For My Lady's Heart Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

Laura Kinsale never disappoints me. In For My Lady's Heart, she has written a masterpiece, not just of romance, but of universal literary merit. It's one of the most subversive works of literature I've read. Well, listened to actually. My husband and I got the audio book and played it in the car on road trips for about six months. And since I'm going to spend the rest of this review talking about myths and cake, let me just say that Nicholas Boulton's narration of this book is outstanding. Well worth acquiring, even if you've already read it. What Kinsale subverts in this book though isn't just narrative structure or genre conventions. No, she's got a much bigger target: the archetypal heroic story arc that underpins much of humanity's storytelling.

For My Lady's Heart's romantic arc begins with the hero and heroine's meet-cute across a crowded room full of priests and petitioners. The hero is instantly attracted to the beautiful, sophisticated heroine, who promptly laughs at him, then saves his ass when he gets in over his head. He pledges his life and sword to her and they go their separate ways, she with her court, he to earn his name and seek his fortune. We rejoin the couple years later when Melanthe is now the widow of a powerful Italian noble, has promised to wed yet another Italian noble, and is journeying home to England to solidify her claim to some land that her soon-to-be-betrothed wants to get his dastardly hands on. Another chance meeting brings Ruck back into her life, this time for good, and he serves as her bodyguard on the trip back north. Nothing goes as planned of course, their pasts catch up with both of them and they have to learn to either stay apart forever or work together.

For My Lady's Heart is anything but straightforward, however. Right away, both my husband and I keyed in on the fact that Ruck calls himself "The Green Knight" in lieu of a name for much of the story. Even before Kinsale hopped into a conversation I was having with Lisa Hendrix on Twitter to say that she'd been inspired by Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the parallels were obvious. If you're not familiar though, basically, we're talking King Arthur here, which clued us into the idea that the book would follow Ruck, his mysterious identity and daring exploits. There's a whole tradition of this kind of literary behavior going back to the beginning of written story-telling. It's the "hero's journey" Joseph Campbell talks about in The Hero With A Thousand Faces: the man leaves home to seek adventure, experiences trials, hits rock bottom, transforms, rights his wrongs, reconciles with his father and emerges triumphant, returning home a hero. That's Ruck's story completely. It's also Luke Skywalker's. And Thor's in the Marvel movie. If you ever studied The Odyssey or Gilgamesh in school, you probably learned about this concept. There's a reason it's considered archetypal.

What's fascinating to me about veering off from something like the hero's journey in a romance novel though, a genre written primarily for, by, and about women, is that those stories are all about the dudes. They're the heroes. The protectors. Large and in charge, even when being buffeted by life. The women are mainly witches, connivers and adulteresses; goddesses and temptresses; Madonnas and whores. They're dramatic foils; obstacles that get in the way of the heroes' honorable impulses.

But what about the "heroine's journey"; a woman's archetypal/literary/epic/mythological path? I'm not sure there is one, at least not one that doesn't focus exclusively on fertility. It's not like most Medieval men ran off and became knights. Or that Grecian peasants were out sailing the Mediterranean for a decade or two. For high school literature students, Elizabeth Bennett might have been the first female main character encountered who was written by a woman. Before that it's all Penelope, Hester Prynne and Lady Macbeth. At least, it was at my school. And while I will never say anything negative about Austen because of course I adore her books, her world was small. The heroes in epics and myths, their worlds are not small. Melanthe's world is not small. Melanthe plays on the highest levels of the Medieval international political stage. She's skilled at diplomacy and deception, but limited in power by her gender and hampered rather than helped by her beauty, which would be the more typical role of feminine beauty in an historical romance. And most people in the story believe that she is a witch who took lovers and murdered her husband.

Outside of the maiden, the mother or the crone, there's no script for Melanthe to follow. Even though she does rather torture Ruck in his celibacy, she for sure doesn't follow the archetypal path of mythological women. She's not a goddess or a witch or a whore or a virtuous woman who stays home and waits for her husband to return triumphant. And, well, maybe that's the point. Despite what everyone would want to believe of Melanthe, how they perceive her, how they would use her or how they would change her (Ruck included), she resists. She remains her own paranoid, difficult, irascible self, refusing all aid and comfort, solving her own problems and shaping her world to suit herself. She proves not to be a witch on their trip through the marsh, not a whore in her sexual inexperience, not a mother or wife when they marry and arrive at Wolfscar, Ruck's castle, midway through the book.

