Mother's Day Monday

I am off today!!! Super excited and exhausted at the same time.

The sister was in town for 12 hours by accident, so we had a big family dinner last night. After I dumped her off at the airport at 6-ish this morning, I decided to whip up a Swedish Visiting Cake.

Momma Sturke just got back from Sweden and mentioned this recipe to me last week. As the story goes, it's called Visiting Cake because if you see friends coming down the road, you can put it together quickly enough to be ready by the time they settle in the coffee's made.

Challenge accepted.

Swedish Visiting Cake

1 stick butter, melted and cooled, plus more for preparing the pan

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

zest from 1 lemon

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a cake pan or cast-iron skillet. Pour sugar into medium bowl. Add lemon zest and massage in with fingers until sugar is moist and aromatic. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Whisk in salt and vanilla and almond extracts. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in flour. Finally, fold in melted butter. Scrape batter into prepared skillet or pan and smooth top with rubber spatula. Scatter sliced almonds over top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist.

YUM. So the truth is, this recipe does take more than ten minutes... but not much more. 

The end result is PHENOM. The cake is moist, dense-ish, and has this amazing thin layer of crisp/crunchiness on top. Fantab. I'm thinking you could just as easily substitute orange zest if you don't have lemons on hand. Also, I added a sprinkling of powdered sugar on top because I personally feel naked cakes (cakes that aren't iced, that is) need a little somethin' somethin.' And usually that somethin' is always more sugar. Duh.

Had an early morning nom on the deck this morning.

The rest of my day is pretty packed. I bought an array of seafood yesterday to put together a fruits de mer platter of sorts for Stella in celebration of Mother's Day.

The only thing I didn't account for is the guilt I would feel every time I opened the fridge last night and this morning when Mr. Lobster would desperately lift up a claw and look at me with his beady little eyes hoping that the refrigerator door would open and someone would save him...

Poor fella. :|

I'm actually not sure I can follow through with this. Then again, where would I release him? The backyard? 

I know what I have to do.