There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a cake baked in cast-iron. A friend called it “sexy.”

If you put one crab in a basket, he will escape, slowly climbing his way out. On the other hand, if you put a dozen crabs in a basket and one attempts to scramble away, the other crabs will pull him back in instead of helping him escape. That’s called a Crab Mentality – anyone trying to better his circumstances or follow his dream is pulled back down by those who don’t dare try. Oftentimes those closest to us are the quickest to try to tug us back down, either because they are frightened by change, they don’t want to be left behind in their mediocrity, they’ve been tugged back one too many times themselves, or they believe there’s only a limited amount of good fortune to go around and another’s success equals their failure.

I’ve been feeling like that crab in the basket these last few months. I’m grateful to those few people in my life who don’t try to pull me back and, in fact, applaud and cheer as I slowly climb towards something great.

Lemon Swedish Visiting Cake

• Servings: 8-10
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Inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2-3 Tablespoons sugar, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
• ½ cup sliced almonds
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰ F. Grease a 9-10” cast-iron skillet with baking spray. Combine 1 cup sugar and zest together in a bowl. Using a whisk, combine well until zest is evenly distributed and sugar is moist and fragrant.
2. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then salt, vanilla, and lemon juice. Gently stir in flour with a rubber spatula. Add melted butter and mix until incorporated.
3. Pour batter into skillet. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and remaining 2-3 Tablespoons sugar over the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. To caramelize the almond-sugar topping, remove skillet, heat broiler, place skillet under broiler for 1-2 minutes until almonds are golden and sugar topping has caramelized. Let cake cool for 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve cake warm directly from the skillet.