TFF - Baked Lime Pudding Cake...with a twist

It is HOT. Damned hot. Flipping through Tyler's Stirring the Pot, I see this recipe described as "This dessert is just light enough not to slow you down, and the lime is a really refreshing way to wrap up your meal."

Light......Refreshing.....hmmmm.....sounds like a great recipe for a hot day. And, cake is for celebrations, right? Well, we're celebrating! Our house is finally DONE. D. O. N. E.....done! And, now that we have a new deck to relax on, I didn't mind running the oven for an hour to bake these, either! And hey, if I'm going to cook, it might as well go in the roundup over at Tyler Florence Fridays, so what the heck!

Now, I do love me some lime, but since this was a rather spur of the moment dish, I had to improvise a bit. What citrus do I have in the house? Lemons.....yes, that would work, but then how will I make my yogurt cheese this weekend without making a run to the store? No. Orange? Possibly, but I wasn't sure if the orange would be acidic enough. Ah-HA! Red grapefruit! Yes! Sounds perfect. AND, I even have a fresh container of buttermilk in the fridge!

Ummmmm...ooops. Ok, so the Sell By date on it is June 10. Hmmmm.....how do you know when buttermilk is past its prime? Yeah, I'm not sure...but I wasn't taking a chance. You know what to do when you don't have buttermilk? Improvise! Take one cup of whole milk (or, in my case, cream) and add a teaspoon of white vinegar. Stir it up for a few seconds and VOILA! Buttermilk.

I decided to use my little Longaberger condiment bowls for this since my ramekins were only 4 ounce size, and the recipe calls for 6 ounce ramekins. I didn't want to try and guess at cooking time on a new recipe, so I have pretty little round cakes instead!

I may have let the cakes stay in the oven a bit too long, but it could just be my ability to judge the amount of "spring" the cakes had (or lack, thereof), but it didn't seem to matter, because they came right out of the bowls without any persuasion at all and were just as luscious and dreamy as can be. I could barely stand to take pictures....I scarfed an entire cake down before my husband even knew they were out of the oven. Practically burned my mouth on the gorgeous little thing, but it was worth it. Part pudding, part cake, and every bite leaves you guessing. These would be the perfect finish to a barbecue....a refreshing little bite, in individual portions. I'd say you could just serve them up in their ramekins, but the picture of the creamy top on the cake is just too pretty to hide inside a bowl....don't you agree?

**The recipe below is verbatim from the book, but I replaced the lime juice and zest with red grapefruit juice and zest.

Baked Lime Pudding Cake

Tyler Florence, Stirring the Pot

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

superfine sugar

2 eggs, separated

2/3 cup reduced-fat buttermilk

1 tablespoon lime zest

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup superfine sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

lime halves and leaves , for garnish

Preheat the oven to 325. Butter and lightly sugar four 6-ounce ramekins. Using the paddle attachment on a kitchen stand mixer, beat yolks, buttermilk, lime zest and lime juice on medium speed until well combined. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add flour, the 2/3 cup sugar and the salt, until just combined. Transfer to another large bowl. Thoroughly wash mixing bowl with soap and hot water; return to stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat egg whites in the clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture, a little at a time.

Divide mixture evenly among ramekins. Place ramekins in a roasting pan and fill the pan with hot water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.Bake about one hour, until the top springs back when gently pressed and the cakes have a light golden color. Remove ramekins from water; allow to cool slightly.Carefully invert each onto a plate.