Perfect White Cake

This has become my favorite white cake recipe – it always comes out moist and delicate with an incredibly fine crumb. One of the perks of this is that you don’t have to beat the egg whites separately, which makes this cake (and cleanup) a whole lot easier than a traditional white cake. The best thing about this cake is that it stays moist for days – I’ve made one too many white cakes that dry out after a day or two – which means that you can bake these cakes a few days in advance and they’ll still have the right texture when it comes time to assemble and serve the cake.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

This is my go-to frosting - it's silky, light, fluffy, and not too rich because of the slightly lower ratio of butter to meringue. Many people use 3/4 - 1 stick of butter per 1 egg white; I prefer using a little over 1/2 stick of butter per egg white, which keeps the frosting light but still able to hold its shape when piped.

Lemon Curd

I’ve never made lemon curd before, and I’ve only eaten it once to date – and that was over 20 years ago. I might be making this up, but I’m pretty sure that my one and only encounter with it was when I was about 7 years old.

A family friend who lived in Switzerland (and therefore frequently traveled all over Europe) always brought us Swiss chocolate and some other treat, and that one time, he brought us a jar of lemon curd from his travels to England. I thought it would be really sweet and creamy – perhaps like lemon pudding – and so I shoved a big spoonful of it into my little mouth, only to be shocked by its bracing tartness. I think I immediately spit it out.

I’m back!

The last few weeks have been really hectic. Between moving back to NY, unpacking everything at home, and starting a new job, I haven’t had all that much time to do much else. But things are mostly settled now, which means I can resume my life as I formerly lived it…sort of.

My new job is far more demanding than my previous one – and I love it! – but it means that I am regularly at work until 6, sometimes later. The commute home takes a little over an hour, so I’m not home until about 7:15 after having left the house at 7:45 in the morning. Luckily for me, dinner is always waiting for me (courtesy of my mom) when I get home, which is both good (because she’s an awesome cook and I am spared of having to make dinner after a long day) and bad (I barely cook anymore!).

I knew that I wouldn’t be doing much (if any) cooking during the week, but I had planned on cooking on the weekends to make up for that. Well, that hasn’t happened yet because I’ve been away from home both weekends I’ve been back, and I already have plans for the next two weekends and two weekends in August (which means that I will yet again be out of the kitchen).

That being said, I’m going to do my best to post at least twice a week for the next two months. I really do miss writing and documenting and sharing my culinary exploits, so I’m going to make a concerted effort to make time for something to which I’ve devoted so much of my time over the past year.

And yes, this counts as one post for this week :)