Lemon Queen Cakes with Meringue Frosting

Hello everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and we have a delicious recipe that will knock your socks off. And your blood sugar will never forgive you. But that's another story...

 

 Edna kept talking about 'queen' cakes. They sounded good until she got to the part about them being not quite cooked. WHAT???

 So, I had to try it out. I've always been told that the cake MUST BE COOKED completely. If I'd known raw cake was okay to serve, I wouldn't have had to poke so many cakes in my life. All those little sticks. All those little holes. All those wasted minutes.

 

 

If this worked out, I might never have to time a cake again. I'd just cook it... halfway.


Beat together (Isn't that the way all good recipes start??)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tbs grated lemon zest. MMMMM.


4 eggs separated (no lawyer needed)

 

 

Add to this mixture

1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp salt

 

Wisk the leftover egg whites until fluffy and fold into batter gently.

 

Pour into buttered ramekins.

 

 

I think you actually have to have them for this recipe. Edna said these could be cooked into oven safe teacups, but that kind of glassware is RARE around here. :) Vintage glass like this... if you see it, snatch it up and make queen cakes!

 

 

Set each ramekin in an inch or so of water.

 

 

 

30-32 minutes at 350, until firm on top. Here's the thing, there's no need to poke them! The bottom is pudding! Crazy, huh? I guess it gets hot enough that the uncooked cake won't kill you. Edna was telling me the bottom is like the best lemon cream I've ever tasted.

 

 

 

I was still thinking, "RAW! DANGER!" (Look at those pretty food poisoning microbes!)

 

 But hey, Edna knows best.

 

So, now whip 4 egg whites, 1 cup sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt into a stiff meringue. Add it to the top. Now, if you have one of those uber-cool kitchen blow torches, now would be the time to bring that out. But I did not. so I put it in the oven under broil.

 

 

Uhhhhhh, apparently there's approximately a 1.3 second window for the browning of the meringue. The leisure you gain by not having to actually poke the cake is taken back from you ten-fold with the dumb meringue.

 

Ok, this is better, now that I know I actually have to PAY ATTENTION.

So, here's the bottom of one of the cakes.

Layers of meringue, lemon cake, and then a smooth lemon pudding... Really, really fancy. I can see why they call them 'queen cakes'!

This definitely wasn't diet food, so after this we had to go outside and rake a big pile of leaves.

 And jump in them! Wheeee!

 I'm hoping our next outdoor photo will look like this...

 

A girl can dream!

 Until next time!

 

 

 

 

3

 meringue on top, simmiering water, whisk to 160F and then whip to stiff peaks, broil