Lemon Curd Cake

Because my Apple-Spice Layer Cake was gone within no time, today I baked once again a layer cake. It’s a lemon cake, with a lemon filling so it lemon all the way through. The original recipe calls for Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting, but there are certain members in my family who won’t eat raw eggs… (I bet they’re reading this!) so it makes no sense for me to bake a cake that only a few people will enjoy. I made a regular, but tasty white frosting. The cake was really nice. The texture was springy and spongy, and the lemon curd tasted delicious! Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Lemon Curd Cake recipe: Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook

Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups cake flour, not self-rising
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream or crème fraîche
- Zest of 2 lemons (about 2 tablespoons)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about ½ lemon)
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 recipes Lemon Curd (recipe below)

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch cake pans; set aside.
- Into a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, combine sour cream with lemon zest and juice; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in four parts, alternating with the sour cream mixture and beginning and ending with the flour mixture; beat until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Divide batter between prepared pans, and smooth with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cake are golden and pull away from the sides of pan, and a cake tester comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Using a serrated knife, trim tops of the cakes to make level. Slice each layer in half horizontally into two layers. (I didn’t do this, mine was a 2 layer cake, not 4) Place one of the bottom layers on a cake plate, and spread ½ cup Lemon Curd over the top. Repeat with the remaining cake layers and curd, leaving final cake layer uncoated. (I made white frosting and coated the cake)

Lemon Curd recipe: Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook
Makes 2 cups, you need to double this recipe for the Lemon Curd Cake.

Ingredients:
- 8 large egg yolks
- Zest of 2 lemons
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons (1 ¼ stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Instructions:
- Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan; whisk to combine. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (be sure to scrape the sides of the pan), until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, 8 to 10 minutes, and registers 160°F on an instant read thermometer.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Add salt and butter, one piece at a time, stirring until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve into a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 1 hour.


Too bad you can't lick the batter. Unless you like eating lemon zest!

The cakes were very springy and spongy. They came pretty flat out of the oven, so that's great for layering.

Lemon curd.

Iced.

And decorated!

Yum, yum, yum! It's a really nice cake. Of course it's hard to top the cake I made a few days ago, but I really like this one as well.