Contrasted with the set path Ruck is allowed to tread, one worn into the literary bedrock over the course of centuries, Melanthe's is one of her own invention. She almost never does what either Ruck or the reader expect. Her values include her freedom, her life and perhaps the well-being of her beloved pet falcon. And whatever she has to be or do in order to preserve those things are what she does. She's rather infinitely adaptable actually, not particularly constrained by social mores, the Church or an inconveniently well-born husband despite being hyper-aware of those restrictions. Ruck is far below her in social standing and can't match her wits, except on rare occasions (and we do root for him when he stands up to her because he's so utterly outmatched most of the time). She makes her own way right to the very end. And speaking of the end, it's no one's triumph. It's an accident that delivers our heroine. Or an act of God.

For My Lady's Heart contains all this and yet, it still functions as a road trip romance. As Melanthe and Ruck journey together, sometimes together, sometimes apart, sometimes in harmony and sometimes (okay, mostly) not, their attraction to one another becomes obvious to both of them. However, Melanthe for fear of her political enemies and Ruck out of fear for his immortal soul, must resist the temptation they represent to each other. All that thwarted desire is awfully hot. We also get Kinsale's humor in hunting herons, slaying dragons, and jokes about sex and confession. The scene where Ruck and Melanthe consummate their unusual marriage and Ruck turns out to be rather a savant of sex as a result of his many, many forays into the confessional is one of the funniest things I've ever read. I went back and read the scene in the book to be sure that it wasn't only Boulton's impeccable comedic timing and it wasn't. Still funny.

I grabbed a used copy of For My Lady's Heart just so I could put it on my Very Favorite Book Ever shelf next to Flowers From the Storm and Prince of Midnight. It's just...everything.

C'est n'est pas Wolfscar.

In my head, this post was going to utilize this pan. Perhaps with a great deal of green food coloring. And probably some Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Why? Well, how often do you get to use a bundt pan in the shape of a castle? And there are, like, four castles in this book. I mean, really.

But then I realized that there actually is food in For My Lady's Heart. In fact, there's kind of a whole thing about oranges and almonds. Melanthe's decision to share her treats with Ruck represents a shift for her in terms of both how she thinks of him and how she thinks of herself. For the first time, she's laid bare. And he's not sure what to make of that at all.

As for this cake, it's a little bit fussy, but if you follow the instructions exactly, it should work out fine. The first time I tried making the original recipe for a friend who's dairy free, I was too fast and loose with the process and it didn't rise properly. I don't specifically recall what I did, but I'm guessing I probably oiled the sides of the pan. Don't do that. This is sort of a chiffon-type cake and it needs to be able to cling to the sides to rise.

So anyway, when I modified the recipe for this post, I was extra special careful and it turned out fine. I'd say...er...don't fiddle with this one. If you don't have the precise right ingredients (blood oranges are rapidly going out of season and dried orange peel may require a trip to a specialty spice shop) and tools (you'll need a 9-inch spring form pan and parchment paper), make something else or go shopping first. Cool? Cool.

For more photos of this cake, visit Cooking Up Romance on Facebook. I often stash extra photos there so you can see what each step of the process is supposed to look like.


Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake
adapted from epicurious
Makes: 12 servings
Time: 2 1/2 hours (hands-on: 45 minutes)
Difficulty: Advanced

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for pan
2 blood oranges, zested (1 1/2 tablespoons zest)
2 tablespoons blood orange juice
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon dried orange peel
5 egg yolks, 4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan. Place a piece of parchment in the bottom and close the pan. Oil the parchment only (not the sides).

2. In a food processor, pulse together the blood orange zest, cake flour and dried orange peel until combined.

3. In a large bowl, beat together egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale (about 3 minutes). Add 3/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of blood orange juice. Mix until combined. Stir in the flour mixture (by hand--do not use mixer).

4. Wash the electric mixer beaters thoroughly. In another large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/4 cup of sugar a little at a time until sugar is incorporated and egg whites form soft peaks.

5. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk and flour mixture to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites carefully, but thoroughly.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and gently tap to release air bubbles. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake until puffed and golden, 35-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the cake and remove the side of pan. Cool cake to room temperature, about 1 1/4 hours. Remove the bottom of the pan, peel off parchment and serve.

