6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. flour, sifted
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons clarified butter
Butter the baking pan and lightly dust with flour the bottom of
the pan only. Warm the unbroken eggs in warm water. Sift the flour.
Preheat a 3- to 4- quart bowl with boiling water; dry it. Break the
eggs into the bowl and place it on a protective pad over a stove burner
on medium low heat; use a metal protector for an electric stove,
asbestos or metal for a gas stove. Start beating the eggs immediately
with the electric mixer. Add sugar little by little in a regular
stream. Add the salt.
Within seconds the batter will swell
considerably. Continue beating until a light ribbon forms and the
mixture feels frankly "warm" to the finger; the eggs start poaching and
the sugar forms a syrup, trapping the already dilating air in the foam.
Remove the bowl from the heat, add the flavoring, and continue beating
until cold; a twisting ribbon will fall from the beaters. Do not let
the batter reach the soft-peak stage or the cake will look and taste
cotton-like.
Return the already sifted flour to the sifter. Sift one third
of its total volume on top of the egg foam. Fold the flour into it,
using a large rubber spatula or your right hand with the fingers
extended. Repeat the same operation with the other two thirds of the
flour. Do not add the flour in more than three additions or the cake
will be overfolded.
Gently pour half of the butter on top of the batter. Try to
catch it with your spatula before it has time to fall to the bottom of
the bowl. Fold only until the butter is incorporated; repeat with the
remainder of the butter.
Holding the bowl very low over the prepared cake pan, pour the
batter into it very slowly. Bake the cake on the lowest rack of a
reheated 350F. degree oven. The air dilation and steam pressure will
continue regularly and evenly. Test doneness as you would any other
cake. Do not let the cake shrink too much from the pan sides. Invert on
a cake rack as soon as removed from the oven.
Baking time: 40 minutes
Recipe from: THE MAKING OF A COOK by Madeleine Kamman, Copyright 1971, First Edition
(BA)