Luscious Lemon Cake

I was craving something moist, something lemony.    Really lemony!  I stumbled upon a recipe for a 3 layer lemon cake that actually cooks in just one layer. 

Cake ingredients:

Place egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer (you do have a stand mixer, don't you?).

Using the whipping attachment  mix on high speed until . . .

....whites are stiff but not dry.

Empty egg white into another bowl and set aside.  Wash out the bowl and add the egg yolks and sugar.  Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. 

Add oil and vanilla.  Mix for another 30 seconds.  Then fold in the eggs whites.

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.   Fold in half of the flour mixture.

Fold in the rest of the flour (genlty!  don't deflate the egg whites) and then pour into an 15x10x 1 inch jelly roll pan.  I lined my pan with my trusty silpat baking mat, but you can also line it with waxed paper (oiled and floured) or even parchment paper (oiled and floured).

Spread the batter evenly over the pan. 

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.  My oven doesn't heat evenly so I rotated the cake halfway through the baking time.

When the cake is finished IMMEDIATELY loosen it from the hot pan and invert it onto a kitchen towel sprinkled with powder sugar.  I didn't even take time the take a photo of the cake when it came out of the oven.  I had to get it out of the pan so it would stop cooking.  It was really cool the way I inverted the cake onto the towel, though.  Too bad you can't see it.

Let the cake cool completely.  While it's cooling zest a few lemons....

 put 5 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/3 cupf of sugar into a double boiler.

cook over boiling water for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until it's nice and thick.  Don't let it come to a boil!

Off heat stir in 4 tablespoons of chilled butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until melted.  Stir in 1 tsp of lemon zest.  Let cool and then put in fridge for one hour.

Put 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream in the bowl of the stand mixer.

whip on high speed until stiff--don't turn it into butter!

Fold the whipped cream into the lemon filling that's been in the fridge for an hour.  Put back in the fridge until you need it.


For the frosting:

Take two of those lemons you zested and squeeze out 3 tablespoons of juice.  No seeds, please. 

Put 2 1/2 sticks of softened butter, 2 tsp of lemon zest and the 3 Tbs of lemon juice in the bowl of the stand mixer.

Mix on medium until combined, scraping down bowl as needed, about 30 seconds.  Add 3 cups of sifted confectioner's sugar.  Make sure mixer is on low speed or you'll have a dust cloud in the kitchen.  Mix on medium until frosting is light and fluffy.  Stop to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.

Measure 3 sections of the cake, each 5x3x1.  Feel free to cuss when you realize that the pan was 15 inches long but the cake isn't.  Eyeball it and cut it into thirds.

Use some of the frosting to create a border on two of the layers.  I put a big dollop in a zip top bag and cut a hole in the corner to make my own piping bag.

Take the bottom layer of cake (with the frosting border) and put it on your little turntable.  You do have a little turntable, don't you?

put about half of the lemon filling into the picture frame you just created. 

Place the 2nd layer on top (with the frosting border) and repeat.  Top with the final layer (no border and no lemon filling).

Wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 4 hours.  In this photo the cake is wrapped so tightly the plastic wrap is all but invisible. 

When the cake is fully chilled frost it with the Lemon Butter Cream frosting.  I am the world's worst cake froster but looks have nothing to do with taste.   mmm delicious lemony goodness.