Persephone's Winter Cake

There is a myth surrounding how wintertime actually came about.  Apparently Hades, God of the Underworld, stole someone's daughter named Persephone to keep her and make her marry him.  Her mother was Demeter, goddess of the harvest.

Once Demeter heard about her daughters fate, plants stopped growing.  The lack of food did take its toll on several people as well as animals.  Then her husband Zeus advised that as long as Persephone had not eaten any food in the underworld, she could go free.  Based on this, Persephone was released back to her family.

However it did not take long for a servant of Hades to arrive and advise the parents that Persephone did in fact eat.  It was only 7 pomegranate seeds, but it still was food.  The family was devastated, so much so that it was finally ruled that Persephone could stay with her parents 9 months out of the year. The other 3 months she would have to stay in the underworld.  As a result, plants would die during the 3 months, hence the season was to be called winter.  This cake does have some summer flavors, but the name reflects the tie in to the myth.

This particular cake has is a unique flavor combination, pomegranate and white wine. It came out very moist with a subtle tartness from the pomegranate.  The layers are filled with lime curd and the cake is frosted with sweetened whipped cream.  The curd really does give an extra pop of flavor against the subtle flavor of the cake. Also the whipped cream just pulls it all together in one tasty bite.  

Persephone's Winter Cake
by flourtrader

Ingredients/Lime Curd
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tbs lime zest
1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter, 1/4- 1/2 inch cubes


Ingredients/Cake
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup & 2 tbs white wine
1/4 cup & 2 tbs  pomegranate juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
red food coloring (optional)
2 tbs freeze dried pomegranate
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder
2/3 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
8 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar

Ingredients/Whipping Cream
1/2 tsp whipping cream stabilizer (I used Whip it brand)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
8 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla

For the lime curd, beat together eggs, lime juice, lime zest and sugar.  Pour into small saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and lightly coats the back of a spoon.  It should reach a temperature of about 160 degrees.  Then add about 3-4 cubes of butter and stir until it melts.  Continue with this process until all butter has been melted and mixed in.  Remove from heat.  Place a sieve over a heat proof bowl and pour the curd into it.  Make sure all curd is pushed through strainer, leaving the zest behind.  Let cool for about 5 minutes, then cover the surface with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

Prepare two 9 inch cake pans by greasing the interior with melted butter.  Then line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper and butter the surface.  Dust bottom and sides with flour.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Sift together 2/3 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder,freeze dried pomegranate and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together yolks, water, oil, vanilla and lemon zest.  Stir in the wine and pomegranate juice.  Add the optional food coloring, being aware that the egg whites will lighten the batter color.  Mix until blended evenly.

Take out a mixer bowl and fill with eggs whites and cream of tartar.  Beat until it turns into soft peaks.  Then add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat for 1 minute and add another 1/4 and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg white mixture into the pomegranate batter.

Pour the batter into the two cake pans, making sure each is filled evenly.  Put each pan in the oven, one on the top left and one on the bottom left.  Baked until tester comes out clean, which is about 25 minutes.  Remove pans and run a knife around the edges.  Place pans on rack and let cool for 10 minutes.  Then invert and peel off parchment and let cakes cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool, place in fridge for 15 minutes.  Then remove and trim domed tops to make each cake even and flat on top.  Then with cut dome side up, smooth the lime curd on top evenly.  Then top with other cake layer.

To make the whipped cream, place all ingredients in a small bowl and beat until soft peaks form.  Be careful not to over beat, you do not want it stiff, just thick.  Frost the top and sides of cake and pipe a border if desired.  Store in fridge until ready to serve.

Tips and notes:
1. deflating the whites when folding in can make for a dense cake, so take care in this process
2. Straining out the zest in the curd is optional, you can leave it in for extra tartness.
3. The stabilizer does help whipped cream from being runny at room temperature for extended times. If you do not have stabilizer, it is best to use a version with gelatin but it will give it a more spongy texture.
4.  This is another one in which I did not like the taste of the cake the first day but on the second day the flavors had developed into something very tasty.
                   **LAST YEAR: Maple Pumpkin Bars**

Hendrix Pie

While I was cooking the filling for this pie, the batter was turning a purple color.  The thought that came to mind was the old song of Jimmy Hendrix called "Purple haze"  Even though he was before my time of delving into listening to lots of music, I do remember the tunes from this legendary singer and guitar player.  Some things, no matter how young you are, stick in your head.  So I decided to let that memory pop out, at least to name this creation.

