Rice Pudding Cake

I guess it's predictable that my next post would be about food. I've decided to share my favorite recipe with you. And believe me when I say FAVORITE.

It was originally all that talk about milk shakes that put me in the mood for this. This rice pudding cake is rich and creamy. It's the nectar of the gods. Think about it: Rice pudding and cake. Together. Is anybody ever going to be smarter than the person who invented this? No.

Here's what you'll need:

For the rice pudding:
4 1/2 cups milk
1 cup rice (vialone, carnaroli or arborio)
3 strips lemon zest
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
3 Tbs. butter
5 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the cake:
14 Tbs. butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 Tsp. grated lemon zest
5 egg whites

Start with the rice pudding. In a saucepan, bring the milk, rice, salt and lemon zest to a gentle boil. Slowly add the sugar. Simmer for 40 minutes, stirring it now and then. Don't let it get too well done, it should be a little gooey and runny.

Remove from heat, let cool.

Get to work on the cake. Mix butter with 1/2 cup sugar until light and foamy. Add lemon zest (grated). In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Mix flour mixture with butter mixture. Don't worry if it gets weird and kind of hard and funky looking. Just don't overmix it.

Whip the egg whites to peaks, adding the remaining 1 cup sugar. Fold egg whites into cake mixture. And don't worry if this looks even funkier. It should be of a spreading consistency.

Back to the rice pudding: Remove lemon zest from pudding and stir in the butter, vanilla and egg yolks.

Grease and flour a 10-inch springform pan. Then spread the cake mixture into it, scraping it up against the sides of the pan and leaving a kind of well in the middle.

It almost looks like cake frosting, but it's heavier. Then add the rice pudding mixture to the pan:

See those cake bits hanging above the rice pudding? With a spatula, you're going to try to fold them over the rice pudding. It may be hard, and the whole thing may get goopy, but don't worry about it. No matter what you do to this cake, it's going to taste amazing.

Then bake at 300 degrees for 65 minutes. I suggest putting a cookie sheet beneath it, since sometimes it bubbles over. Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing the sides of the springform pan. (If you leave them on too long, the cake will get hard.)

Then eat!