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.

brushing the first layer with limoncello simple syrup

**Jump for more butter**

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?

I’ve been cooking a lot, but not able to shoot much since my in-laws are visiting and we are entertaining them for the weekend. However, tonight as I was waiting for the dog to do her business out in the yard, I noticed the skies overhead had cleared. It’s nice, the night sky. It’s especially brilliant up in the mountains because the Milky Way practically jumps out at you and we have almost no light pollution to speak of. I look skyward a lot. I’ve loved astronomy since my childhood – it’s why I studied science. It might be why I married an astrophysicist. No, I married him because it reduced our car insurance (and because he makes my heart go pitter patter).

Kaweah was taking her time looking for the Perfect Place to Poop. I knew Comet Holmes was somewhere in the north, but not sure where exactly. Jeremy poked his head out the front door and asked what was taking the dog so long. Who knew, but I told him I was looking for the comet. He went back inside and returned a second later with the binoculars. He looked around Cassiopeia, but couldn’t find anything and handed me the binocs. I pointed in the general direction and just tried to get them focused. The object I pointed at was totally blurry, so I focused and nothing happened. I noticed the other objects nearby were nice pinpoints of light, but this thing… it was Comet Holmes.

Dog was now just screwing around in the dark, sniffing things and exploring. I ran in to fetch camera equipment and ran back out into the blackness to set up. I was shivering – it was maybe 20 degrees. But I got it – right in Perseus.

holmes-boy will be around for a while

The first exposure was too long and the stars were dragging. My second exposure was the best I could do to reduce drag, but still expose for the comet. It is HUGE. There’s no tail because the comet is coming toward us. Right now it is in the neighborhood of Jupiter. It has increased in brightness by more than 6 orders of magnitude over the past week. You can see it with the naked eye, but it looks like another star – a bright one.

Anyway, that’s a nibble on science for you. Stay tuned, Comet Holmes should be getting bigger and brighter. Step outside and have a look for yourself.

Science!!!