Disclosure: Laura Kinsale and I follow each other on Twitter and engage in occasional conversation.

Beyond Possession Whiskey-Pecan Cake

Beyond Possession is the latest novella in Kit Rocha's apocalyptic, dystopian erotic romance series about the bootlegging O'Kane gang. If you haven't read any of the series, I can't recommend that you start with this one, although I'd argue that it's the easiest book thus far in a series that pushes boundaries in nearly every direction. I wrote about that a bit last week. While each book features a complete romantic arc for a couple (or triad in the case of one of the earlier novels), the overarching political scene in the Sectors surrounding complacent, hypocritical Eden has become my favorite aspect of the series.

In Beyond Possession, novella #5.5, we get a more complete picture of the marketplace in Sector 4, home of the O'Kanes and the district where illegal spirits are distilled and bottled for the rest of the region. Throughout the series, Dallas O'Kane and his queen, Lex, have been slowly consolidating power and growing their influence. But now some problems have come home to roost: a challenger to Dallas' authority in the form of a political rival for the control of Sector 4; and the daughters of the former leader of the Sector, one of whom is heroine Tatiana Stone, who makes high-end soap and other homemade personal care products in the marketplace.

Hero Zan is the usual bouncer for the Broken Circle, the bar and club run by the O'Kanes. We get to know Zan better when he is injured attempting to stop the kidnapping of Trix, the heroine of a previous novel. Unlike some of the other O'Kane heroes, Zan is not a complex guy. He likes his job, he likes his position, he's loyal and strong. He considers himself "a good solider". He's never asked for anything for himself before, but after a couple of years of running Dallas' errands around the marketplace, the one thing he wants when he gets back to full health is Tatiana Stone.

But Dallas, Dallas' political rival and Tatiana's sister would all love to use Tatiana as a pawn in their political games. Tatiana just wants to be left alone to make her soap, grow her business and hopefully get her sister out of the clutches of a guy she thinks is bad news. If she can also have Zan to fool around with, that might be nice, but having ready access to a guy is nowhere near priority one for Tatiana.

Beyond Possession is unique in the Beyond series for several reasons. First, Zan isn't really a gang insider. He lacks the Machiavellian instinct to play at Dallas' level. He's also a pretty private guy, preferring to do his job and relax with a couple cold ones and a single woman than take part in the O'Kane's orgiastic parties. Then there's Tatiana. She has trust issues like most of the Beyond heroines, but as they say, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. And she's fought tooth and nail her whole life not get pulled into power struggles. The way this one ends is interesting too, with the women taking the lead role in a violent mission and Zan and Tatiana finding a way to be together without jeopardizing Tatiana's independence.

All I can say is that if this is the way the series keeps going, I'm going to be very sad when it ends after the next couple of books. Beyond Possession maintains the same gritty feel as the previous novels, but relaxes the sexual intensity a bit and provides more context for the way forward. The novellas have been a must-not-miss and Beyond Possession is no exception.

The one minor issue with these books is that no one eats. Ever. Novella characters Ford and Mia have tacos, I think. And at one point a pissed off woman serves Dallas a burnt grilled cheese sandwich (he deserves it). But what the O'Kanes do have is whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey. So this cake containing a full cup of the stuff would present no difficulties.

I came to think of this cake as "fruitcake light" in every way. First of all, it has all the lovely deliciousness of cake soaked in alcohol. Second, it has yummy nuts without all the gross candied fruit. Third, it takes three days to cure in whiskey-wrapped cloth rather than three weeks or three months of daily or weekly basting with alcohol. So even though three days might seem like a long time for a cake, it's a lot less effort and a lot better tasting than a standard fruitcake.

The other nice thing about a dessert like this, especially going into the holidays, is that the three-day lead time means you can get this baked and put away long before guests darken your door. In the chaos of the holiday season, I always figure anything I can make ahead is a win.

Finally, there is absolutely nothing tricky about this recipe. No complex techniques, no expensive ingredients, no weird equipment. Just a bundt cake pan, a large, clean dish towel and some aluminum foil.

