{cake on friday} lemon layer cake

Montbretia, originally uploaded by sheelajoy.

It being Cake Day, I thought I'd share with you the recipe I used for my dad's birthday cake. I'm sorry that I have no photos of said cake. In fact I have no photos at all of that event, as a) I'd forgotten to bring my camera and b) I'm a deeply neglectful daughter.

The room was beautiful though. We went with a maroon and white theme. My mother had made two lovely floral arrangements from white hydrangeas and an assortmert of deep maroon foliage. The tables had maroon cloths, white tealights in glass holders, and small twigs of the maroon foliage. Hmm, not a very evocative description, so you're going to have to trust me - it was pretty.

On to the cake...

Lemon Layer Cake
(from Magnolia Bakery Cookbook)

Makes three 9-inch layers (and yes, it is an adaptation of the 1-2-3-4 cake)

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups sifted self-rising flour
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour, lemon juice and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans, or if you have just the one pan like me, roughly estimate a third of the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

I'd adapted the recipe to make one 10 inch and one 9 inch cake. When the cakes cooled, I spread lemon curd on top of each layer, and then stacked the layers on top of each other. Now, you can make your own lemon curd, but I was trying to reduce labour at this point so I used a nice shop-bought variety.

I then made up an enormous batch of the seven-minute frosting, which was marshmallowy, and fluffy and delectable. I frosted the bigger cake with it, and set the remainder aside as I wasn't sure if we'd need the second cake after all. It turned out we didn't, which is just as well as a dear family friend with a devastatingly sweet tooth found the remainder of the frosting in the kitchen and attacked it with a spoon. In next to no time, it was half gone so he got to take what was left home, while I got to take the unfrosted cake home. Yay!

Fear not, it was shared with a great many people.