Dessert for the President of China!

[MGLloyd]

The President of China, Hu Jintao, is visiting the Seattle area next week. A dinner is being held for him at the home of Bill Gates. The dessert is 'rhubarb brown butter almond cake'. Since the recipe title alone has three of some of my favorite foods in it, I would probably like this dessert.

Any ideas on a recipe? Where to find it or how to create it?

PS: I already did a Google before posting, but could find nothing on point.

Edited April 15, 2006 by MGLloyd (log)

[Jason Perlow]

I bet you we can get the exact recipe.

[JeanneCake]

try looking for a rhubarb financier and see what happens.... or look for another fruit financier and see if you can replace the fruit with rhubarb...

[srhcb]

Ask the President of China to get the recipe for you?

SB (don't hurt to ask)

[Jason Perlow]

We're working on it.

[kayswv]

We're working on it.

←

Jason,

Are you still working on it or is a no go? The recipe sounds like something we would enjoy.

Kay

[Jason Perlow]

Our man on the scene is working diligently.

[MGLloyd]

Excellent. An article earlier this week in the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that the menu was the creation of the Gates house chef, whose identity was withheld. I did not know that the Gates had a house chef; I would love to see their kitchen and their server room.

[Daniel]

Excellent.  An article earlier this week in the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that the menu was the creation of the Gates house chef, whose identity was withheld.  I did not know that the Gates had a house chef; I would love to see their kitchen and their server room.

←

How many House Chefs and kitchens do you think they have, is the questions..

[MGLloyd]

In today's (26 April 2006) Seattle Times, the newspaper reports that due to the number of reader requests for the cake recipe, it will be posted on the paper's website tomorrow. I will keep an eye out for it, and will post the link when it becomes available.

[Jason Perlow]

You see? Ask and ye shall deliver.

[MGLloyd]

From: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca...33_cake27e.html

Recipe: Rhubarb Brown Butter Almond Cake

Serves 6

3/4 pound butter (to reduce to 6 ounces)

1 cup almond flour

1 2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

5 1/3 ounces egg whites (5 large eggs)

1 pound rhubarb, chopped into ¼ inch pieces

A little apricot jam, melted and brushed on as a glaze

1. Brown the butter. (Stay close to the stove while it is browning. It burns easily. You want it golden brown.) Strain it and discard the solids left in the pan and strainer. Let the butter cool, but don't let it harden.

2. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites, mixing well. Fold in the brown butter. Refrigerate at least one hour or as long as a week.

3. Chef David Jue used individual ring molds to bake the cakes for the presidential dinner, pouring ½ cup batter into each mold. Sprinkle about two ounces or ½ cup of the finely chopped rhubarb pieces on top. Lightly push them into the batter. Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until light brown. Jue suggests home cooks bake the cake in a loaf pan, like a banana bread. If you choose that option, expect it to take 30 minutes to bake.

4. Let rest. When cool, brush lightly with a glaze made of melted apricot jam.

From pastry chef David Jue

Edited April 28, 2006 by MGLloyd (log)

[LEdlund]

Help!

I'm attempting to make this cake today but am noticing some oddities in the recipe. For one, there is not salt or baking soda or powder. Another thing that feels odd is that it says to add the dry ingredients to the egg whites, but it doesn't say to whip the egg whites. That seems kind of, I don't know, gross to just fold the dry ingredients into unmixed egg whites.

So, what do you think. Proceed with the recipe as written? Or go with my gut and add some salt and baking powder and whip the egg whites a bit?

Lauren

[MGLloyd]

Lauren, the article attached to the recipe specifies that the cake is heavy and dense, much like a cheesecake. So I would not add any chemical or mechanical leaveners, myself.

[alanamoana]

it is a recipe for a financier. it is meant to be dense (not like cheesecake, more like poundcake...but moister...there's a definite crumb). often you'll see financier recipes call for baking to start at a high temperature and then lower the temperature about ten minutes into baking. i like this method because it gets a really beautiful caramelized crust with the moist dense interior.

edited to add: the recipe says he pours the batter into the ring molds. just note that this can only be done with fresh batter. if you keep it in the fridge to bake off when the mood strikes, you'll obviously have to scoop it out. it works fine this way.

