Results: Make Martha Cringe

I have to admit I’m a little bit sad… I had really hoped that “Make Martha Cringe” would generate a bunch of responses.  I got a few comments and some people expressed interest, but in the end, I only got one (awesome) entry!  Maybe this is what happens when events first start?  Maybe no one wants to be tacky?  Oh man.. I’m still going to try again next month anyway and see if maybe it’s just going to take a little while to catch on.

Well, about the gorgeous photo you see above… My friend Kyle from Kumo-Art made “Shrimp and Fish in an Herb Sauce” and styled it with a decidedly 70’s feel.  I LOVE IT!  Way to go, Ky.   I have to admit though, I was hoping for something a bit more gaudy, but that doesn’t take away from how great this styling job is. 

My cousin also sent me this awesome picture of a “meat tree”, which was kind of exactly what I was looking for.

I hope these pictures inspire you for next month!!

Cashew Cardammmmmm…

If that was a bit too corny for you, I’m sorry! It’s just what popped into my head. So here’s a quick little post about these cuties. I am testing recipes, and one that I was really drawn to was the Cashew Butter Cardamom cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I’m really loving anything involving warm spices right now so I couldn’t help but try these out.

The verdict: They were good! OK, I’ll admit, not my favorite, but good. Here’s the thing… I pretty much need some sort of fruit, (preferably a strong citrus flavor-lemon please!) or chocolate to make me love a dessert. So as good as these were, I, personally, wasn’t thrilled. I do know some other people, however, who gobbled them up!

I’m not going to post the recipe, since I pretty much lifted it directly out of VCTOW, which you can (and should) buy here if you don’t already have it. The only thing I changed was that I made a cashew-butter cream cheese frosting instead of the one suggested in VCTOW (they called for soy milk powder, which sadly, I did not have).

Stay tuned, I will be testing more recipes soon! If anyone has any suggestions/requests, let me know!!

vegan cupcakes take over my life

So… I have charged boldly forth into the world of vegan cupcakes. Yes, vegan cupcakes are quite the trend these days, and because of that I kind of resisted heading in that direction, but you know what? I think I like vegan cupcakes better (shhhhh!) than traditional cupcakes. If made correctly, they are much, much less work, tastier (I don’t particularly love the flavor of butter and I think without it, one can taste the actual flavors in the cupcakes more clearly), and moister. I swear. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a number of bad vegan cupcakes, but I have also had many, if not more, terrible cupcakes made with butter, eggs, and all sorts of other supposedly delicious things.

Here’s where I’m going with this. I’m not going to make a big deal about it because I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I may have the opportunity to be a dessert provider for a cute little restaurant. They specifically expressed an interest in vegan desserts, so that’s what set me off on this path. Now, whether that actually happens or not, I now have the perfect excuse to test recipes!

The first recipe I tried was a kind of combination of a few recipes from VCTOW, or, for the lay-reader, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I was wooed by the idea of mexican hot chocolate cupcakes, but I also had a request to make the cupcakes sugar free. I also didn’t have corn flour, which is called for in the mex/choc cupcakes, so I smushed a few recipes together, a bit from here, a bit from there and got:

Vegan Agave Sweetened Spiced Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, Philadelphia Style
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
(makes 12 cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:
2/3 C soy milk
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2/3 C light agave nectar
1/3 C canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cayenne
(I also added about ¼ cup of almond meal to the second half of the batter.  You can too, it was good!)

Directions:
1.    Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2.    Mix the soy milk and the apple cider vinegar in a large bowl.  Allow this mixture to sit for a minute until it curdles.  Beat in the agave nectar, oil, and vanilla extract.
3.    Measure the dry ingredients into a small bowl and sift them into the wet ingredients.  (If you’re going to add in the almond meal, do it now).
4.    Mix only until smooth.
5.    Pour into the cupcake liners (this should make 12 cupcakes).  Only fill 2/3 of the way.
6.    Bake 20-22 minutes, or until a knife or a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Be careful not to over (or under) bake.
7.    Let the cupcakes cool before you frost them.  Seriously.  Just wait.  I promise, even if you’ve got to eat one right off the cooling rack, it’ll taste a LOT better at room temperature.

For the frosting:
(I just used a simple pourable vegan ganache to frost these babies.)

