The Perfect Mood-Lifting Cake for a Winter that Will Never End

One perfect slice of Olive-Oil Cake with
Candied Kumquats

Wednesday was supposedly the first day of Spring, but you wouldn't know that around here. It's supposed to snow 3-5 inches tonight and my littlest boy has been sick with the flu for the last several days. Every year at this time, I feel like I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown and I seriously cannot take another cold day stuck inside. If it weren't for the first few daffodils poking their bright yellow heads out of the ground with the promise of impending warm weather, I would pack up the car and drive south, west, anywhere warm.

So it is with this precarious state of mind that I happened upon a pint of perfect bright orange kumquats at Whole Foods the other day. When I was a kid, I remember my dad bringing home some of these odd little fruits and teaching my brother and I to pop them into our mouths whole, skin, seeds and all. The first burst of  mouth puckering sour, followed by the surprisingly sweet skins was such a treat. But kumquats alone weren't going to break through my funk. I needed baked goods.

That's when I remembered a recipe I'd seen once for an olive oil cake with candied oranges. I got giddy just thinking about how good it was going to be. And giddy is a much better state of mind. The recipe I used is below, adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe you can find on Epicurious. I made a few substitutions in addition to the kumquats for oranges - using cinnamon instead of cardamom and almonds instead of pistachios, since that's what I had on hand. This cake is moist, delicious, and the sunny orange color of the candied kumquats will brighten up the coldest, gloomiest day. And if that doesn't do it, try adding some of the extra kumquat syrup you'll have left over to a chilled vodka martini. Now that will definitely lift your spirits.

Olive Oil Cake with Candied Kumquats
Ingredients:
For candied kumquat syrup-
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup orange blossom honey (or regular clover honey is fine)
1 cinnamon stick
1 pint kumquats, sliced and seeded

For cake-
1/2 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour (pasta flour)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Directions:
For candied kumquat syrup-

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring sugar, honey, cinnamon stick, and 3 cups water to a boil in a medium heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add kumquat slices. Reduce heat to simmer and stir occasionally until liquid is reduced to about 3 1/4 cups, or about 40 minutes. Remove kumquats with slotted spoon to lined baking sheet and let syrup and kumquats cool separately. Try to resist eating all the candied kumquats until you've decorated the cake.

For cake-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush springform pan with oil. Whisk both flours and next 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup oil in a large bowl for 1 minute. Beat in yolks, then flour mixture. Beat in yogurt, zest, and vanilla. Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter just to blend. Transfer to prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake cake until lightly browned on top and toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Pierce hot cake all over with skewer. Slowly drizzle 3/4 cup warm syrup over cake and let it absorb for a minute or two. Add another 3/4 cup syrup again slowly. Let cake cook completely in pan over wire rack. When cool, run knife along the edge and remove to serving plate. Decorate top of cake with candied kumquat slices (in spiral pattern). Sprinkle toasted almonds on top as well as powdered sugar. Serve with additional syrup, if desired.

A Dinner Inspired by Spanish Paprika and Jose Andres

Gorgeous heirloom carrots, prepped
and ready

My husband and I rarely eat out at the same restaurant twice. When date nights are few and far between, and hundreds of delicious restaurants exist within a 30 minute drive, it's hard to justify revisiting a restaurant, regardless of how good it was. What if we miss out on something new/better/different? So that is why it's taken us 8 years to go back to eat at Jaleo, the Jose Andres staple. We ordered a variety of small plates to share, including the famous Patatas Bravas which had me stifling a moan with each delicious bite (after all, we were in public).

The finished dish - Braised Chicken Thighs
and Root Vegetables with Bravas
Sauce and Garlic Aioli

The key to this dish, as with many on the menu, is the Spanish pimenton - a sweet, smoky paprika. The tiny potatoes are fried twice to make them extra crispy - the first time at low heat (about 250) and the second at higher heat (350). They sit nestled on a bed of tomato sauce, cooked down with the pimenton and some sherry vinegar. Then, they are topped with the lightest, garlicky aioli and freshly chopped chives. Since I don't own a copy of Jose Andres' cookbook, a quick Google search yielded this recipe from a blog I love called eatmoredrinkmore.com. It was clear I needed to go out and get me some Spanish paprika.

Since fried potatoes does not a dinner make (at least that I'll admit), I decided to use up a little more of that Spanish paprika by dry rubbing it on some chicken thighs which I braised with chicken stock, onions, garlic, and the most gorgeous heirloom carrots, pictured above. I served the chicken thighs, carrots, and potatoes on top of the smokey tomato sauce, topped it with the aioli and chives, and moaned all I wanted. Whether you try the recipe yourself or get over to Jaleo, give this dish a try and let me know what you think!

Fresh Pasta for a Cold Winter Day

Even as I was asking my husband for the pasta making attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer last year for Christmas, I really didn't believe that I would actually use it more than once or twice. Pasta is the simplest of meals. It comes in a box, you dump it in boiling water, and then voila - 8-10 minutes later you have dinner. Measuring and mixing, kneading and resting, rolling and cutting...I mean, how good could fresh pasta be that I would be willing to go to such great measures for a meal when I could just dump the box of dried pasta in a pot of water and be done with it? Well, as it turns out, it is pretty darn good, and I have since gone to such great measures many, many more times. It does sound daunting to make pasta from scratch, but believe me when I tell you that it is worth it. So worth it. And honestly, it's a whole lot simpler than you'd think. Here's the best (read: easiest) recipe I've found for fresh egg pasta. It's from the cookbook The New Best Recipe from America's Test Kitchen.

Fresh Egg Pasta

Fettuccine with Anchovy, Red Pepper, Garlic
and Olive Oil

Equipment needed:

food processor

kitchen aid mixer with pasta attachment

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:

1. In bowl of food processor, add 3 cups flour and pulse a few times to aerate.

2. Add eggs to flour and process for 30 seconds. Dough should form into loose ball. If it's too wet and sticky, add a bit of flour. If it's too dry and won't form into ball, add a bit of water.

3. Turn dough out onto clean work surface and kneed for 2-3 minutes, or until dough is shiny and holds together well.

4. Cover in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.

5. Divide dough into 4 equal parts and follow pasta making attachment instructions to roll it out through level 5 thickness. Then use fettuccine pasta cutting attachment to cut pasta.

6. Store pasta dusted in plenty of flour on counter in heaps until ready to cook. 

7. Boil salted water and cook pasta until done - about 4-5 minutes. Pasta should be al dente with a bit of a bite to it. Serve with favorite sauce (like this anchovy, red pepper, garlic, and olive oil sauce below)

Anchovy, Red Pepper, Garlic and Olive Oil Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp. crushed red pepper (more or less depending on your spice preference)

5 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 tin of anchovies, rinsed and chopped

1 tbsp. capers, rinsed

3 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, chopped 

Parmigiano Reggiano to taste (optional)

salt to taste

Directions: (Prepare while pasta is cooking)

1. Add olive oil and garlic slices to saute pan. Let sit for 15 minutes, or several hours if you have the time.

2. Warm pan slowly over low, then medium heat so garlic cooks through until soft, but not brown.

3. Over medium heat, add chopped anchovies, capers, and crushed red pepper. Stir until anchovies dissolve into sauce.

4. When pasta is finished, add a ladle of the pasta water to pan with garlic and oil. Stir.

5. Pour drained pasta into sauce and stir to coat. Serve with chopped parsley and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Enjoy!