Make homemade lemon curd. Duh. What, you thought I was going to say lemonade?

I LOVE lemons. Lemon flavored everything. I cannot get enough. Recently, I got over my fear of Lemon Meringue Pie and decided I needed to make it in a cake form. And then make it in a cupcake form. And then eat the remaining lemon curd with a spoon whilst my husband looked on with only mild shock. He really shouldn’t be shocked. We have been together for 13 years and married for 3 of them. He has seen me INHALE all sorts of food. He should not be surprised. He still finds it amusing when I eat more tacos or fajitas than him. What can I say? Put cheese and sour cream on anything and I will eat it.

So, back to lemons. I purchased quite a few lemons when I got this hair-brained idea to juice delicious fruits to mix with silver tequila so I’m not drinking away copious amounts of calories. Turns out that I still do not like tequila (unless it is blended with sugar laden margarita mix) and no amount of “delicious fruit juice” makes the drink passable. I will be sticking to my vodka tonics, (calories and all) thank you very much. So, yeah. I had some lemon juice laying around. And I still have a bottle of tequila in my refrigerator in case I get the crazy urge to do shots in the future.

The cake was adapted from this one by Tessa Huff at The Cake Blog. I didn’t add the poppy seeds or cardamom. And the cake was still delicious. Well, I can tell you the batter was delicious. I didn’t actually get to eat any of the cake. Insert sad face and start the violins. Although I was told that the cake was amazing. I did add a little something in between the cake layers which I think gives it a nice textural difference. Ever since I received Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi for Christmas, I have been obsessed with all things Crumb related. If you’ve read the book or baked any of her recipes, you know what I’m talking about and have probably (unknowingly) eaten all of it right after you’ve made it and had to make another batch. Because I was recreating a lemon meringue pie, I of course added pie crumb on top of the lemon curd. You can omit this but I wouldn’t. The first thing people say when they have eaten a cake with a crumb layer is “What is in the middle that’s crunchy? It’s so good!” It’s like the crunchy chocolate layer in an ice cream cake.

Lemon Meringue Cake

adapted from Tessa Huff, The Cake Blog

Cake

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

3/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 6″ round pans and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large measuring cup or bowl, stir together eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and lemon zest.
4. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined.
5. Add the boiling water and stir to incorporate.
6. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for about 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lemon Curd

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp lemon juice

zest of half a lemon

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp butter, diced

Place the juice, zest, yolks and sugar in a medium saucepan. Stir to combine. While stirring, heat over medium heat. Continue to stir until mixture thickens, about 6-8 minutes. The curd should coat the back of the spoon when done cooking. Once thickened, remove from heat and add butter. Stir to combine. Strain curd into a heat safe container. Discard the zest. Cover the curd and refrigerate until cool and thick.

Meringue Icing

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Kitchen torch

Place the whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk to combine. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place over medium heat. Place the mixing bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler. Whisking constantly, heat the egg white mixture until the sugar dissolves and is warm to the touch. Once warm, transfer bowl back to the mixer. With the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high until you have medium-stiff, glossy peaks. Add in the salt and vanilla and mix to combine. Use immediately.

Pie Crumb

from Momofuku Milk Bar

makes about 2 3/4 cups of crumb

1 1/2 cups flour

2 Tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

8 Tbsp butter, melted

1 1/2 Tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and paddle on low speed until well mixed. Add butter and water and paddle on low speed until the mixture starts to form small clusters. Spread the clusters on a parchment covered sheet pan. Bake for 25 minutes, breaking up the clusters occasionally. The crumbs should be golden brown and still slightly moist to the touch but they will dry and harden as they cool. Let the crumbs cool completely before using in a recipe or eating. Stored in an airtight container the crumbs will stay fresh for 1 week at room temperature or 1 month in the fridge or freezer.

Assembly

Place a cake layer on your cake board or cake stand. I usually use a dollop of icing or buttercream to keep the first layer in place. Spread a layer of buttercream on your cake and pipe a dam around the outside edge of the cake to keep the curd inside. Spoon your curd onto the cake and smooth out. If you make the excellent choice to include pie crumb, sprinkle that on the curd. Place your next layer on top and repeat the previous steps. Place your last cake layer on your cake. Frost your cake with the meringue icing. Lightly toast the meringue with your torch.

Notes on assembly and ingredients:

The original recipe is for a three layer 8″ cake. As you read, I did a three layer 6″ cake instead. This allowed me some extra batter for the aforementioned cupcakes. I put about a 1/4 cup of batter into my lined cupcake tins. I got about 6 or so cupcakes out of the extra batter. Once they are cooled, I cored the middle with my apple corer, filled it with lemon curd goodness and then piped on some meringue icing. A little toast with the torch and you have lemon meringue cupcakes.

I doubled the lemon curd recipe because I wanted more lemon filling between the layers.

Use the kitchen torch mentioned in the meringue icing recipe to lightly toast the meringue. I bought my kitchen torch at Harbor Freight. It was cheap and it gets the same job done as an expensive “kitchen torch”. Be careful not to keep your flame on any one spot for too long or the meringue will burn. And nobody likes burned meringue.

I put meringue in between the cake layers but this made the cake a wee bit unstable. I would do a small batch of vanilla or lemon buttercream to make a dam so the lemon curd does not leak out on you.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go juice some lemons!!

What the hell, have a shot while you’re at it!

Ann

PS-please excuse the cellphone photos. In the process of setting up my photo area!