1.    Melt about half a bar or dark chocolate, two or three tablespoons of soy milk, and a few tablespoons of agave nectar (to taste) over very low heat.
2.    Let the ganache cool a bit, then pour over cooled cupcakes.
3.    I decorated them with slivered almonds because it was cute.

*These are less sweet than your average cupcake.  If you’re open to that, I think they’re pretty good!

Even better the second time

Well, I loved my multigrain version of the NY Times No-Knead Bread so much that I just had to make it again. I’m happy to say, this time it was even better. I only made a few changes. (If you missed my recipe the first time, it’s here)

1. I increased the yeast to almost half a tablespoon
2. I added even more seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and flax) and millet
3. I used a combination of 2C bread flour and 1C spelt flour
4. I let it rise a bit longer than before… about 22 hours for the first rise and then two for the second rise
5. I punched down the dough a bit during the second rise. I don’t know, I just thought this would help!
6. I let it bake about five minutes longer

The bread was amazing (so much so that I have another batch of dough rising right now)! Here is a summary of how it was different from my first loaf. I think the numbering matches up so that the changes I made should correspond with the effects I think they had (yes, I am that nerdy, oh well).

1. This one was less dense, with a better, more delicate crumb. There were all these amazing little air pockets in the finished loaf.
2. More delicious!
3. Again, more delicious!
4. Same as number 1, and a deeper, more pronounced and yeasty/bready flavor that I really liked.
5. This second loaf was taller than the first, which was, admittedly, kind of flat.
6. Better crust!

So, all I have to say is, if you have not made this bread yet, MAKE IT!!!!! Don’t be afraid to play with the recipe. I did, and I am so, so, happy with the results. As a former yeast-o-phobe, I’m also still pretty amazed that I, Caitlin, actually made bread, and a good bread at that! My best compliment was from Mark. I gave him a quarter of the loaf to take home, and today he informed me that ate the entire thing last night, toasted, spread with goat cheese, and drizzled with honey. He said it was the best bread he had eaten in a long time. Look, I’d like to take the credit, but I really can’t (well, maybe I’ll take some credit for being so bold with the grains). This is just one keeper of a recipe.

The most awesome part of this bread was that it inspired us to have a picnic with the bread as the guest of honor. We also had:

• a salad of mixed greens with lemon-dijon vinaigrette and heirloom tomatoes
• pan-seared tilapia, prepared simply with lemon and fresh cracked pepper
• a mini spinach and parmesan frittata
• peppered goat cheese, and another melty, delicious cheese (can’t remember what it’s called!)
• apricot and strawberry jam to go with the bread and cheese

Yes, I know it’s excessive, but that was pretty much the only meal we ate all day. Really people, what kind of gluttons do you think we are?

Sidetracked: I made bread!

I know, I know, I promised something involving cake and lemon curd. Well, as is typical of me, I got sidetracked. That post isn’t ready yet, but this one is! So, the other day I had an amazing little pull-apart multigrain roll (the loaf form is pictured there) at Metropolitan Bakery. I don’t really eat bread that much, mostly because I like other food better, but this roll was completely worth it. This is coming from a girl who has never, not even once, had toast and jam for breakfast. I would prefer oatmeal or eggs any day. I am just not really a bread person. Until now. Well, there’s got to be a first for everyone, and let me tell you, this bread was awesome. It was incredibly grainy, which I love, and had the perfect amount of elasticity. I ate it like I ate croissants as a kid, pulling gently at the interior of the roll to separate out thin layers of bread, placing them delicately into my mouth and savoring every bite.

I’m sure most of you can relate, but I’m pretty much unable to eat something I like without wanting to go home immediately and figure out how to make it myself. So that’s what I did, I set out to learn to make bread. Now I have to be completely honest here. I have tried to make bread once before, but it was an utter failure, so I decided not to count it. I used a whole-grain bread mix, which I think was a bit too old (I’m trying to avoid saying “rancid”, but, well, there you go) and the bread just didn’t taste right. I also added way too much flour during the kneading and the resulting loaf was a little bit dense. Let’s just say you could probably use it in place of a dumbell.

This time, I decided to start fresh. Like everyone else in the past two years, I went straight for the NY Times no knead bread recipe. I have never tried it and thought it was about time. I had to add some seeds and grains and some whole wheat flour, of course, but other than that, the recipe is just the old standard. I’m happy to say it was a complete success! I even cheated and used a pot with a glass lid since I don’t have a dutch oven, and it still worked.