Edited April 30, 2006 by alanamoana (log)

[LEdlund]

Unfortunatley I had to forge ahead with this before I'd received a response so I went with my gut and futzed with the recipe.

First I whipped the egg whites to a light froth. Then I added 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the dry ingredients.

As alanamoana points out, after refrigeration, there is no pouring of the batter. With all that butter in it, it was amost carving of the batter! Also there was no pressing of the rhubarb into the batter (I was using a loaf pan). I ended up having to spoon everything out and mix it all together in a bowl, then spooning it back in. It took 45 minutes to bake until a toothpick came clean as opposed to the 30 minutes mentioned in the recipe.

I have to say, the flavor of the cake was very, very, good. But it was certainly weird. Next time I'll try it as written and see what happens.

[alanamoana]

sorry you had a hard time with it.

in the future, if you make the batter ahead of time and refrigerate it, you can scoop it into your molds or whatever you're using and start it in the oven until it softens up, then press any extras into the top before it sets up from baking.

[LaurieA-B]

Orangette has a great post about this cake, with a more detailed version of the recipe adapted for baking in a muffin tin. Edited May 7, 2006 by LaurieA-B (log)

[prasantrin]

I wrote to Sherry Grindeland (the author of the article in the Seattle Times) and she said to make the recipe exactly as printed--don't whip the egg whites, don't add any leavening--it is a dense cake, as others have pointed out.

[hsm]

Orangette has a great post about this cake, with a more detailed version of the recipe adapted for baking in a muffin tin.

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Thanks for that link, LaurieA-B! The muffin version sounds like the keeper to me. Interesting blog with links of its own, including this Julia Child site. (Maybe it's off topic, but maybe not - $5 says Julia would have enjoyed this recipe.)

[gfron1]

Tonight I finally made my attempt. I followed the recipe exactly but didn't have what I would consider results worthy of the President of China.

I used individual dessert rings (3" diameter x 2" depth). I think maybe the recipe called for 2" rings because my doubled recipe made 9 instead of 12. I did fill each with 1/2 C. of batter. My cake was much less refined than I would have expected - it was more in the texture of a cornbread. It also took nearly 35 minutes to bake instead of 15 (I am at 6,000' altitude).

I brought them in to share with my office staff - most are Hispanic, non-adventurous eaters (always a good cynical test crowd for me). They agreed that the texture was not great. They also thought it wasn't sweet enough - I usually bring them ultra chocolate desserts. My spouse, who isn't a sweet fan (how did he end up with me?!) liked them because of the lack of sweetness.

Minor details: I dressed the plate with a rhubarb and sugar reduction (with a spot of butter). I topped them with the melted apricot preserves - mine were Cortas because they are minimally processed - usually very good, but sweet. And finally, for the life of me I couldn't plate them in a way that I was happy with...but here they are:

[LaurieA-B]

Matthew made the cakes yesterday using the recipe from Orangette. I thought they were fabulous. I've been thinking about possible variations since rhubarb won't be around much longer. The cakes were much browner than those in the above photo--maybe you used blanched almonds?

As Lauren mentioned, the batter was almost solid when I took it out of the fridge. I stirred it up with a spoon and spread it into the muffin cups. Next time I would put even more rhubarb in. The tart rhubarb was a great contrast to the rich, sweet cake. The cakes rose quite a bit, so the rhubarb ended up in a layer at the top. The cakes were absolutely perfect with a cup of tea, eaten with my fingers.

A comment on Orangette cites the Rhubarb Financier recipe from the March issue of Saveur (No. 91) as a possible inspiration for this recipe. The financiers look very similar, and have almost exactly the same ingredients. The main differences are that the Saveur recipe requires beating the egg whites to stiff peaks and cooking the rhubarb before mixing it with the batter--so it's more work.

I haven't tried it, but if you wanted to make a whole cake I think a round cake pan would work much better than a loaf pan.