As far as I can see we skipped a few months - August, September and October. Please let me know if this is an error. November's book club was at Heather's lovely home. Even though she fretted the food was a disastrously overcooked and almost ordered a pizza, I thought the short ribs and kale potato mash were absolutely amazing! Her "failure" would be my masterpiece! The polenta cake dessert was totally delicious as well. Recipe below.
It was Dana, Liesel, AmyR, Bianca, Suzy and me. We were regaled by stories of Suzy's online dating adventures. Between the polenta cake and her titillating stories I went home and came all over the place.
Here’s the cake:
- 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
- 5 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- 4 large whole eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 cup cornmeal [NOTE I DO HALF CORNMEAL, HALF POLENTA FOR A LITTLE CRUNCH]
- Preheat oven to 325° F. and butter and flour a 10-inch round springform cake pan.
- In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape seeds from pod and add to butter mixture. Beat in whole eggs and egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and fold in flour and cornmeal. Pour batter into pan and bake cake in middle of oven 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove side of springform pan and place cake on a rack and cool completely.
For
the compote: put a bag of your favorite frozen berries in a bowl,
sprinkle with about 1/4 cup sugar and douse with grappa. Also that to
sit for a couple of hours.
For whipped cream: I add a big dollop of mascarpone to heavy cream before whipping, which I find stabilizes the whipped cream and stands up to the berry compote better.
