Omg! I should have bought one of these years ago!

Itching to use my new zester (isn't it a beaut?), I went digging in the archives. Otherwise known as my Blue Book.

Every cook has some version of the book. A place they keep the recipes they beg off of others. Where the piles of newspaper and magazine clippings are gathered, in hopes that one day, some of them will be made.

Earlier this year I went through a burst of industriousness and had sat down and actually organized my book. I ruthlessly shifted through the pages and clippings, disgarding recipes I would never really make. I shorted into categories, including the category known as "Still to test."

It was hard work but in the end, I had a functioning, organized recipe book. Several months later and it is still in good shape, so good that I barely had to open the cake section to find this recipe: Lemond Cake with sliced peaches.

I skipped the peaches. It was the lemon that I wanted!

I can't tell exactly where I got this recipe. It is from a calendar, the month of August. The web site on the bottom references www.ontariotenderfruit.com but a check of the website does not reveal this specific recipe.

The zester, the entire reason for baking a cake on a hot, Monday afternoon. It was beautiful. I have never seen lemons zested so cleanly and or so fast! The small mountain of zest, two lemons, done in less than a minute. Had I but known! If I ever need a new zester, there will be no hesitation. I will buy!

The cake itself was dense with a decent crumb. The recipe called for a lemon glaze to be poured over the still hot cake, with the idea being that the glaze would seep into the small holes made over the top. In reality most of the glaze pooled in the center of the bundt. Some soaked up through the bottom but mostly it made the bottom soggy and very, very strongly flavored of lemon. The lemon flavor was very strong in the cake, even without the glaze penetrating into it.

Now that I think about it, this would have been just as wonderful in place of the shortcake I made yesterday. The lemony tang would have made a good contrast to the sweet berries and the richness of the cream. Perhaps on another hot summer day, when the lemons, and the strawberries, are calling to me.