a well-told story--and you have an excellent husband and friends.

One quick question about the cake: does the butter need to be melted, or is that optional for easier mixing?

[crazysoph]

It's optional for easier mixing, but given the result of the cake, I have some personal question as to whether it would have turned out closer to my memory if I'd allowed the butter to come naturally to room temperature, then mixed/cut it into the flour, or (seems kinda messy, this) pushed it into the batter after mixing the flour with the eggs. Ah well, next go, eh?

Crazy(and thank you, on many counts)Soph

[redbird]

I may take out some butter to soften, and then use the magic pastry mixer. Or just make some cakelings. Or see if I can invoke a 6-inch pastry tin and make papersky's traditional Welsh butter tarts.

[crazysoph]

Uhm, "magic pastry mixer"?

Crazy(I tried googling, to no avail)Soph