Serve with lightly sweetened homemade whipped cream and you've got a boozy special occasion cake that won't take hours and hours out of your busy present-buying, family-visiting schedule. Or if you're an O'Kane, your busy tattoo-getting, rival-smashing schedule. You know, however you like to spend your holiday seasons.

Whiskey-Pecan Cake
Recipe lightly adapted from Whiskey in the Kitchen (out of print)
Makes: 16 servings
Time: 3 days, hands on: 40 minutes

2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 cup whiskey, divided
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
8 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar
whipped cream (optional for serving)

1. Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. Shakes out excess flour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine pecans and 1/2 cups whiskey in a small bowl. Let stand.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices into a medium bowl.

4. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs and mix very well until mixture is thick and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and mix.

5. Remove from mixer and fold in pecan-whiskey mixture.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula.

7. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Turn out onto cooling rack and cool completely.

8. Soak a cloth in remaining 1/2 cup of whiskey. Wrap cake completely in this cloth and then in foil. Let stand in refrigerator for at least three days before using.

9. To serve, allow cake to come to room temperature for about 3 hours. Dust cake with powdered sugar. Cut approximately inch-thick slices and serve with whipped cream if desired.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Beyond Possession from the author for review purposes.

Queer Romance Month Rainbow Cake

Thanks to a new reader, I found out that October is Queer Romance Month. The kick-off was yesterday so you can go over to Joyfully Jay and read all about why queer romance is better than cats. Yes, those cats. The furry kind. It's very funny.

As a very new reader of queer romance myself, I don't have a ton of impressive insights and recommendations like the folks writing over at the Queer Romance Month blog do. But yesterday I saw KJ Charles post some chocolate chip cookies that spell out QRM on Twitter. So then I was like, oh we BAKE for QRM? Well, that I can do!

As it turns out, Queer Romance Month is a pretty good excuse for cake. It's a celebration of queer-identified authors and queer-writing and queer-supporting folks. Celebrations require cake. As Julia Child said, "A party without cake is really just a meeting." No one likes meetings, but everyone likes cake.

I'd been wanting to try making one of these rainbow cakes forever, but I'd never had an appropriate occasion. It's actually pretty easy. I started with this white cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen (remember the rule folks: if you're going to screw around with a recipe, make sure you start with a good one). The reason was that it makes exactly 9 cups of batter so I was able to make 6 equal layers using 1 1/2 cups of batter for each cake pan.

Then I added food coloring to each portion of batter to turn them all the colors of the rainbow. I felt like a mad scientist (complete with Coke bottle glasses and lab coat--okay, not really) as I mixed colors to get just the right shades. For the record, I use Americolor gel paste food coloring from the baking supply store (or online). They have dozens of colors and they're more concentrated than the ones you buy in the grocery store. I was just too lazy to drive all the way to the baking store to buy orange and purple.

The layers only take about 15 minutes to bake since they're so thin, but I did have to bake them in two batches because I only have 3 cake pans. Then I made a metric ton of Swiss Meringue Buttercream and frosted it all up. Voila! Queer Romance Month Rainbow Cake!

Now for the really important stuff. The first few posts up on the QRM site are excellent: intelligent, informative, entertaining. I'm sure the rest of the month will follow suit since the line-up looks stellar. I'd highly recommend subscribing, even if you think you might not have any interest in queer romance. If you'd asked me before a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have been quite so excited about this. I didn't know any better. I thought heterosexual romance was for heterosexual people and queer romance was for queer people. But I feel pretty stupid about that now. Since I read Glitterland (my review is here), I've read a steampunk and an historical short story and they've all been terrific reads. So don't be like me. Don't wait until someone literally puts a book in your hands to try out some of these great recommendations. Really, if you're not reading queer romance in whatever subgenre you like best, you're missing out on a lot of wonderful love stories.

Plus, we have cake.

The Chocolate Kiss Gâteau Lion d'Or

Laura Florand is one of those exceedingly reliable authors who always manages to write a book that I know I will adore. I've only read three of hers thus far (I'm rationing them), but each one has been utterly charming and full of amazing culinary inspiration.

