Mojito Cake

Our mint is gone. GONE! The management company that takes care of our rental decided than when they mowed the lawn, they would mow down our mint and chives too. Until the mowing incident, I had been making mojitos pretty regularly. I even had a special muddler stick, not that you really need one. The stick end of a wooden spoon would work just fine.
But this summer I also made a cake out of all those lovely mojito flavors. I squeezed some limes, and brewed some mint simple syrup and baked some sponge cakes. And I made Italian meringue butter-cream frosting. Oh my it was good. And I practiced my frosting skills before the big wedding cake. More on that another time.

The cake was a simple sponge cake made with lime instead of lemon zest and a bit of rum mixed in.
Whip the egg whites, which gives the cake most of its structure. Then mix the yolks with sugar, zest, and rum. Fold in the dry ingredients, then fold in the whites. It's not a particularly exciting recipe, actually comes right out of the Joy of Cooking.




What makes this cake so good is the filling. Mint lime curd. It is sooo good. As I mentioned earlier, this cake was a sort of preparation for a wedding cake. A wedding cake that used up many many egg whites while tossing aside the yolks. I wanted to find a home for those ooey gooey yolks, and curds are a great way of doing that.
Combine
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
zest and juice of 5 limes
A handful of ripped mint
Heat it over a double boiler until it thickens. Then strain out the mint leaves, and cool. The texture won't be right until it has chilled.
The final result tastes a lot like key lime pie, zingy and creamy, and delicious when eaten out of the jar with a spoon. Mmmm.

To assemble the final product, brush one cake with a combination of rum and mint simple syrup, emphasis on the rum. Then slather on the curd. Add the second cake and douse it with more rum and mint. Finally, frost.



Although the cake and the curd went beautifully together, the frosting was too rich for such a light and ethereal cake. A seven-minute frosting might have been better.

Birthday Dinner

Every year, my birthday sucks. Not because anything goes wrong, but because it never feels special enough. Maybe it's because my birthday is right around the corner from Thanksgiving and no one is around to celebrate. When I was younger (read: still able to stay up past 2am) I used to throw these wild parties. Every person who walked in the door (and there were dozens) would wish me a happy birthday, and look honestly happy to say it. Now, I get one real smile (my husband) and one excited phone call (my mom) and two pages of "happy birthday" on my facebook wall. Um, that doesn't count. So I tried to make my friend Kaitlin's birthday a bit exciting for her. With cake. YES!

She watched our cats while we were stuck in the blizzard over Christmas break, so we had her and our friend Jen over for dinner. I tried an old recipe I had never used before, "chicken pilaf" and it had way too much tomato paste. Also, in my excitement, I forgot to take pictures while I cooked, or even before I ate, so here is my half eaten plate:

And here are the half gone serving dishes

The chicken may not really be that exciting, but the Brussels sprouts were very tasty. So far, I have converted two people to a vegetable they thought they hated with this recipe. I always feel so powerful when that happens.

Golden Brussels Sprouts
1. Clean up the sprouts by rinsing them, and peeling off the outside layer of gross leaves. Cut out any other gross bits, and trip the ends.

2. Cut sprouts in half. This makes caramelizing them in a pan easier.

3. Steam sprouts for about 5 minutes. They should still be a bit crunchy.

4. BUTTER! Put some butter in your sauté pan. If you really want to be healthy, olive oil works OK too, but it doesn't taste nearly as delicious.

5. Sauté the sprouts for 5 to 10 minutes, until they've gotten nice and golden brown in spots.

6. Season to taste: I used salt, pepper, and slivered almonds, but you can use whatever you like best.

That's it! If you have always hated Brussels sprouts, consider giving this recipe a try. I have never witnessed anyone not like these.