Recipe Courtesy of Mimi Thorisson’s French Country Cooking cookbook
I’ve been cooking a lot lately from Mimi Thorisson’s cookbook, French Country Cooking–and for good reason. The rustic French recipes (and gorgeous photos of her country home) are simply hard to resist. When I think what sort of cookbook to pull from the shelf when I’m craving a simple yet elegant dinner idea, lately it has been this book. This specific dessert was the first of many that I can’t wait to make, but this one quickly moved to the top of my ‘to-bake’ list.
A simple butter cake made moist by the addition of tangy crème fraiche (I used a Madagascar vanilla-scented variety) that is flavored with one of Mimi’s favorite flavorings (and one of mine): orange flower water. Used a lot in Persian cooking, this fragrant water adds a subtle citrusy-yet floral aroma to whatever it is added into. Not only does the cake have the flower water in the batter, but the buttercream icing does as well. I decided to garnish this lovely cake with dried rose petals, just to add even more of that floral-scent to the overall cake.
(To view this recipe, click on the blue title of the blog post above*)
‘Orange Blossom Cake’
Ingredients:
- https://books.google.com/books?id=21B-CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT456&lpg=PT456&dq=mimi+thorisson+orange+blossom+cake&source=bl&ots=eNqAT2eaiC&sig=mkN05ESxFuJeyq5v_AtxRyK0b2w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJle2Tp9jRAhXJ6oMKHRuGCVgQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=mimi%20thorisson%20orange%20blossom%20cake&f=false
Directions:
Tagged: butter cake, buttercream, cake, citrus, creme fraiche, dessert, dried rose petals, France, French country cooking, Mimi Thorisson, orange blossom, orange blossom buttercream, orange flower water, rose petals
I’ve tried this cake twice now, and it definitely doesn’t look like the photo in the book. It never browns – just develops a semi-hard shell. Is there supposed to be butter in the batter? You keep referring to it as butter cake, but the only butter in my book’s recipe is in the icing. I really, really want this cake to work
Hi Rebecca. This cake is definitely worth making…and enjoying! I remember the cake having a super moist crumb, thanks to the addition of creme fraiche into the batter. And yes, you are right, the only actual butter in the recipe is in the fragrant frosting. I used the phrase ‘butter cake’ in reference to the ‘crumb’ of the cake; if you read her intro to the recipe, butter would normally be used in such a cake, but the author decided instead to use rich creme fraiche. It has a moist crumb as if filled with butter! My suggestions to you would be to make sure your eggs and creme fraiche are at room temperature before making the cake batter, and to make sure your oven is calibrated correctly and is actually at 350 degrees and not hotter than that. If those tips don’t work, try baking the cake at 325 degrees instead, for just 30 minutes and then test it. Also, I would make sure you are baking the cake on your center oven rack. Hoping these tips help!