Strawberry Cream Cake

We had a shock of summer - three days of 90 degree weather - but this morning's rain brought back chilly, rainy 55 degree weather. So while I dig out my warm sweater and snuggle under a blanket to read today's Washington Post Food section, I'm still dreaming about warm, sunny weather.



And nothing feels more like summer to me than strawberry shortcake. If strawberry shortcake is a cotton sundress, this strawberry cream cake is a Ralph Lauren linen dress -- a little more grown up and refined.

Modified from a Cook's Illustrated recipe, this uses a chiffon cake as the base. Heavy whipping cream is enhanced and thickened with cream cheese, allowing it to hold up the cake layers and strawberry filling without sliding out. The strawberry filling is a mixture of fresh halved strawberries - these form a rim around the perimeter of each layer, the middle of which is slathered with smaller pieces of macerated strawberries. For extra flavor, the juice of the macerated berries can be reduced and flavored with a liqueur. I liked the addition of Grand Marnier, but I'm sure Kirsch or even Creme de Cassis would work well too.

Happy Easter, thanks to Cooks Illustrated

I put the question to the Twitterverse - or at least to those 200 or so folks who are supposed to be reading my Tweets on Twitter: thyme honey glazed ham or herb roasted leg of lamb? Showing how immensely influential I am (inside joke), I got a total of 2 responses (interestingly from Jewish friends). One for ham and one for lamb.

In the end, the reluctant grownup got his way: lamb. And I made a mental note to start a family tradition of having ham for New Year's and lamb for Easter. I like the idea of being able to start a family tradition. Like if I decided every April 13th we would dress in cheap jogging suits, eat at Olive Garden and come home to watch Caddyshack - it would be our tradition.

(image courtesy of cooksillustrated.com)

For the time being, I think lamb may have to become a permanent family tradition. At least this recipe from my new favorite cooking obsession, Cooks Illustrated. (You will need to register to view the actual recipe, or you can come over and flip through my copy of the magazine.)

It was labor intensive: 45 minutes of fat trimming, 2 hours of brining and garlic roasting, lots of tying with kitchen twine, overnight in the fridge moisturizing under a thick slather of roasted garlic and herbs, searing in a pan and then finally into the oven for a good roast.

I would post an image of my creation, which was complete with roasted potatoes and buttery green beans, but someone left our camera-to-laptop cable at their office.