Tag / meyer lemons

by princesshotflash

My Citrus Nursery

After a watering

Haha! In my dreams. I’ve been raising variety of citrus from seeds since last year. It’s always fun to see the seeds germinate and the tiny leaves to into little leaves and then move into little pots then to the next size.

  • germinating seeds
  • tiny leaves sprouting
in my mom’s kitchen

First of my trees are from my mom’s calamansi and kumquat trees. And I have variety of miniature calamansi from our neighbor, blood oranges that bought from Kokua market, Meyer lemons from my sister and local lemons, one from a miniature tree.

Top row l to r: Mom’s plants with (a bad slug); Middle row l to r: kumquat, mini calamansi, calamansi; Bottom row l to r: empty pot, mini calamansi 3x (the last pot on the right is a survivor of a slug attack)
my cherished blood oranges

Not sure what I’m going to do with all of these little trees but a few of them will move along to our new house once we find it. And who knows how long these trees will take to fruit. The process is fun.

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by princesshotflash

Recipe Testing: Holiday Office Party Cake

How I got on the Party Planning committee, I don’t know. Someone suggested my name? Maybe? It’s been 2 years on the committee and 4 party. This maybe my last one as I’m soon to be off to Hawaii working remotely.

We always have dessert potluck for the party. This year I wanted to test out Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Flourless Cake recipe that found on pinterest. It looked really beautiful and I knew there were a few gluten-free people so I thought I’d try it out.

Ingredients

I used meyer lemons instead of regular lemons (had them in my fruit bin for some curd) and just the zest. I used zest of 3 lemons. Then eggs, separated and ricotta and almond meal. I also use vanilla extract instead bean because I didn’t have any. Sugar I used slightly less–1 1/4 instead of 1 1/3 because I read some of the comments that it was a bit sweet.

Mix up

I whipped the butter and sugar for a really long time as I cleaned up my kitchen. The butter/sugar mixture was really light and fluffy. Added zest, yolks and vanilla, blended well. Looks like a lot of zest but that is all the lemon flavoring in this recipe and that’s why that amount is needed. It kind gives the mix a yellowish color.

Then folded in the almond meal. It was kind of dense but I figure the egg white would lighten it up. I heated the egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks then fold it into the mix. And yes, it did lighten up the mixture, it was light yellow with fleck from the almond flour.

Ready for the oven

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Once it mixed well, (please don’t over mix the egg whites and deflate them), I added the mix to prepared 9″ springform pan. The pan isn’t greased to help with the rise like a angel food cake, so you have to line the bottom and sides pan so it would come out easier. Well that’s what I think since there isn’t any leavening besides the egg white. Then I sprinkled sliced almonds on top.

Voila

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Finish product. Baked 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for. I baked it till it was golden brown on top and firm to the touch in the center. I let it cool overnight in the pan and the parchment paper really help getting it out.

Everyone loved the cake at the party. It disappeared in no time. I think it’s a nice cake for the holidays because it isn’t too heavy, looks great and very quick and easy to make.