The other day I spotted some Meyer lemons at my over-priced, not-so-fabulous, local ‘gourmet’ food shop, and I succumbed. Wasn’t exactly sure what I’d make with them, but they were just too pretty to resist. A cross between a lemon and an orange, the Meyer lemon was named after F.N. Meyer, who originally imported it from China in 1908. Meyer lemons are yellow-orange in color, with a slightly rounder shape and smoother skin than common lemons. Their juice is sweeter and less acidic than that of common lemons. I ultimately decided to use them in a variation of a cake I created for The Cake Book, a genoise cake brushed with sweet ginger syrup and enveloped in a soft lemon-orange mousse. The cake turned out to be delicious, not too tart and not too sweet, with just a hint of spice from the ginger syrup. Note: If you decide to use regular lemons instead of Meyer lemons, you’ll need to increase the sugar in the mousse by ¼ cup or so.
