![]() ![]() In the electric mixer bowl (don’t worry about washing it), place:Ģ large egg yolks (reserved from earlier)ĩ0 g lemon curd (reserve the rest for assembling the cake)īeat this yolk mixture with the whisk attachment until smooth. Scoop meringue into another bowl and set aside. Gradually add in 100 g granulated sugar, beating on medium-high until a stiff-but-not-dry meringue forms. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine:Ĥ large egg whites (2 reserved from the lemon curd plus 2 additional whites – save the 2 yolks for later in the recipe)īeat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Cool, then chop coarsely and set aside 2 tbsp for decoration. Toast 55 g shelled pistachios in the preheating oven for 7-10 minutes, until lightly coloured and fragrant. Butter and flour three 6-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch high sides line bottoms with parchment paper. Press plastic wrap directly to the surface and chill until cool. With an immersion blender (or pour it into the jar of a blender) blend in the butter in 1 tbsp pieces, until opaque, thick, and creamy. Measure out 1.5 parts cold unsalted butter (about 135 g). Press through a strainer into a bowl, and allow to cool to 140˚F. It should be thick enough to leave a bare trail on the bottom of the pot and mound up on the spatula, about 185˚F. Cook, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula, until very thick, like pudding. Once all the lemon juice is added, pour the mixture back into the pot and set over medium-low heat. Slowly add the simmering lemon juice to the egg yolk-sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Juice enough lemons to get 1 part lemon juice (about 90 g). Bring the lemon juice to a simmer in a small pot. In a medium bowl, place 1 part granulated sugar (about 90 g) and rub in the zest of 1 lemon with your fingers, until fragrant. In 2 other bowls, reserve 2 egg whites for the cake, and 3 egg whites for the Swiss meringue buttercream. In a small bowl, weigh out 5 large egg yolks – this weight is 1 part (which for 5 yolks, should be about 90 g). ![]() ![]() ![]() Click here for a printable PDF of the recipe. Can be doubled for a 3 layer, 9” round cake. Makes one 3 layer, 6” round cake, 8-10 servings. The various components of this cake have been inspired by Bon Appetit, Sky High Cakes via Leite’s Culinaria, the BraveTart book and blog, Tartine, and Sweetapolita, however I’ve done significant scaling, tweaking, and modifying to come up with the recipe below. If the addition of pistachios offends your inner-lemon-layer-cake-purist, you can certainly omit them from the cake recipe, but I think you might find they are juuuuust right □ So, friends, my quest is over! If you, too, have been searching for the perfect lemon layer cake, I urge you to try this one. And wouldn’t you know it – my perfect lemon layer cake, the one that is neither too dense nor too sweet nor too drippy but juuuuust right – my Goldilocks cake! – is actually a lemon pistachio layer cake! At the last minute, inspired by this yummy pistachio petit four cake, I decided to include pistachios in the cake layers – essentially making the cake version of these dreamy cookies. While all this Goldilocks-style trial and error was a bit onerous, it did allow me to pinpoint exactly what I was looking for in this elusive cake: a light lemon sponge with egg yolks for moisture and flavour plus whipped egg whites for loft, a double layer filling of creamy lemon curd and lemon whipped cream, vanilla Swiss meringue frosting on the outside, and buttercream and lemon curd piped in St-Honoré-style chevrons à la Thida Bevington on top. I’ve made many, many attempts – the first one, with dense layers and teeth-achingly sweet cream cheese frosting this meringue-topped beaut that introduced me to Tartine’s fantastic lemon cream this lemon, blackberry and white chocolate behemoth a cake with wonderfully soft and light layers but disasterously drippy frosting another lemon and blackberry behemoth with more drippy frosting and most recently, one that featured a brilliant lemon curd formula and was so pretty – but all were too dense or too sweet or too drippy, and still not juuuuust right. If you are a long time reader, you may be aware that I have been on a multi-year quest to make a lemon layer cake that is juuuuust right. ![]()
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