Happy Valentines Day

I love seeing what comes home from preschool for the holiday crafts.  There are the cookie cutter paint hearts and glitter...

And then there are the Valentine Aliens.

For my holiday celebration I made a peppermint sponge cake, or a candy cane cake as Buddy Boy calls it.  This is a family classic from my Grandmother.  They raised chickens and always had an abundance of eggs.  This cake certainly helps make a dent in the egg supply.  I like the pink swirls.  This one didn't swirl all that well, but you get the idea.  You can make a frosting glaze to drizzle over the cake and top with crushed candy canes.  This is tasty, but I didn't get that far today.  Maybe next Christmas when candy canes are in the stores again.

Peppermint Sponge cake

7 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon peppermint extract (This makes a very minty cake, use less for for a more subtle mint flavor.)

1.  Separate eggs.  You should have 1 overflowing cup of whites.
2.  Beat egg whites with cream of tarter and salt
3.  Beat yolks with sugar, water, flour, and extract
4.  Carefully fold whites and yolk mixture together, being careful not to deflate whites to much
5.  Put batter in an ungreased 10 inch tube pan, not non-stick.
6.  Sprinkl the top of cake batter with red food coloring and slice through batter from center to outer edge all around the cake to swirl the coloring in.
7.  Bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes or until done.  A bamboo skewer inserted in the cake should come out clean.

This is also delicious with lemon extract instead of the peppermint.