Take an orange. Break it down into its constituent parts: a little pile of brightly-colored zest, a glass of tart, refreshing juice, a bowl of jewel-like orange sections, and scraps of membrane and bitter white pith, or albedo. Discarding the membranes and albedo, how best to showcase the remaining "essence" of orange? What is the clearest, purest paean to oranges? "Cake" came the answer--the batter infused with the zest, the finished cake moistened with the lightly-sweetened juice, the whole thing topped with a mosaic of the sections. (more…)