For the first time EVER, I had toast and jam for a late night snack, and it was wonderful.

NY Times No-Knead Grainy Bread

2 ¾ cups whole wheat bread flour, more for dusting
¼ cup oatmeal
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
3 teaspoons salt
*a few tablespoons each of millet, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, or whatever else you have

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, seeds/grains, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 11⁄2-pound loaf.

Note: My loaf didn’t rise as much as other loaves I’ve seen in the past. Maybe the whole wheat flour and all the grains weighed it down? Oh well, it was still great, but next time I think I’ll try adding a little bit more yeast. Has anyone else had any success with whole wheat variations of this bread?  (Edit: I did add more yeast, and I let the bread rise longer.  It worked!  See my second attempt at this bread here).

A look back and preview of things to come

The look back: grapefruit used to make grapefruit curd for the March Daring Bakers challenge.

 

The preview: cake layers for…???

 

More soon!

Event: Make Martha Cringe! (Good food behaving badly)

(scroll down for event rules)

Let’s talk for a second about the current state of food photography. These days, it’s all about natural beauty. We want to see food glow, basking in just the right amount of gorgeous natural light. We want to see just how fresh and green that spinach is (maybe it was just picked- maybe there’s a second bunch of greens in the background of the shot with the dirt from the garden still gracing its roots)! We want to see how each grain of organic bhutanese red rice clings delicately to the next. I think we could all agree that the current trend in food photography is a good one.

Now… here’s the deal. Yes, we can make our food look gorgeous, fresh, and vibrant. It’s a challenge. It’s fun. We love it. But sometimes it’s just so… pristine. I don’t know about all of you, but every now and then I just get an itch to rebel and make my food look really, really tacky. Maybe it’s just me, but with so much “pretty” food around I think it might be pretty satisfying to see some food looking outlandishly kitschy and garish. Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time, anyone remember the 70’s? Lookin good!

I really love the “garni” on the plate in the back. Classy, no?

Sexy! (I believe these are called “Tomato Wheels”)

So let’s do it. Let’s put our skills to good (or bad) use and revive gratuitous food styling, at least for the purpose of this event. Now, let me make this clear… I’m not interested in bad food, or even bad photography. The food should be something that actually tastes good, and the photographic composition should be deliberate. As for the styling, go wild! Bring on the tacky lighting, fussy structuring, inappropriate props and garni, and arranging of food in compromising positions. Let’s have fun with it. Let’s break all the rules. Let’s Make Martha Cringe.

Yeah baby! (Shrimply delicious??)

Update: There is no restriction on ingredients this month.  Go crazy!

Here are the rules:

1. Prepare (or create) a recipe involving, style it to your heart’s content, and write a post including your cringe-worthy photo and the accompanying recipe. Please link back to this announcement in your post. Posts must be new, although I seriously doubt that you have any old posts that would be appropriate for this event
2. You MAY use photoshop or another editing program to alter the color/lighting of your photo.
3. E-mail me (caitlin DOT larussa AT gmail DOT com) Please make sure that Make Martha Cringe is written in the subject line.
4. In the e-mail please include:
   • the URL of your entry
   • your name, and your blog’s name
   • the name of the dish
   • your approximate location
5. The deadline for entries is Sunday, April 20, at midnight (eastern standard time). (I will post a roundup sometime the following week).

The winner (judged this time by me) will receive a mystery prize and will have the privilege of helping me judge the next round.
I can’t wait to see some really awful styling. Bring it on!

If for some reason you need some more inspiration, I’ll just leave you with this…

Good luck!

When eating healthy is so, so, good.

Today was one of those days: too many vegetables in the fridge, not too much motivation to cook. What I almost always do in those situations is fire up the oven, get out the cutting board, and get ready to roast. Here’s some of my best advice. If you don’t already oven-roast vegetables on a regular basis, you really should start. It’s so, so easy, as healthy as you want it to be, and always leaves you with the most delicious, crispy edged, salt-kissed, olive oil caressed vegetables that took almost no effort at all. So turn on your oven already and roast something!

