BoomerGirl Diary

Wednesday, May 16, 2007, is LiveStrong Day. LiveStrong Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. Learn more about it here.

The amazing Barbara Harris is the writer of the food blog, winosandfoodies.com. Barbara has asked all food bloggers to bake something yellow for her LiveStrong Day event called "A Taste of Yellow." On May 16th, she will post a round up of all the entries. Barbara lives in New Zealand, and food bloggers from around the planet have been baking and blogging about "A Taste of Yellow" for weeks. I’m a little late to the event, but definitely want to do my part.

The recipe below for Magic Lemon Pudding Cake is my submission. The recipe was originally called “Lemon Custard Sponge.” The cool thing about this recipe is that after you bake the cake, when you remove it from the pan and turn it over, magically there is lemon pudding on top! I found this recipe on the blog, Murry Hill 5 — In My Kitchen, and the blogger adapted a recipe from the book "500 Treasured Country Recipes," by Martha Storey and friends.

As usual, I adapted the recipe by using vanilla rice milk instead of regular milk. I also tried using the full cup of sugar as originally called for, but it was a bit sweet, so I’ll probably use 3/4 cups of sugar next time as suggested by the blogger. I had pre-squeezed lemon juice, so I approximated the amount of one lemon and did not use any lemon zest. Also, I don’t have six small custard cups, so I used two medium custard or soufflé type pans. The first cake fell apart when I removed it from the pan. The second one I refrigerated overnight and then removed it. This recipe doesn’t have many ingredients and is pretty simple to make. However, it seems like the type of dessert that is probably served best at home and may not travel too well. My only other changes are procedural as described below.

I am really happy to participate in "A Taste of Yellow", because the fight against cancer has impacted my family. My mother is a breast cancer survivor of 21 years. I am so grateful for each of these additional years, weeks, and days that I have been able to spend with my mom. They have truly been a gift. I was a senior in college when I found out that she had cancer and didn’t know if she would even make it to see me graduate. Thankfully she did! My mom had and still has wonderful doctors and she not only survived, she has flourished. She truly LiveStrong and amazes me everyday. So as we approach Mother’s Day, I wish all you moms out there a great day, but a special wish goes out to my mother. You mean the world to me.

Magic Lemon Pudding Cake

(6 small servings)

2 eggs, separated

1 cup vanilla rice milk (warm for 2 minutes in microwave)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

a pinch of salt

2 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 3-ounce pans, six 1-ounce custard cups, or whatever will hold 6 ounces of liquid and set aside. Use a baking sheet with sides. Fill baking sheet with hot water right before you are ready to bake the cake. Be very careful handling this!

In a medium bowl, use hand-mixer to beat egg whites until white and foamy and the volume has close to doubled - about two minutes. In a separate small bowl, whisk together egg yolks. In another medium bowl, combine the sugar, flour, lemon juice, then add the egg yolks. Do not let the milk boil. Add the warm milk slowly, so you do not scramble the eggs. Combine and then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Pour the mixture into the pans until about two-thirds full. Place pans on baking sheet that is filled with hot water. Bake for about 45 minutes. Carefully remove baking sheet and pans. Let cakes cool before removing. The cakes will pull away from the sides making it easier to remove. Enjoy!