#88 - Make Mine Dairy-Free

One of our vacationing foursome is lactose-intolerant. Bum-mer. Especially since the rest of the group intended to have a mini-gorge on Trailercakes. {Not a nice thing to do in front of someone who can't eat dairy in anything - even the delicious butter used to make a Trailercake!}

S and I searched through one of my remaining cookbooks, Starbucks Passion for Coffee, and found a dairy-free cake recipe: Lemon Sponge Cake.

It wasn't a Trailercake (what is?) but it was pretty good. We think we're going to try it again using orange instead of lemon. Tasty!

Classic Lemon Sponge Cake

• 6 extra large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 2 T lemon juice
• Grated zest of 1 large lemon
• 1 c cake flour, sifted
• 1/2 t salt
• Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325F and place a rack in the lower third of the oven, but not to the lowest position. Butter the bottom, but not the sides, of a 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom, set it in place, lightly butter it and then dust with flour.

In a large bowl, place the eggs and sugar and, with an electric mixer, beat at high speed until the mixture is very thick, 10-15 minutes. A heavy light yellow ribbon should form when the beaters are lifted from the bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest and continue mixing for 3 more minutes.

Resift 1/2 c of the flour with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt over the egg-sugar mixture and, using a rubber spatula, fold in gently. Repeat with remaining flour and salt. Make sure no traces of flour remain, being careful not to overwork the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a wood toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Invert the cake the cake pan on top of a wire rack to cool. When the cake has cooled to room temperature, remove the sides of the pan. Invert the cake onto a flat plate and discard the parchment paper. Sift the confectioners’ sugar over the top.