The Hawthorne family has 3/5 of their birthdays in August.
Youngest Hawthorne's is the 7th,
Daughter Hawthorne's is the 11th,
and Mr. Hawthorne's is the 31st.
Middle Hawthorne and Rosie are winter babies.
It's what she requested -
lemon and chocolate together.
I decided to make a lemon layer with chocolate frosting
and a chocolate layer with lemon frosting.
First, the lemon cake layer.
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
2 TB lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons
Combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest.
Mix until creamy.
Add eggs, one at a time,
beating after each addition.
Sift 1 cup of flour and fold it into the mixture.
Stir in lemon juice.
Pour batter into a 9-inch round cake pan
lined and greased with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
Next I'm making a lemon syrup to pour over top
to give the cake even more lemon flavor,
more moisture, and a shiny crust.
Combine 2/3 cup sugar with the juice of 2 lemons.
Nuke and stir to dissolve.
Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
5 TB unsalted butter, melted
1 cup warm water
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB vanilla extract
Mix first six ingredients,
then add in the melted butter, water, lemon juice,
and vanilla extract.
Pour into ungreased 9-inch round pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
I needed to trim the chocolate layer
to even it out a bit.
While the cake layers were cooling,
I started on the icings.
I'm making a Lemon and Cream Cheese Frosting
for the chocolate layer.
1/2 package cream cheese (4 oz.), room temperature
3 TB butter, softened
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 TB vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, zest,
and vanilla until smooth.
Add in confectioners sugar,
beating until smooth and creamy.
Ingredients for Chocolate Frosting in foreground.
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
For the frosting, put chocolate chips in a bowl.
Heat cream and butter in saucepan over medium heat,
bringing just to a boil.
Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate chips
and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir until smooth.
Let ganache sit at room temperature
for about one hour, until slightly firm.
Beat ganache until creamy, smooth, and light.
Next, assembly.
I'm putting the yellow cake layer first,
since that will have the chocolate ganache icing.
I thought the chocolate on the bottom
would look better than chocolate on the top.
Chocolate on the top layer would appear top-heavy
and you wouldn't really see the pretty lemon icing
if it were on the bottom.
At least that's my reasoning.
It's hard to see in the pictures,
but I set the cake on 4 pieces of wax paper
so after frosting,
I can simply pull the wax paper out
and have a clean serving plate.
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