Every year for my birthday,
Mr. Hawthorne makes a lovely cake for Rosie.
The one he made in 2009
was one of Mama Hawthorne's favorite posts.
She would always ask me to find it for her
when I was visiting
so she could re-live the video of
Mr. Hawthorne's fumbling of the pans.
She loved that video.
This year,
Mr. Hawthorne, knowing my love of lemons,
decided on a Triple Layer Lemon Cake
with Lemon Curd for the filling
and Lemon Cream Cheese Butter Frosting.
The cake, the curd, and the frosting
all have lemon juice and zest in them
and Mr. Hawthorne gave an extra zesting
of an orange over top.
I have a feeling it's going to get
even more moist what with the curd inside.
Did I mention it had lemon in it?
First, he buttered and floured three cake pans
and started on his cake batter.
Triple Layer Lemon Cake
2 sticks butter, softened
4 eggs
2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
2 TB + lemon zest
2 TB lemon juice
1 cup + buttermilk
Lemon Curd (Recipe to follow.)
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Recipe to follow.)
Let butter and eggs come to room temperature.
(About 30 minutes.)
Grease and lightly flour 3 9-inch cake pans.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder,
baking soda, and salt.
Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl,
beat butter on medium-high for about a minute.
Slowly beat in sugar until well combined.
Add in lemon peel and lemon juice.
Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well
after each addition.
Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively
to beaten mixture,
beating at low speed after each addition
until just combined.
Pour into prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.
Then remove from pans and cool completely on racks.
To assemble,
place a cake layer on plate.
Spread with lemon curd.
Top with second layer and spread with curd.
Top with third layer and frost tops and sides
with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
When measuring dry ingredients,
Mr. Hawthorne correctly shows
the scoop and sweep method of measuring.
Get a big scoop in the measuring cup,
then sweep the excess off with a knife.
Here, his 2 1/3 cups of flour are going in.
Mr. Hawthorne added in the 1 cup of buttermilk
and felt the dough was too stiff,
as in not pourable,
so he made an executive decision
to add a little bit more.
Good call, Mr. Hawthorne.
Perfect.
Next up,
Mr. Hawthorne makes the Lemon Curd.
Lemon Curd
1 stick butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 TB lemon zest
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
Melt butter in double boiler.
Add juice, zest, and sugar.
Stir over medium low heat
until sugar is dissolved.
Beat eggs and yolks together
until thick.
Then whisk a little of the butter/lemon mixture
to the eggs to temper.
Pour the eggs into the pan
and, over low heat,
whisk constantly until mixture becomes quite thick.
Mr. Hawthorne didn't bother with a double boiler.
He was confident enough with heating the eggs
to do it directly over the heat.
Just hold the pan in the air over the heat
so you don't scramble the eggs.
The butter is melting
and Mr. Hawthorne has assembled
1 1/2 cups sugar,
1/2 cup lemon juice,
2 TB lemon zest, and
4 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks.
Keep whisking until the mixture is very thick.
Notice Mr. Hawthorne has his pan
hovering over the flame.
When properly thickened,
set aside and let cool
while you prepare the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1-2 TB lemon juice
1-2 TB lemon zest
2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Combine cream cheese, butter, juice, and zest.
Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Gradually add in powdered sugar
until you get the proper spreading consistency.
Mr. Hawthorne is ready for assembly:
3 Lemon Layers - Check
Lemon Curd - Check
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting - Check
Isn't this lovely?
The reason the top layer is darker
is because it was cooked in a darker cake pan
than the other two layers.
Digging the sassy black kevlar apron he's wearing
ReplyDeleteHeh. I let him borrow my apron.
ReplyDeleteSo, ah, I'm coming to visit you this weekend, right? So, ah, my birthday is this weekend. Yeah, sure it is. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket.
ReplyDeleteThat has to be a great cake !
ReplyDelete