Ciao from Debbie!

One of my favorite things to do is to pass on my love of cooking to younger women. Courtney, a young American wife and mother who has lived in Avigliana for 3 years, has been an eager learner--and that makes Matt happy! She and I got together one day to make Lemon Mousse Cake from my new book, Around Our Table.

We assembled the ingredients...

...and read through the recipe. This lucious, light dessert might seem indimidating if you've never made a cake roll before...which is why we're going to show you the steps. You'll find the complete recipe here, or on page 95 of Around Our Table.

We started by making the Creamy Lemon Filling: Courtney grated the zest off of the lemon--be sure to only grate off the yellow part, none of the white part, which is bitter. If you don't have a zester, use the very fine grater side of a hand-grater. Two teaspoons is all it takes to give it a burst of lemon flavor.

I squeezed out 1/3 C. fresh lemon juice...you can use the stuff in the bottle if you want. Lemons are much less expensive here in Italy than in North America, though the cheapest ones I found are imported from Argentina. How is that possible?

The zest and juice are combined with a can of sweetened condensed milk and 4-5 drops of yellow food coloring--so it comes out nice and yellow and everyone knows it's a lemon dessert.  We chilled this mixture for 30 minutes while we made the cake.

We also whipped the chilled heavy cream (no Cool Whip over here in Europe, folks!) and put that in the fridge...After the cake cools, we'll fold these two mixtures together for the filling and frosting. Now, let's make the cake.

The first step is to prepare the pan. We greased a cookie sheet with edges...then lined it with parchment paper. You can also use waxed paper. It's possible to make this cake without parchment or waxed paper...but you'll have less worries if you do. Even a well-greased pan can stick occasionally...and then, what a mess.

Courtney separated our eggs...

...we beat the egg whites until foamy... and gradually added 1/2 C. sugar. We then beat them some more until they were stiff by not dry. Do you see the nice little peak when we lifted out the beaters? Once you have a nice stiff peak, stop beating them because if they get too dry, it's hard to fold in the egg yolk mixture. Use a very clean bowl to beat the egg whites; any grease or oil--or even alittle bit of yolk--in the bowl will keep them from beating up into these nice, stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, we beat the egg yolks until lighter in color--about 3-5 minutes,

then gradually added 1/4 C. sugar and 2 tsp. of lemon juice...

...and some vegetable oil.

We folded the yolk mixture into the beaten egg whites. It's important here to use a gentle motion to fold in--don't beat the mixture! Instead, use a large spoon or spatula to lift from the bottom, up and over the top.

We then combined the dry ingredients and folded those in as well, using the same gentle folding motion.

This delightful mixture was plopped (is there a better word?) onto the prepared pan...

...and smoothed out into the corners before baking for only 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

While the cake baked, we spinkled powdered sugar generously onto a kitchen towel...

...so that as soon as it was done and we loosened the edges...

...we could dump the cake out onto the towel...

...peel off the parchment paper...

...and roll it up with the towel. Then we set it aside to cool on a wire rack.

When it was cool, we gently unrolled the cake and spread half of the Creamy Lemon Filling on it.  (Remember those two mixtures we put in the fridge a while ago? We folded them together to make this creamy filling/frosting.)

We re-rolled the cake, this time without the towel, of course, and set it on a serving platter.

We used the remaining Creamy Lemon Filling to frost the cake roll. I thought the filling/frosting came out a bit runnier than in the past...but it worked. So don't be unduly frightened if it seems thin. If you use Cool Whip, the consistency may be a bit more consistent than using heavy cream, which I find is often a softer mixture.  The cake should be chilled for at least two hours. I have found it keeps really well in the fridge for even several days,though it's a bit of a challenge covering it. I've had success putting toothpicks into the cake and then covering it loosely with foil or plastic wrap.

And here, Friends, is the finished product! Matt and Courtney, along with their 2 darling children, came over for supper the night that we made the cake...

...to enjoy a meal together and a slice of the Lemon Mousse Cake.

Matt wanted seconds...yum!  It was so light and delicious!

Thanks, Courtney, for helping me! I've loved watching you develop your cooking skills during this year!  

Courtney and Matt are moving back to Indiana this week...we're going to miss them so much! They have attended the International Church of Torino with us and our prayers go with them as they move back "home".

Ciao!

Debbie