We have a couple of quince trees in our orchard, and they also line the road to our house. So every year about this time I start looking around for quince recipes. This year I found a recipe on Epicureous that turned out to be delicious. I don’t normally reprint recipes, but I love this cake! I’ve made a few adjustments, most notably brushing the poaching syrup over the cake, which accentuates the honey character (though not excessively). (I also cut back the cinnamon in the syrup, added a bit of baking powder, and dropped an egg yolk.) Note that the recipe calls for a pound of quince, or about two medium fruit. Since I used garden quince, I had to cut away the wormy parts (like apples, quince are susceptible to cotton moth, so they aren’t pretty if grown organically). I used the better part of four quince, which gave me about three cups of raw sliced quince and about one and a quarter cups of cooked quince to add to the cake.

Honey quince cake

For the poaching liquid:

2 to 4 quince
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

For the cake:

1  3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
125 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1  1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Core, peel, and slice the quince. (Quince are very hard, so it’s easiest to work with if you cut the fruit into eighths, rather than quarters.) In a medium sauce pan, combine the rest of the ingredients for the poaching liquid and bring to a simmer, stirring to combine. Add the quince and simmer until very soft, about 45 minutes to an hour. Drain the quince, reserving the liquid (you should have about a cup or so). Roughly mash the quince with a fork or potato masher and set aside. Note: the quince can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a standard 9-inch cake pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the vanilla. Beat in about half the flour until just mixed, followed by all of the milk. (Note: the Epicurious recipe calls for heavy cream, but I used whole milk and the cake was perfect.) Add in the remaining flour. Do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes, until the cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before turning out onto the rack. Poke the bottom of the cake all over with a bamboo skewer, then brush about a third of the poaching liquid over the cake. Turn the cake over onto a second rack. Poke the top all over with the skewer, then brush the remaining liquid over the top and sides of the cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving.

This recipe makes about four cups of frosting, which is enough to generously frost a two-layer cake. I made a simple square cake, so I had some left over. After about a week in the refrigerator, the texture was still very smooth when I brought the frosting to room temperature for some cupcakes.

White chocolate frosting

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
250 g. (2 sticks) butter, divided
about 400 g. powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
300 g. (3 bars) white chocolate

Have the cream cheese, butter, and white chocolate at room temperature.

In the top of a double boiler, melt the white chocolate with half the butter. Set aside.

Beat the cream cheese with the remaining butter until very smooth. Gradually add two to three cups of powdered sugar, tasting for sweetness as you go. Beat until very smooth, stopping to scrape the bowl of the mixer to ensure an even mixture. Add in the melted white chocolate and beat again until very well incorporated. Add the vanilla. Taste for sweetness and add more powdered sugar if desired. (I used a total of 370 grams, or just over 3/4 pound.)

The frosting will be very soft, so you will need to refrigerate it for about 15 minutes until it is firm enough to use. If it becomes too firm (or if you make it in advance), let it rewarm to room temperature before spreading.

Makes about 4 cups.

The cake is a basic chiffon cake, with crushed candy canes in the batter. These dissolve during the cooking, leaving flecks of pink and a light note of peppermint. The pink frosting provides a satisfyingly rich peppermint accent.

Peppermint chiffon cake

2  1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks
1  3/4 cups sugar (divided)
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup crushed candy canes 

For the frosting:
2  8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature 
500 grams (1 pound) powdered sugar (or to taste)
 1  1/2 tsp peppermint extract
red food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350F. Have ready an ungreased tube pan with a removable bottom. (Note that that’s ungreased. The cake has to stick to the sides of the pan when you invert it.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, 1  1/2 cups of the sugar, water, oil, and vanilla; set aside. Next, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar with an electric mixer on high until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar about a tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. (I used to do this by hand before I got my KitchenAide this year. The whites were never as stiff, but the cakes always came out just fine.)

Add the flour to the egg/water/oil mixture and combine quickly but thoroughly. Fold in the crushed candy canes. Add a large spoonful of the egg whites to the batter (using not more than a quarter of the meringue), and fold it in to lighten the batter. Pour in the rest of the meringue and gently but thoroughly fold the whites into the batter. Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until the top is nicely golden. Don’t worry if the top gets too dark—it’s actually the bottom, so you can slice it off with a serrated knife if necessary before turning the cake onto a plate. An underdone cake, however, will fall out of the pan when inverted.

On removing the cake from the oven, immediately (and gently) invert the pan onto a wine bottle and let it hang for about two hours, until completely cool. Turn it back upright and use a knife to loosen the sides and middle of the cake, then push the bottom of the pan up out of the mold and turn the cake out onto a plate. Use a serrated knife to slice the cake in half, and remove the top half to a plate. Frost the bottom layer, then return the top layer to the cake and frost the top and sides. Note that a serrated knife works best for slicing this cake.

To make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese until smooth (this is easiest with an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment). Add the butter and beat until blended. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time. I used one package in all (500 grams), but taste it as you go along to sweeten to taste. Add the peppermint extract and, finally, the red food coloring (as much as needed to get the desired color).

A couple of notes. It is important to sift the flour before measuring, even though you have to sift it again. Sifting it first lightens the flour, so you wind up with less flour by weight per cup. For the same reason, don’t shake the measuring cup to remove excess flour, but rather use a knife to slide it off. As for the eggs, the recipe calls for more whites than yokes. If I’m motivated, I’ll use the remaining yolks to make mayonnaise or to enrich a cornstarch pudding. If not, the cats get a treat. Finally, this cake requires a tube pan with a removable bottom.

Lemon chiffon cake

2  1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks
1  3/4 cups sugar (divided)
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lemon zest (removed
     with a zester and finely minced)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

For the glaze:

1  1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350F. Have ready an ungreased tube pan with a removable bottom. (Note that that’s ungreased. The cake has to stick to the sides of the pan when you invert it.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, 1  1/2 cups of the sugar, the lemon juice, oil, zest, and vanilla; set aside. Next, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar with an electric mixer on high until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar about a tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. (I used to do this by hand before I got my KitchenAide this year. The whites were never as stiff, but the cakes always came out just fine.)

Add the flour to the egg/juice/oil mixture and combine quickly but thoroughly. Add a large spoonful of the egg whites to the batter (using not more than a quarter of the meringue), and fold it in to lighten the batter. Pour in the rest of the meringue and gently but thoroughly fold the whites into the batter. Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until the top is nicely golden. Don’t worry if the top gets too dark—it’s actually the bottom, so you can slice it off with a serrated knife if necessary before turning the cake onto a plate.

On removing the cake from the oven, immediately (and gently) invert the pan onto a wine bottle and let it hang for about two hours, until completely cool. Turn it back upright and use a knife to loosen the sides and middle of the cake, then push the bottom of the pan up out of the mold and turn the cake out onto a plate. Top with the lemon glaze before serving. Note that a serrated knife works best for slicing this cake.

For the glaze: combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and stir to blend. Let sit for a few minutes to thoroughly dissolve the sugar before using.