Frangipane

I've been receiving lots of cake recipes from loyal readers, concerned no doubt that excessive Xanthan experimentation is having a deleterious effect on my mental well-being. 'Why are you re-inventing the wheel?' they ask, 'When there are loads of perfectly acceptable g/f recipes already out there?' My response to this entirely reasonable query is related to the problem caused by sudden, quack-imposed gluten-freedom in the first place. I saw so many stand-bys - so many of the things my family and I like to eat on a regular basis - suddenly disappear from the repertoire that my culinary equilibrium was seriously disturbed. My first priority was getting these things - the easy-to-make, comforting Sunday afternoon treats and week-day dinner staples - back on the menu.

Now that progress is being made in this vital area, I feel relaxed enough to start trying new and unfamiliar recipes. I've got quite a pile, now, and unless I start blogging twice a day I'm not going to get through them any time soon. Many require a trip to the shops for special ingredients and will need a bit of planning and/or a special occasion to justify a diversion from my daily g/f challenges. But I will get to all of them, I promise - keep 'em coming!

Recently, though, dear Toad - chef, baker, and cake decorator extraordinaire - deposited in my Inbox a recipe, which (given that rare combination of a spare hour, ingredients in-house, and the proper frame of mind) screamed out for immediate fabrication.  

The recipe, for the rich almond confection knows as frangipane, has some serious pedigree. Toad learned it at l'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, MD (Top Chef fans will know it as the school where Carla Hall of Season 5 did some of her training). She learned the recipe during a pastry course taught by Mark Ramsdell, who in turn learned it from Roland Mesnier, head pastry chef at the White House until 2004.

By my reckoning, this lineage puts anybody who makes the cake less that six degrees away from both Padma Lakshmi and George W. Bush. I think that in itself is sufficient reason to drop everything and commence baking immediately.

I ignored the fact that I would utterly exhaust my already-depleted stores of butter, almond flour, and eggs, and got underway. The original recipe was not gluten-free, but Toad reported that she had made it so by substituting corn starch for the wheat flour with no difficulty. I had no corn starch on hand so I used white rice flour (the same stuff I used for my g/f profiteroles) with excellent results. I also didn't have quite enough almond flour, and found 7 oz. was sufficient for my needs.

I served the cake warm with powdered sugar to rave reviews. For company, the addition of brandied cherries, confited oranges, high-quality ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, or any other delectable accompaniment would be smashing. The Kid Squid said it was perfect the way it was, and that's good enough for me.

Frangipane

• 2 sticks (8 oz.) butter
• 8 oz. sugar
• 7 - 8 oz. almond flour
• 5 eggs
• 1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest
• 2 tablespoons rum (I used Cointreau instead)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1.5 oz rice flour or corn starch (you could also use wheat flour, of course)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Butter a cake pan (8x8 or 9x9) and line the bottom with silicon, waxed, or parchment paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar. I used my electric handmixer, but in retrospect the standmixer would have worked fine and taken a lot less effort. Add the almond flour and beat it all together. Add two of the eggs and combine well. Add two more eggs, ditto. Add the final egg.

Add the zest and the flavorings. Finally, beat in the flour.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until it's done. Cool it on a cake rack - I turned it out of the pan while it was still warm so I could remove the paper and get slicing prontissimo.

The frangipane (cross-sectioned) before beautification:
note the golden marzipan-like interior,
redolent of almonds and butter.
Pads and W. would be so proud!