Recipe: Triple Lemon Cake

After watching Games of Throne, I've been craving to eat lemon cake, and I blame Sansa Stark for that. Since then, I have baked several lemon cakes using different recipes, and I like each one of it. My husband on the other hand prefers lemon cake with a dry texture. 'That is how lemon cake is supposed to be,' he said. It's funny how he becomes such a picky eater and good food critic after we got married (lalala~)

Most of the recipes that I found are for making tea cakes - which generally dry and dense. However, you can play around with the ingredients to get your desired texture. For moist cake, use oil instead of butter. You can even add more liquid (such as buttermilk, milk etc) for that. Fluffy textures requires cake flour and beating of the egg whites until soft peak and gently fold it in the cake batter.

I also reduced the amount of lemon zest in the cake batter from the original recipe as I want my cake to have nice balance of lemon taste when combined with lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting. Nevertheless, I used approximately five lemons for making this triple lemon cake.

The result of this cake was awesome! Very lemony and it feels so refreshing. My husband didn''t complain this time and he said it has the 'right'texture haha

Triple Lemon Cake

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Lemon cake (adapted from Food Network)

125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
12 tablespoons castor sugar
4 eggs white, at room temperature
Grated lemon zest of 3 large lemons
350 g flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Freshly squeezed lemon juice of 1 1/2 lemons
200 g yogurt (I used Turkish yogurt)

Lemon curd cake filling (adapted from Fine cooking)
72 g unsalted butter
5 tablespoons castor sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs. lightly packed finely grated lemon zest
Pinch salt
4 large egg yolks

Lemon cream cheese frosting

250 g cream cheese (I used Turkish cream cheese)

100 g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons cream
100 g icing sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line four 6-inch cake pans
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and  sugar in the until light and fluffy add  the lemon zest and mix.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and  baking soda in a bowl. In another bowl, combine  lemon juice, and yogurt. Add the flour and yogurt mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
4. Beat the white eggs in separate bowl until soft peak form. Gently fold in the egg whites with the cake batter using wooden spoon. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out smooth. 

For filling:

1. Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon juice, zest, and salt. Whisk in the yolks until smooth.

2. Return the pot to medium-low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. To check if the curd is thick enough, dip a wooden spoon into it and draw a your finger across the the back of the spoon; your finger should leave a path. Don't let the mixture boil. 

3. Immediately force the curd through a fine sieve into a bowl, using a wooden spoon. Let cool at room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.

For frosting:

1. Mix everything in a large bowl and mix until frosting smooth.

To assemble: Layer the cake with curd filling and covered with the lemon cream cheese frosting

p.s: Prayers to all passengers and crews on flight MH17. Hope the loves one for those on board stay strong.