It’s been awhile since I was last in California (fifteen years? Maybe?) I was supposed to go last fall but the trip got cancelled at the last minute.
The last time I went was when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I went with my dad to visit his best friend in San Francisco. We went to the Wharf (where we went to the Ghiradelli store—great place for a chocolate obsessed child), and I went down hard with a unexplained fever. I was in second grade and had just found out how dope “Frog and Toad” is/was. So my dad and I read “Frog and Toad” while my uncle gave me a pedicure (he used a 3 inch blade to clean my cuticles—its all true).
Because of how impressionable I was, you may think I would go with a Ghiradelli centered recipe. In fact, I’m going in the complete opposite direction: citrus. PSA never mix chocolate with citrus, if you like that it’s dumb and you can’t come to my party at the lake house.
If there is one thing I have learned about Californians over the many years I’ve spent aggressively watching House Hunters like it’s my damn job, its that they love lemon trees and adore avocado trees. Plus everyone knows that California is known for fad diets like paleo, gluten free (when people don’t even have a gluten allergy…) vegan, caveman, etc. So making a recipe with some healthy compromises made a lot of sense. Especially since I’ve made a few avocado desserts and they were A+ status.
That is why I’m making a lemon-avocado cake. It’s a cake that uses avocado instead of butter, (you follow me?) with a lemon glaze on top. There is a good chance I’ll add the tiniest bit of lemon extract just because I want it to be extra lemon-y not because there’s anything to cover up. Avocado offers no taste, so don’t be afraid of this slightly green lemon cake! I adapted the cake from Naïve Cook Cooks . I added some vanilla and lemon extract to the cake because it was fairly bland. You may consider adding a little more vanilla, to taste. This could increase the bake time, as it did in my case!
The lemon glaze is from Martha Stewart.
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon extract
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup ripe avocado (I used 1 ½ large avocados)
2 cups flour (sifted)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
Ingredients for the glaze:
2 cups of powdered sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons of lemon juice
- Preheat oven to 335 degrees.
- Prepare a loaf pan with cooking spray so the cake doesn’t stick.
- In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and eggs. Mix for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile prepare the avocadoes. Get together one cup worth of avocado and mash it up and stir until as smooth as possible, try to get rid of all lumps by mixing.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
- Add the avocado to the sugar and egg mixture. Mix until smooth.
- Add vanilla and lemon extract and the salt, to the avocado mixture.
- Slowly add the flour mixture mixing in between.
- Pour the now fully combined mixture into the loaf pan.
- Bake for around 55 minutes to an hour. Please be aware that the original recipe called for a bake time of 40-45 minutes, with my adjustments, it required a longer bake time.
- Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow cake to completely cool.
- The Glaze: in a clean mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice.
- With the cake now completely cool, its time to apply to glaze. You have two options:
*Pour the glaze directly over the top of the cake so it’s nicely covered
Or
*Use a wooden skewer to poke holes all over the top (Yes, a Poke Cake!), then pour the glaze over the top so that it fills the holes. This is a good option to make sure each bit includes a little bit of icing.
- Allow glaze to harden over the top for best results, at least two hours (refrigeration could speed this up.)
Embellished Whimsy 