~ Munavalgekook

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We have been remiss in keeping you up-to-date on our culinary exploits. We are dogs of leisure in the jungle of Belize and find being on the computer distracts us from our rest and relaxation. However, Our Fabio went to Italy and left approximately 30 egg whites in the fridge for us to do with as we willed. (The egg whites are leftover from his gelato making.)

We did not make meringues and we did not make macaroons, we did not make egg white omelets and we did not make pancakes. No. This time we made Munavalgekook. We know! You've never heard of it, have you? It's from Estonia and it translates Egg White Cake and we think our girl's mother might call it Sponge Cake. It's delicious, keeps fresh for days, and stands alone without accoutrements. (Don't even think of frosting it, but a nice side of berries would be very pleasant.)

 Eli's Best Cake
(a.k.a. Munavalgekook)
6 oz. of egg white (5 or 6 eggs)
1 tsp vanilla (or we used vanilla bean scrapings)
250 grams white sugar
160 grams white flour
1-1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 grams coconut oil

Beat the egg whites and vanilla with 2 Tablespoons of the sugar to stiff peaks. While the mixer is mixing (we don't imagine you are doing this freestyle with a whisk), in a separate bowl stir together the rest of the sugar, the flour, the cornstarch, and baking powder.

Sift the dry ingredients over the stiff whites and Carefully fold in with a long flat spoon. Add the oil and gently but completely fold in. Pour into a well-greased bundt pan (or a cast iron pan with a metal cup in the center like we used - we had to improvise!)

Bake at 180C or 350F for 30-40 minutes. Cake will be lightly browned and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the middle. Cool slightly before turning out of the pan. When cool, sift a few teaspoons of powdered sugar over the top for show, if desired.

Tip: Check your baking powder before you bake. It only lasts about 6 months - especially in the tropics - as it is so sensitive to humidity. Put 1/4 tsp. baking powder in a cup. Pour in a bit of boiling water. The powder should bubble up like crazy right away if it's good. If it's bad, like ours was, it will do nothing at all. That's the test. We went and bought fresh.

Notes from Guthrie: We experimented with adding 3/4 cup of pureed ripe banana into the recipe of two of the five cakes we made on Saturday. We thought this was an unmitigated disaster as they were our first cakes (after Friday's test cake) and we found out (the hard way) that the baking powder had expired in its can. It still had time on the label, but it was not puffing anything up anymore. (Then we learned about the test mentioned in the Tip above.) HOWEVER, we could not discard two whole cakes and took them to Fellowship Snack at church (as back up for the other Good Cakes) and they were eaten up and received possibly more compliments than Eli's Best Cake. They were very tasty but quite dense. We were informed that Belizeans like a very dense cake. We believe this means ours is an indestructible recipe. But we voted on what to call it and Eli's Best Cake overruled "Indestructible Cake." Enjoy!