Yuzu Cake

Tasty cake using the juice and zest of a unique citrus fruit called a Yuzu. If you can't find Yuzu, you can use a mixture of Meyer and conventional lemons or tangerine and grapefruit or whatever mixture you think my be good.
www.nytimes.com Feb 9, 2011


For the cake:
1¾ cups flour
¼ cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 yuzus, zested and juiced (see note)
1½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
7 eggs, separated
¼ cup olive oil
¾ cup plain yogurt
½ teaspoon cream of tartar.

For the ganache:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup milk
½ cup sugar
½ cup unsweetened, nonalkalized cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt.
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, cornstarch and baking powder at least 5 times. Add yuzu zest, sugar and salt and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, strained yuzu juice (about ½ cup) and olive oil. Add to flour mixture. Using a spatula, add yogurt and stir until smooth. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Quickly and gently fold egg whites into batter until you no longer see streaks of white. Pour into a 9-inch nonstick tube pan with a removable bottom. Bake for 55 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Let cool in pan set on a baking rack for 2 hours.

2. Meanwhile, make the ganache. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add milk, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk until incorporated. Once it reaches a low boil, whisk gently for 1 minute and remove from heat. Let come to room temperature.

3. Twenty minutes before frosting the cake, put the ganache in the refrigerator until firm. Gently remove cake from pan. Pour the ganache over the cake, covering the top and drizzling it over the sides and in the center. Recipe from Caitlin Williams Freeman, the pastry chef of Blue Bottle Coffee.

NOTE: Yuzus are available at Japanese and other specialty markets. You may substitute the zest and juice of 3 Meyer lemons plus the juice of 1 conventional lemon or zest and juice of 2 tangerines plus the juice of ½ grapefruit.