After watching the first episode of "Julia," the HBO limited series about the titular Julia Child, I added a few ingredients to my grocery list for the week: several ounces of chocolate, almonds and cream of tartar. Everything else I would need to make Child's Queen of Sheba cake — eggs, butter, cake flour, coffee and sugar — was already on hand in my kitchen pantry.
That's the appeal of this dessert, which made a special appearance in the series' premiere wherein Child (played by Sarah Lancashire) leverages the cake to win over a group of dismissive male executives at Boston public TV station WGBH. It's so effortless to make that even a child could do it.
