FFWD ~ Visitandine

French Fridays pick….Visitandine

This week, for French Friday, our recipe is for Visitandine. Dorie explains that “The Visitandine is a very simple white cake with an elegant small grain crumb, a lovely springy sponge, and a pure butter and sugar flavor.”  It is a 17th century cake that gets it’s name from the order of cloistered French nuns, who created it. It’s perfect plain or paired with jams, citrus curds or fruits. Since the photo in the book looked so tempting, with the strawberries and cream, and since I had fresh strawberries and whipped cream in my refrigerator, I thought I’d give it a try!   

Luscious! 

Dorie was so right about this cake.  Beyond beating 4 egg whites till stiff, the cake was very easy to make and baked in about 35 minutes. The batter of flour, sugar, salt, butter and vanilla are whisked together, and then folded into the beaten egg whites.  I think this will be my cake of choice this summer. I see a lot of fruit shortcakes in my future. The next time I bake it, I’m going to give the browned butter a try. I love the rich nutty flavor it adds to baked goods. I baked my Visitandine in a 9½ inch fluted quiche pan. This cake was everything it was supposed to be! We obviously ate it with strawberries and cream…WOW…my new favorite quick cake! The big surprise came later, when we each had a slice sprinkled with powdered sugar, for an afternoon snack with our tea and coffee. It was delicious.  This cake is not just another keeper from Dorie, it’s an outstanding basic cake, to serve anytime!  Happy Friday everyone!

This recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook "Around My French Table” or here at Bitten Word. To see how the other Doristas did with this one, check it out here.

Spring is finally here…this is the perfect dessert to give it a welcome 

An outstanding cake….

Plain delicious!