Lemon Raspberry Delight

My friend Shari, who is braving grad school with me, had her birthday this week. I figured in order to celebrate properly I thought she needed a cake! I asked her what she would like and she wanted something with either lemon and/ or raspberry so I gave her both all in one cake. I made a lemon raspberry cake with homemade lemon curd in between each layer. The cake was super yummy. It was originally from Epicurious and I found it on another blog but I changed it just a bit by not using blueberries and not making it a 3 layer cake. Instead I made two square 9 inch cakes and cut them in half layering them with lemon curd.

Ingredients

2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups fresh blueberries ( in my case I used raspberries)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened about 20 minutes out of refrigerator

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8″ round cake pans with parchment paper, butter and flour. Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to larger bowl. Add fresh raspberries and toss to coat them with flour. Set remaining flour mixture and raspberries aside.

Stir whole milk, sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest in small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar, until pale yellow and very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, until well combined. Mix in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide batter equally among 8″ round pans (or in my case two 9" square pans)

Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks for about 10 minutes, then invert onto racks until completely cool.

Zesty Lemon Frosting 

Ingredients

1 cup soft unsalted butter

2 teaspoons lemon zest

6 cups icing sugar

60 ml fresh lemon juice

6 tablespoons whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

2 tablespoons water

pinch salt

Method
Cream butter and lemon zest in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, about 3 minutes. Slowly add icing sugar, mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and beat on med-high for 3-4 minutes until very fluffy. If using color gel, add a drop or two so that it isn't too bright.

In between each layer I made lemon curd. I used a recipe from Martha Stewart (Good ol' Martha, who doesn't love her). 

Ingredients

• 3 large egg yolks, strained
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Directions

1. Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
   
   
   
3. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour.
   
   
   
   This recipe only makes about 1.5 cups per batch, if that, so I doubled the recipe. I probably could have tripled it without having much extra left over. It was very tart and delicious and added a lot to the cake. It was delicious. I just hope that Shari liked it!