Tom and I hosted some friends for a barbecue over Labor Day weekend, and I decided to make a celebration cake to belatedly mark our friend Colleen's birthday. She likes lemon, so I decided to try Tish Boyle's "Lemon Lust Cake" -- lemon cake soaked with lemon syrup, layered with lemon cream cheese filling, and covered with lemon buttercream.
The cake is butter based. To make the batter, you beat softened butter with sugar until light; add eggs, followed by lemon juice and lemon zest; and alternately add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt) and milk. You pour the batter into two pans and bake.
Both the cake filling and frosting incorporate lemon curd, which can be made in advance. To make the curd, you cook egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and butter until the mixture thickens, and then put the mixture through a sieve and chill it. The curd recipe from the cookbook is supposed to yield two cups, all of which is required for the lemon lust cake, but I came up a bit short and ended up with only one and three-quarters cup.
The mousse-like cake filling is a mixture of softened cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon curd (supposedly one cup, but I used only three-quarters of a cup since I was short), with heavy cream beaten to firm peaks folded in. The buttercream is merely lemon curd beaten with softened butter, with a pinch of salt thrown in.
I waited until the last minute to assemble the cake, so I was putting it together during our barbeque, and some of the kids who were there gathered around to watch (and eat the cake scraps that I trimmed off!). I leveled each cake and split it into two layers, and then stacked, filled, and frosted the cake. As I was putting on the final coat of frosting, I noticed the small saucepan of lemon soaking syrup (lemon juice, water, and sugar) that I had prepared for moistening the cake layers. Perhaps it was just performance anxiety from having an audience, but I had completely forgotten to use it.
This cake sliced beautifully. I tasked my cousin Larry with cutting and serving the cake, and each slice was picture perfect. The slice in the photo above was one I grabbed at random -- and Larry was not taking the deliberate care I do when I slice a cake knowing that I'll photograph it for the blog. Of course, the lack of color contrast between the cake, the filling, and the frosting still makes it difficult to see anything (it reminded me of the Whiteout Cake in this respect).
While the cake was moist, I couldn't help thinking that it would have been much, much better if soaked in lemon syrup -- both with regard to moistness, and getting a boost of lemon flavor. The filling was quite lemony, more so than the frosting. I almost wished that the filling had been straight lemon curd for a stronger lemon flavor -- although the filling's light mousse texture and touch of whipped cream flavor was unexpected and interesting.
Although there was some room for improvement, this was a lovely lemon cake, and I would make it again.
Recipe: "Lemon Lust Cake" from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.
Previous Posts:
The cake is butter based. To make the batter, you beat softened butter with sugar until light; add eggs, followed by lemon juice and lemon zest; and alternately add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt) and milk. You pour the batter into two pans and bake.
Both the cake filling and frosting incorporate lemon curd, which can be made in advance. To make the curd, you cook egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and butter until the mixture thickens, and then put the mixture through a sieve and chill it. The curd recipe from the cookbook is supposed to yield two cups, all of which is required for the lemon lust cake, but I came up a bit short and ended up with only one and three-quarters cup.
The mousse-like cake filling is a mixture of softened cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon curd (supposedly one cup, but I used only three-quarters of a cup since I was short), with heavy cream beaten to firm peaks folded in. The buttercream is merely lemon curd beaten with softened butter, with a pinch of salt thrown in.
This cake sliced beautifully. I tasked my cousin Larry with cutting and serving the cake, and each slice was picture perfect. The slice in the photo above was one I grabbed at random -- and Larry was not taking the deliberate care I do when I slice a cake knowing that I'll photograph it for the blog. Of course, the lack of color contrast between the cake, the filling, and the frosting still makes it difficult to see anything (it reminded me of the Whiteout Cake in this respect).
While the cake was moist, I couldn't help thinking that it would have been much, much better if soaked in lemon syrup -- both with regard to moistness, and getting a boost of lemon flavor. The filling was quite lemony, more so than the frosting. I almost wished that the filling had been straight lemon curd for a stronger lemon flavor -- although the filling's light mousse texture and touch of whipped cream flavor was unexpected and interesting.
Although there was some room for improvement, this was a lovely lemon cake, and I would make it again.
Recipe: "Lemon Lust Cake" from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.
Previous Posts:
- "Light and Lemony: Lemon Mousse Cake with Fresh Raspberries," February 1, 2014.
- "Sunshine on a Plate: Lemon Drop Cake," June 8, 2011.
- "Liam Turns One: Lemon Buttercream Torte," August 8, 2010.
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