Really though, I’m not kidding. Almost every vegetable is good this way. Maybe I’m a bit obsessed but I swear, toss a vegetable with some olive oil, salt and pepper (and maybe some rosemary, or cumin-coriander-turmeric, depending on what you’re going for), put it in a hot oven (I usually do 450), and it will be good, promise.

Some suggestions are:

• Broccoli with rosemary (the edges of the broccoli get all crispy and awesome)
• Cauliflower with CCT (yes ok it’s a little bit Rachael Ray of me but it’s a lot to type out!)
• Carrots with just olive oil, salt and pepper (or with CCT, that’s good too)
• Zucchini (I like it best simple, with just olive oil, salt and pepper)
• Rutabagas or Potatoes (both are good with almost anything, although I especially love potatoes with rosemary)

Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

This time I had rutabagas, red bliss potatoes, spinach, and edamame. I roasted the cubed the rutabagas and potatoes and roasted them with some cumin until their edges were browned and crisp. I sauteed the spinach with a bit of garlic, and just used the edamame as they were. Wanting something a bit more substantial than a side dish, I made some quinoa (one of my favorite grains) and scrambled an egg to add in as well. The only other thing I did was make a quick lemon-tahini dressing and this lunch (with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow) was ready to go. I highly, highly recommend it.

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Root Vegetables and Tahini-Lemon Dressing
(serves 4 as a small main dish)

1 C uncooked quinoa

2 rutabagas, cubed
2 small red bliss potatoes
1 C edamame, thawed if frozen
4 C spinach, uncooked
1/4 C calamata olives, roughly chopped, or more to taste

One egg (just leave it out if you’d like the recipe to be vegan- maybe add some sesame/soy marinated tofu instead…)

1 teaspoon cumin

1 clove garlic, minced, or more to taste
1T tahini
1T lemon juice and a pinch of lemon zest

1/4 C Marcona almonds, sliced or chopped (for sprinkling on top)

Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for sautéing

For the Quinoa
Rinse and drain the quinoa. Boil 2C of water in a small pot and then add the quinoa. Let cook, covered, over medium low heat for about 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa grains look like little curly cues. Take off the heat and set aside.

For the Root Vegetables
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees farenheit.
Peel the rutabagas and wash the potatoes (I like to leave the skin on). Cut both into half-inch cubes and then throw them on a heavy pan or cookie sheet with a glug of good olive oil. Sprinkle the cumin on top and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper (don’t go crazy, you can always add more later!)
Let cook until browned and crispy on edges (check after 15 minutes). Toss to get browning on other sides.

To finish and assemble the salad
Sautee the spinach in a small pan with a bit of olive oil and the garlic. Remove from the pan, and just use the same pan to scramble the egg, adding a bit of salt and pepper if you’d like.

Add the spinach, scrambled egg, edamame, olives, and roasted root vegetables to a bowl with the quinoa and toss quickly. Whisk together the tahini, lemon zest, and lemon juice and pour over, tossing again to coat. If necessary, add a bit more olive oil to the salad. Sprinkle the almonds over the top, and serve at room temperature.

Perfect (insert anything here) cake: Daring Baker’s March Challenge

My first Daring Baker’s challenge, completed!!! March’s challenge, chosen by Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, was Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. It is from Dorie’s book: Baking From My Home to Yours, which I don’t have but will probably get soon now that I’ve made this cake. (Also because everyone seems to be raving about it!)

Styled shot: the cake at it’s sexiest

The cake has four layers of moist, lemon scented layers that are dense enough to satisfy a serious cake eater but light enough to be appropriate in a layer cake (only one stick of butter is used in the cake recipe). Dorie suggests using raspberry jam and lemon curd between the layers, which I think would be delicious, but I strayed a little and used grapefruit curd and strawberry jam instead. I also made kind of a mousse out of ricotta and fresh whipped cream and put that between the layers as well to give the cake a bit more height and deliciousness.

cooling

The result was interesting (in a wonderful way). Because of the ricotta, the cake tasted subtly Italian, although no one could really figure out why until I told them about the ricotta. The grapefruit curd had a similar effect. Although no one could identify grapefruit as one of the ingredients, the cake was a bit softer in flavor than I think it would have been had I used lemon. I was really happy with the result and would definitely make this cake again. I’m also looking forward to trying different flavor combinations. Check out what all the other Daring Bakers did with this challenge here!