The Chocolate Kiss is no exception. It takes place in the Paris of The Chocolate Thief and we get a few glimpses of the happy couple, Sylvain and Cade, in this book. However, The Chocolate Kiss brings us out to the Île Saint-Louis, a small neighborhood of Paris. Magalie Chaudron (aka my book BFF) lives and works there in her aunts' tea-shop: La Maison des Sorcières. After a childhood spent being shipped between her mother in Provence and her father in upstate New York, Magalie has never felt at home anywhere. But she thinks that she just might learn to belong here, until the entire existence of La Maison des Sorcières is threatened by the prospect of the hottest pastry chef in Paris opening a new shop on the Île Saint-Louis.

Philippe Lyonnais is Paris royalty. Not only does he come from a generations-long line of exceptional pastry chefs, he is charming, gorgeous and in every way larger than life. He is so far above mere mortals that when Magalie demands that he steer clear of the Île Saint-Louis for his new shop, he tells her that he doesn't consider La Maison des Sorcières competition. This enrages Magalie and kicks off a battle of business, wit and temptation-by-treat that slowly ratchets up the tension in this story, both sexual and otherwise.

Every time Magalie and Philippe appear on page together, I found myself holding my breath. Their banter is top-notch as they trade insults designed to wound. This is particularly tough on Philippe, who realizes much earlier than Magalie that the friction in their relationship isn't just one of business rivals. But his pride and her defensiveness keep getting in the way. And the way they treat each other's baked goods! I swear, I was more relieved when Magalie tried one of Philippe's macarons than I was when they finally tumbled into bed.

The secondary characters of Aunt Geneviève and Aunt Aja, as well as Philippe's employees and the customers of the tea-shop are also exceedingly well-drawn. They form the basis for the little community surrounding the two lovers, providing outlets for their talents, encouragement when they're acting particularly pig-headed or despondent and giving this magical book its sense of place.

I adored The Chocolate Kiss. Magalie is my favorite heroine ever and Philippe is beyond dreamy. The heat the two of them generate together and the cast of colorful supporting characters will keep me returning to this book year after year. If you haven't read it, or anything else by Florand for that matter, run off to wherever you get your books and rectify that immediately.

Let's start with the important stuff. I totally made up the name of this cake so don't bother Googling it. It doesn't exist. Yet. Except when I'm a world-famous Parisian pastry chef I will *make* it famous.


That's a joke. I'm not that ambitious.

Actually, what happened is that I went to type "Lemon Almond Cake with Lavender Pastry Cream Filling and Honey Swiss Meringue Buttercream" into the title line and it looked a little long. So I made up the name and asked Kay (aka Miss Bates) of Miss Bates Reads Romance to help me translate it into French. When you read the book, you'll get the reference. Any errors in French are, of course, mine.

I wouldn't exactly call this cake a beginner project, mainly as a result of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream (henceforth SMB) frosting. Maybe an intermediate project? It took me two or three tries to get SMB right back in the day (I'm a self-taught baker). Finally I stumbled upon this tutorial, which shows the two main things that can go wrong with SMB, namely the "curdled" stage and the "too liquidy" stage. My problem had always been the curdled stage, which resembles cottage cheese. I assumed I had done something wrong when it hit that point. As it turns out, it's totally normal. Just keep whipping.

Then you have to frost a three-layer cake. My biggest tip? Lots of refrigerator time. Refrigerate the cake layers before you cut the domes off, refrigerate the layers once they get their custard dam (you'll see), refrigerate after the crumb coat and refrigerate after the final frosting layer. It's time-consuming but worth it because the layers won't slide all over in the refrigerator and the pastry cream won't squeeze out the sides when you cut it.

Oh, and you'll notice the absence of chocolate in this cake. The macaron that Philippe makes for Magalie has lavender, honey and chocolate. I'm not the genius baker Philippe is and I couldn't figure out a way to keep the chocolate from overpowering the subtle lavender and honey flavors in a cake so I gave up and used lemon. Call it artistic license.

Lavender Pastry Cream
adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
2 cups half & half
1 tablespoon culinary lavender + extra for top of cake (optional)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons white sugar, divided
pinch salt
5 egg yolks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled

1. In a medium saucepan, over low heat, heat the half & half, 6 tablespoons of the sugar, lavender, vanilla scrapings, vanilla pod, and salt and allow the lavender to infuse for 30 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

2. As the half & half mixture begins to simmer, in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs yolks, cornstarch and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar together until smooth.

