24 Eggs

Yes, two dozen.  That’s how many eggs I separated for Martha’s recipes last month.  The lemon curd and leek, cheese and herb souffle I wrote about previously were the culprits behind 11 of them and between the cake and frosting, Martha's Raspberry White Cake http://www.marthastewart.com/892739/raspberry-white-cake was responsible for a whopping 13!  I almost cried when the May issue arrived in the mail with Meringue Swirls on the cover.  Come on Martha!

The main cause of so much egg separation stemmed from a story in the magazine called "Divide and Conquer" that focused on recipes using either egg whites or the yolks, get it?  Unfortunately, Ali and I divided the recipes based on which ones appealed to each of us, rather than making sure each of us had a good complement of yolk and white recipes.  I ended up with a lot of white recipes and a lot of leftover yolks.

I made the Raspberry White Cake for my friend’s birthday at work.  The cake called for 4 egg whites and the frosting 5, but when the quantity of cake batter looked insufficient to get the three layers needed for the cake, I decided to make a second batch of batter to get one more cake layer (and use four more egg whites.)  I just thought the cake wouldn’t look as pretty with two puny layers and making another batch gave me enough batter for 6 cupcakes to appease my kids who were crushed that I was making a cake they weren’t going to get to try.  I think my son's exact words were, "why can't we just have a piece and you can take the rest to work."

Without the third layer that would have been a lame layer cake.

The cake had no butter or oil in it, just heavy cream, which I had never seen before, but it was really good.  The raspberries bled a bit, but I thought it still looked pretty.  I couldn't take a picture of the inside at work so you'll just have to trust me that it was lovely from the inside. 

The frosting was only ok though.  It was kind of fun to make, and was beautiful looking, fluffy and glossy, but I just don't care for meringue, so I couldn't get past that.  The kids loved it because I was able to pile it on really high on their cupcakes and stick sprinkles on them, but I think the cake would have been better with a cream cheese frosting.  I make a delicious one that would have been awesome with the fruity cake.  I sometimes eat the leftover cream cheese frosting on strawberries (or right out of the bowl.)  My other issue with the meringue frosting is that I wasn’t sure how to handle it after it was on the cake.  It looked pretty the next day when I brought it to work, but when the cake was cut the frosting consistency was more like normal meringue than the thick stuff I spread the night before.  Seems like meringue is an "eat it when you make it" kind of frosting. 



Do you think my kids were happy?

At the end of the day I had a pretty nice cake and a LOT of egg yolks in my fridge.  And the next recipe I was supposed to make called for 6 more whites!  Luckily, I happened to be talking to Ali, who happened to mention that she didn't feel like making the Cinnamon-Honey Creme Brulee http://www.marthastewart.com/892742/cinnamon-honey-creme-brulee she was supposed to make, which happened to call for 9 egg yolks.  Sold!  It took me all of one second to take that recipe off her hands.   Not only did I get to use up a huge portion of my yolk stash, I got a great recipe.  That creme brulee was so good and equally easy (how can you beat 15-minutes prep time for an inspired dessert?).  I highly recommend it and if you do make it, please invite me over.

After all the recipes I still ended up with 5 yolks left in the fridge.  What to do?  More lemon curd of course. 
-Jacqui