Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Buttercream

So I was asking my Dad what cake he would like for the weekend. I had just borrowed a book from the library and suggested that he had a look through. After sometime, Dad comes out of his study with his infamous tiny reading glasses (which he has since lost - tsk tsk tsk) picking two cake that require ... drumroll ...... alcohol - typical Dad ... really

One recipe was an orange cranberry combination that required Contrieau and the other Limoncello ! So I decided to try the lemon ones as I already had lemons at home.

The recipe was really really easy. So components are simple lemon pound cakes, a simple syrup, lemon curd and lemon butter cream. It is suggested that the process be spread over two days to allow for the cake to fully absorb the syrup and completely cool down. 

                           

So day one was cake making, curd making and syrup making day. The cakes turned out beautifully with almost no domed surface - score !!! The lemon curd can be store-bought. I have a recipe that I always turn to - so I made that. The syrup required the alcohol which I just omitted.(The cake still tasted great)

Day two was buttercream making day. Simple beyond simple. Just beat butter and icing sugar till no lumps and mix in the lemon curd to get lemon buttercream. I think the next time I make it, I might double the recipe. The buttercream was just enough to fill and thinly cover the whole cake. Leftover curd became decor for the top !

I had lots of curd left so I filled the cake with the curd as well. If you look close, you can see the layer of curd above the layer of buttercream. Anyone care for a slice ?

Lemon Limoncello Cake with Lemon Buttercream adapted from Peggy Porchen

For the cake layers
200g softened unsalted butter200g golden caster sugar2 lemons - zest finely grated(unwaxed or washed well)4 medium eggs, lightly beaten200g self raising flourpinch of salt

Simple Syrup
150ml lemon juice (about 3 lemons' worth)
150g caster sugar
50ml Limoncello liqueur (I just skipped this)

Buttercream icing
80g softened unsalted butter
80g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
40g lemon curd (I make mine from scratch)

Grease and baseline three  6 " baking pans and preheat the oven to 175'C.  

Cream the butter, lemon zest, salt and sugar together until pale and fluffy. It will take a good few minutes for the sugar to dissolve. 

Add the eggs a little at a time and beat until fully incorporated. Once the eggs are all incorporated, gently fold in the flour until it has just combined. 

Divide the mix evenly between the tins and level the surface. . 

Place the tins in the centre of your oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until fragrant and golden. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

While the cake is baking make the sugar syrup. In a saucepan stir together the lemon juice and caster sugar. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool for a few minutes and then stir in the limoncello (if using).

Once the cakes have been out of the oven for 10 minutes brush liberally with the sugar syrup. Once completely cool wrap in cling film and let rest for 24 hours.

To make the buttercream, cream the butter, icing sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Pour in the lemon curd and beat for 30 seconds.

To assemble, trim the sides and level each layer. Brush the tops with sugar syrup one more time and sandwich each layer with the buttercream. A useful guide would be to divide the icing into quaters. 1/4 of the icing for each layer (there will be two layers of buttercream inside the cake) and the remaining 1/2 of the icing for the outside. If you think there's not enough, then go ahead and quickly make another batch.

Enjoy !

Vegetarian Chocolate Cake

It's hard making cake for  my extended family as quite a few of them are vegetarian, some don't like creamy, some don't like the 'eggy' smell yada yada yada..

I'm still seraching for a good white vegetarian cake recipe but I think I found my vegetarian chocolate cake. It's really really good. Double thumbs up from all. The key to the cake I think is in the type of cocoa powder. Because there's so much cocoa powder in the recipe, it dominates the flavour of the cake which makes up for the lack of eggs. I use Valrhona. 

For Ryan's birthday, he wanted Chocolate Cake. So the construction of this cake came in four parts - the cake, the whipped chocolate cream, the chocolate ganache and chocolate glacage.

Ah prepping my kitchen space - where the magic happens! I love baking past midnight - the air is cooler and  everyone, well mostly everyone is asleep.

The cake begins with creaming the butter the sugar till pale and fluffy. Then in a separate bowl, the cocoa powder is mixed with water to create a paste. That is added to the butter mixture and then the reamining ingredients are added. 

The first time I made the cake, it was really crumbly and difficult to cut. So this time around to make my job easier, I baked into two 8" pans.

Whilst the cakes were baking, the next easy peasy step was the ganache. Just hot cream onto chocoalte chips and mix until combined with no lumps. For a more luxurious taste and glossy look, a knob of butter can be mixed into the room temperature ganache. Then its off to the refrigerator to harden and set.

I recently purchased ring moulds to make it easier for me to fill cakes. So naturally I bought 8" moulds for 8" pans - but no... 

Darn cake that came out from the 8" pans were smaller !!! Arghhhh - so out came my plastic wrap. Sigh - I need to go get 7" ring mould now. Sob Sob

I mixed in a little bit of nutella into the ganache as well to give it a hazelnut taste. So four layers of cake filled with ganache. Then covered the whole thing with chocolate whipped cream (ganache added to whipped cream), piped a border of ganache on the top and bottom and poured the chocolate glacage in the middle. 
Some decor after - et viola ! Happy Birthday Ryan !

                      

Chocolate Vegetarian Cake :- adapted from a recipe from Taste Goblet

125 g softened unsalted butter 
1 cup fine castor sugar  
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup cocoa (Valrhona preferred)

1/2 cup hot water
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

1 teaspoon of vinegar

Prepare two 8" baking pans by greasing it and lining the bottom with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180'C.

Mix the cocoa in the hot water and let it cool. 

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually the room temperature cocoa mixture to the butter/sugar mixture.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and add it to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Mix thoroughly. 

Add in the vinegar and vanilla essence and mix well.

Spoon the cake mixture into prepared pans and bake in a moderate oven (180 deg. C) for 40-50 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Let the cake to cool in its pan for 10 minutes. Then turn it out and allow to cool before icing.