3. Strain the half & half mixture through a fine sieve into a heat-proof measuring cup, removing the lavender and vanilla pod. Slowly whisk about 1 cup of the simmering half & half mixture into the the yolks to temper. Then slowly whisk the tempered yolks back into the simmering half & half mixture and reduce heat to medium. Whisking constantly, return the mixture to a simmer and cook until thickened and a few bubbles burst on the surface, about 30 seconds. Off the heat, whisk in the butter. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap flush to the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.

Cake
adapted from Taste of Home
3 cups sugar, divided
3/4 cup slivered almonds or 3 ounces almond flour
3/4 cup lemon olive oil
1 stick unsalted butter, softened + more for pans
6 eggs
zest of 2 Meyer lemons
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces sour cream
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons half & half
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour 3 8" cake pans lined with parchment rounds. Place 3/4 cup sugar and almonds or almond flour in a food processor and process until finely ground.

2. In a stand mixer, cream olive oil, butter and remaining 2 1/4 cups sugar; beat in almond mixture until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

3. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and half & half. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Alternately add sour cream mixture and flour mixture to butter mixture, beating well after each addition.

4. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

The "curdled stage". Don't worry. Just keep whipping

See? All better.

Honey Swiss Meringue Buttercream
adapted from Sweet Hearth Bakery Blog
8 egg whites
1 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoon white sugar
6 1/2 unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2" slices
7/8 cup honey (I used a 1/2 cup and a 1/3 cup of alfalfa honey)

1. In a saucepan or double boiler, heat 1" of water over medium heat. In a metal mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine egg white and sugar with a whisk. Make sure the top of the water doesn't touch the bottom of your pan. Whisking constantly, heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and eggs are quite hot. With experience, you'll be able to smell when it's ready, but if this is your first time, use a candy thermometer and remove from heat when it hits 160 degrees.

2. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, whip egg white mixture on high for 10-15 until firm peaks form. By this time, the eggs whites should have returned to room temperature. If not, keep whipping on medium until they are at room temperature.

3. Add butter slices one at a time, whipping at medium speed until fully incorporated. There may be a stage midway through adding the butter when the entire mess looks curdled and inedible. If that happens, just keep whipping. It really will come back together. When all butter slices have been added, add the honey, turn up speed to high and whip for 3-5 minutes. If the mixture is liquidy at this point, refrigerate until it firms up and rewhip before using.

Cake Assembly

1. Once cooled, refrigerate tightly wrapped cake layers for 30 minutes. Remove from fridge and slice off the domes, reserving for cake pops, rum balls or hungry husbands who just got off airplanes.

2. On your decorating stand or cake plate, place a small dollop of frosting on the plate to keep the first layer  from sliding around while you decorate. Place the first layer on the plate. On another plate without frosting, place the second layer.

3. Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2" piping tip, pipe around the cake, getting as close to the edge as you can. Repeat with the second layer. Refrigerate both layers for 15-20 minutes or until frosting is firm to the touch.

4. Place a generous 1/2 cup of pastry cream on the first layer (the one on your cake plate). Using a spoon or the bottom of your measuring cup, even it out over the surface of the cake. Place the second layer on top of the first layer and repeat with another generous 1/2 cup of pastry cream. You may have a tiny bit left over, but resist the urge to overfill the cake--definitely don't exceed the capacity of your custard dam. Place the third layer on top of the second layer.

5. Using approximately 1 cup of frosting, coat the cake with a very thin layer of frosting, filling in the sides where there are gaps and creating an overall smooth base for the final frosting layer. If you wipe off excess frosting, do not return it to the original frosting bowl to avoid getting crumbs in your final coat. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

6. Using most of the remaining frosting and a 10" offset metal spatula, complete your final frosting layer. You may not use all the frosting. Keep remainder in an airtight container for up to one week and use to fill macarons.

7. If desired, sprinkle extra lavender in a circle on the top of the cake for decoration.

* For the record, I had to make two batches of frosting, which is why my cake is a little discolored-looking. I fixed this in the final recipe so your frostings will be the same color throughout. Just an interesting lesson in how different butter colorings can be.

Now that I've done it successfully a bunch of times, it's pretty easy, but I was so frustrated with Swiss Meringue Buttercream at first. Like Magalie trying to make macarons. You'll also notice here that I didn't attempt macarons. So have you made Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting? Or perfect macarons?