Sometimes fortune smiles at you. I mean my culinary fortune. My daughter went to an event with chef Ottolenghi and got his “Sweet” book. Apparently, the chef takes his publishing endeavors seriously. A little while after, she got another book and a letter stating that the first version had some errors in print (the list of those errors corresponding to pages was attached) and they were apologizing for the inconvenience. Nice work! This, naturally, allowed me to get the first book. This morning I tied it out.

We have a saying in Russian: кто рано встает тому Б-г дает – meaning Gd gives more to the one who rises early. So, extra early I have risen this morning thinking about the dessert I wanted to make for my Shabbat hosts.

You will find the recipe in the book, but I had to manipulate it, of course, partially, because it’s just my nature, but partially because I had to make it parve as the meal will be basari (or fleishig, if you like it better).

So, I used a mix of Earth Balance and coconut oil instead of butter, and I added a bit of my “citrus weapon” . I usually don’t like to use sugary frosting, but his cakes looked so nice that I decided to go with it. I did make it a tiny bit alcoholic – added a couple of drops of banana liquor. Now, of course, I am not Ottolenghi chef, and I live in New York, where the moisture hangs in the air, so I had to spend a half an hour breaking the clumps of  confectioner’s sugar and then food processing it so that it resembled the powder again. Not too close though, sorry. So, my little cakes don’t look as elegant, but I am hoping that we’ll enjoy them nonetheless.

Shabbat Shalom!