Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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November 13, 2009 By cheryl

Apple-Cornmeal Cake: A Reason To Celebrate


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A dear friend recently asked me what my ideal birthday cake would be.

My immediate answer was a pure pipe dream (in the U.S. anyhow) — a durian cream cake in which the sliver of cream wedged between two layers of pound cake is flecked with hefty chunks of creamy durian, a pungent, Southeast Asian fruit that’s hard to find in New York.

Now, if I can’t have durian cake, my second choice would be a vanilla cake coated with a creamy guava or passionfruit icing.

I know, I know.

I have been told I can be hard to please.

Having no durians, passionfruit or guava at hand, however, I set about making myself one of my absolute favorite fall cakes — an apple-cornmeal upside down cake that is so simple and can be assembled so quickly that I’ve set it out for more Thanksgiving and autumn meals than I can count. 

In fact, it’s what first came to mind when my Let’s Lunch group, a bunch of intrepid cooks around the world who have a standing monthly lunch date, decided to do a fall dessert for November.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Baking, Cake, Fall, Holidays, Let's Lunch, Thanksgiving Tagged With: Apple cornmeal cake, Apple Galette, Apple ice-cream, Autumn, Blue cheese, Cake, Cranberry Lime Tart, Durian, Gingersnaps, Guava, Let's Lunch, Passionfruit, Peanut Butter Pie, Persimmon, Southeast Asian, Thanksgiving, Upside down cake, Vanilla, Vegan Pumpkin Tart, Walnuts

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