This pie is made up of fresh pomegranate juice (I have the t-shirt stains to prove it), cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. On top is a layer of sweetened sour cream. The base is made of ground almonds and graham cracker crumbs.  It is not shown in the picture, but the final serving on this does have a pomegranate syrup drizzled over it.

My husband was trying to get me to come inside with the fruit, but I did not feel like scrubbing that wretched stain of the fruit from ceiling to floor.  Best to let that fruit stain the outdoors rather than my kitchen cabinets.  The juice actually did get into my eye, but its attempt to stain that failed.

Anyhow after tasting the pie, I would say that the pomegranate flavor in the filling is subtle. However, the syrup and seeds does give it the extra zing of pomegranate bliss.  My favorite part was the bite with the fresh seeds on top. The sweet-sour topping as well as the almond crust did add some extra notes of tasty flavor.

Hendrix Pie
by flourtrader

Ingredients/Crust
4 tbs melted butter
3 tbs sugar
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup ground almonds

Ingredients/Filling
1/2 cup plus 2 tbs fresh pomegranate juice (I used 1 large pomegranate)
1/2 flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 8oz package cream cheese (room temp)
3 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup cold water

Ingredients/Sour Cream Layer
8 oz sour cream
2 tbs sugar
pomegranate seeds for decorating edge (optional)

Ingredients/Syrup
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate juice
3 tbs sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter the inside of a 9 inch pie pan.

For the crust, mix together graham crumbs, sugar and ground almonds.  Stir in melted butter until all ingredients are no longer dry.  Pour in prepared pie pan and press crumbs evenly in bottom and on sides.  Bake in oven for 7 to 10 minutes or until slightly golden on edges.  Remove and let cool.

To make filling, beat cream cheese in a medium sized bowl for 1 minute.  Add the sweetened condensed milk and beat until thoroughly blended into the cream cheese.  Mixture should be smooth.  Set aside.

Prepare a double boiler with water and place bottom pan over heat and let come to a simmer.  While this is heating up, take the top pan (not placed over heat yet) and fill with the egg yolks.  Whisk until mixture is smooth and then add the water, whisking for another minute.  Add the salt and flour, teaspoon of sugar and continue to whisk together.  Then add the pomegranate juice and stir until all is blended.  At this time, I noticed that there were some lumps of flour in the batter.  I poured the batter into a bowl, cleaned the pot and then placed a sieve over the top pot of the double boiler and strained the mixture from the bowl into the pot.  The flour lumps that remained in the bottom of the sieve were pushed through using a spoon.

Place the top pan of batter over the bottom pan of simmering water.  Whisk the mixture constantly and cook for about 2 minutes.  Mixture should be like a thick pudding.  Once you reach that consistency, remove the pan and turn the heat down to medium.  Pour the cream cheese mixture into the batter and whisk for one minute to blend.  Then place the bowl back over the pan of water.  Cook and whisk the mixture again for about 5 minutes or until batter is very thick and smooth.

Remove pan and pour batter into graham cracker crust.  Smooth the top and then place it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or until set.

During this time you can make the sour cream topping.  Beat together the sour cream and the sugar until well blended.  Once the filling has set, pour the sour cream topping over the pie and smooth out using an offset spatula.  Place pie in refrigerator for another hour, then decorate the edges with pomegranate seeds.  Place pie in fridge for another three hours before serving.

One hour prior to slicing, you can make the syrup.  Place both juice and syrup in a small sauce pan and heat until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into heat proof bowl and place in fridge to cool.

To serve, cut with a sharp knife and place on plate.  Then drizzle with cooled syrup.
                   **LAST YEAR: Limoncello Cream Cheese Tarts**