My fiancé and I are flying back to the US (already) for another work-and-pleasure trip later this morning. Yesterday I was overwhelmed with things to do in preparation for this trip. So, naturally, I decided it was time to bake a cake.
My procrastination was spurred on by reading the recipe of a cake Jean-François Piège (chef at Les Ambassadeurs) recalled from his childhood. Clotilde Dusolier, a food blogger and soon-to-be-published food author in Paris who I’ve met with twice (once at The Wolseley, once in a Paris café), read the recipe in French Elle and shared it on her blog. It looked so easy, even for a non-baker like me, that I had to try it.
Well, it was as easy as it looked, though it did take me two oranges rather than one to yield half a cup of orange juice. (If you don’t have a set of American cup and spoon measures, I highly recommend picking some up. They’re much easier than second-guessing your scales.) The result was fresh and delicious, a super-moist sponge with a wonderful caramel quasi-crust that makes the cake’s rim a special finish. This recipe will definitely go in my arsenal of easy stand-by desserts.