BOOK/A TABLE - Lemon Cakes

People always say it’s a bad idea to meet your idols. I think it’s also a risky proposition to reacquaint yourself with a book you once worshipped. It’s not always a triumphant reunion.

In my 20s, I plunged into The Fountainhead with abandon and told everybody about it before subsequently tearing through the weighty Atlas Shrugged (The Fountainhead, also of considerable length, seemed really just a preface afterward!). Both books colored my world, imbuing real people, places, and events with the fiction I read in the pages. I didn’t care much for Rand’s objectivist theories though, but sure delighted in the exciting plots that reminded me of Valley of the Dolls (and that, to me, is high praise).

While I definitely think The Fountainhead is still pretty cool, I didn’t respond to it with nearly as much fervor this time. Perhaps the passions of Ayn Rand are best consumed when one is young and impressionable. I’m not sure I want to tamper with my memories further by venturing back into Atlas Shrugged.

The following quote from The Fountainhead is the most memorable for me these days, neatly incorporating two of my favorite things: a nice sit-down tea and a murder mystery.

“Ah, there’s nothing like tea in the afternoon. When the British Empire collapses, historians will find that it had made but two invaluable contributions to civilization—this tea ritual and the detective novel.”

In a happy accident, I came across How to Cook the Victorian Way by Annie Gray and Andrew Hann in our laundry room’s lending library and was rather taken by this recipe for Lemon Cakes, perfect for teatime. The cookbook includes recipes from Avis Crocombe, head cook at Audley End in the 1880s. It is certainly a handsome tome, with a ton of gorgeous pictures. Although many of the recipes seem to require staff for the assembly and presentation, here instead is the much simpler recipe for Lemon Cakes.

Lemon Cakes
Makes 12

Ingredients:
200 g/7 oz/scant 1 cup of caster sugar (or regular granular sugar, pulsed in a food processor)
7 eggs, separated
Finely grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
2 tsps rose water, or a few drops of rose extract
2 tsps icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)*
170 g/6 oz/1 1/3 cups flour, sifted, plus extra for the molds
Butter, for the molds
*The use of cream of tartar is included here just to guarantee a rise if you are not using a copper bowl.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Whisk the caster sugar in a bowl with the egg yolks, lemon zest and juice, and rose water until light and fluffy.

Whisk the egg whites and icing sugar in a separate bowl. Adding the cream of tartar will help to stabilize the foam if you are not using a copper bowl. Carefully fold the sifted flour and meringue alternately into the yolk mix, ending with the last of the meringue.

Butter and flour 12 dariole molds or small but deep muffin tins. Divide the mix between them, then give them a good tap on the work service to remove any air.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Invert the molds onto a wire rack and allow it to cool, before gently easing the cakes out.