On the Easter table

Easter (aka i’ve been slacking. annnnnd… i’m back)

There’s something I really love about easter. When my brother and I were little, Easter was one of the more fun-filled holidays- less of a big to-do than Christmas or Thanksgiving, more kids at the family get-together, and almost as much (if not more) candy than Halloween. Don’t get me wrong, I can be pretty sentimental at times and will never ever lose my love for Christmas, but Easter was just a different kind of fun. Every year my mom would make an indoor easter egg hunt for my brother and me. The hunt was structured around a series of rhyming clues about egg locations. There was one clue to start, and the next clue was hidden with the eggs. It told us where to go next, and so on. This sounds very cute and all, but what you must know is that family quirks can not be stifled and ours were no exception. I wish I had saved the clues my mom wrote out. There was always at least one or two involving “the throne”, as it was known in our family (I really hope I don’t need to explain that to anyone) and eggs (plastic ones!) were frequently hidden at the bottom of piles of laundry, in people’s shoes, and in the dishwasher. The best part for me was that I am older than my brother and there were at least one or two Easters where I knew how to read and he didn’t. Now, I’m not especially proud of this, but I guess I have to admit it since it is documented on video. On those particular Easters, I found great delight in reading the clues to myself silently, and then running off to find the eggs and leaving my poor brother helpless, stomping his foot and yelling at the foot of the stairs. This may not sound very nice of me, but anyone who has a little brother should understand. The opportunities to stick it to a younger sibling didn’t come around all the time, but when they did, you had to take advantage! That’s just the way it was. And don’t worry, he did his fair share of torturing me too. I’m pretty sure it evened out.

So, as you might guess, the days of the rhyming Easter egg hunt are long gone. I did have a nice, relaxed breakfast with my mom though.  I guess you could say we celebrated by making a frittata (above) and supreming about a million grapefruits to have on the side (my idea of luxury).

These days, much of the time leading up to Easter is spent baking and just spending time with the family, which is just fine with me. Every year the scene plays out in a similar way. Since I am the family’s designated baker, I never fail to spend at least three or four hours pouring through cookbooks looking for the the most decadent, most fantastic, most daring dessert candidates. I usually end up with at least five or six potentials, at which point my mom begins to sigh, worried that I will go way overboard and end up begging her to help me wash bowls at two in the morning (let’s just say it hasn’t not happened once or twice before).  

 

To make a long story short, this year I narrowed it down to three recipes within a pretty reasonable amount of time.  I ended up making: an the fudgiest chocolate cake (drenched in ganache), grapefruit cupcakes (sugar-free, for my godfather who is diabetic), and a super top-secret recipe which I will post about at the end of the month!  The chocolate cake is based on this one from Deb at Smitten Kitchen, although I ran out of butter just before getting to the mousse layer and decided to go with ganache instead.  Besides, there was already enough butter at Easter!

The cake was absolutely delicious but so, so, rich.  We couldn’t finish it, which was no problem at all for me, because the leftovers are in my fridge right now acting a lot like the best fudge I’ve ever eaten.  Mmmmm.

Fudgiest Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Deb at Smitten Kitchen

Makes at least 10 servings (one 9 inch round, or one 8×8 in square and 12 mini cupcakes, as I did)

Cake
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Ganache
6 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream

For the cake: Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter an 8×8 square pan; dust with sugar. Prepare one 12-well mini-muffin tray.  Melt chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and salt, then flour. Pour batter into pan. Bake until cake just rises in center (tester inserted into center will not come out clean), about 35 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack.  I would recommend keeping this one at room temperature as long as you can, just to keep it a little bit softer.

For the ganache: Melt the chocolate chips and the cream in a double boiler over gently simmering water.  Pour over the cooled cake.  Let drip langourously over the edges… ooh!

 The cupcakes, also borrowed from Smitten Kitchen, were so cute and really good for the kids as well as my godfather.  The recipe is below.

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake
Adapated from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa and from Deb at Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar (I used splenda and it worked fine)
3 extra-large eggs
3 teaspoons grated grapefruit zest (approximately one large grapefruit)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar  (I used splenda here too and it seemed OK)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.  ( I just made 12 mini-cupcakes and one mini loaf).

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and grapefruit juice and pour over the cake.