use real butter

Recipe: lemon mousseline torte

Like I said earlier, my in-laws were visiting this weekend and there was much cooking going on at our house. It was my MIL’s birthday on Sunday, so I thought I’d bake a cake in celebration. My FIL is a huge fan of chocolate – one of those types who won’t actually eat desserts that don’t have chocolate. My MIL likes chocolate, but she loves custards, citrus, fruits, and other non-chocolate desserts too. It was a good excuse to make a non-chocolate dessert. Ever since I completed my pastry course this past spring, my MIL has been wanting to bake with me to learn some techniques and a recipe. I chose the Lemon Mousseline Torte because I never actually made it in class (my partner and I made the Zebra Torte for that lesson).

I altered the recipe slightly because we didn’t have time to make the pâte sucrée cookie base. The lemon chiffon cake had a terrifically lemony-tart flavor. I used a 9×2 inch round pan, but one day would like to get my hands on a pair of 9×3 inch rounds because the chiffons rise beautifully in those pans, allowing for more or thicker layers from each cake.

Whoa.

The fooding world and my alma mater have met.

I went to a most excellent tech school for my undergraduate studies. No no no, not that tech school. I went to the other one, the better one *snicker*. *ducking for cover now*

Most people outside of the science and engineering communities are pretty oblivious to that little campus in Pasadena. Even some folks in science and engineering are oblivious to it, thinking I am referring to a vocational school… Despite my love-hate relationship with Caltech, it is a formidable center of world-class research boasting astounding statistics for their student body as well as their faculty. You have to love science to come here. You HAVE to.

One of the reasons I chose to attend Caltech was the unique character of the place and the people (mind you, some of the people are downright strange). There are quirky and fun projects that those beloved geeks find time for in between their loads of homework. That’s why I was delighted to find out about the Caltech Olive Harvest.

Intellectual curiosity is a good thing. Innovation is a good thing.

Have you hugged a geek today?