Lemon Cake

I'm going to be boring today. Boring, because I suspect that most of today's blog posts will be about today's holiday. I had a choice: herring (śledzik, the traditional herring supper on the last night of Carnival) or Women's Day. The choice was obvious! How could I not be proud to be a Woman? How could I not be happy about Women's Day? After all, we are all special, one of a kind and unrepeatable! We love beauty and the warmth of the people close to us. We are Mothers, Wives, Daughters, Friends, Life Partners and quite often a "filter" for other people's problems. We are special and that deserves a celebration. The herring can wait, we need to celebrate ourselves :)

lemon cake

I admit I didn't make this cake today, but I prepared it as a gift for a Woman. A very nice Woman who has been putting up with my grumbling for several years now. That's why I decided to dedicate this cake to all Women.

This cake is intensely lemony, delicate, refreshing and... delicious. The only thing that bothered me a little was a slight taste of flour in the cream. Next time I'll try adding a bit less of it to the cream.

The recipe for this cake comes from Dorotus76's collection. I made it with half of the recipe, but since I didn't change anything, I'm giving the whole recipe. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of a slice, because the cake was made as a gift. You can see one on the recipe author's blog, though. What I do have is a photo of the inside of a modified version of this cake. After making it I had some cream left over, so I baked a red sponge cake in the shape of a heart, layered it with lemon cream, covered it with chocolate and gave it to my Husband :) We liked it in this version too.

lemon cake heart

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of milk to a boil with the sugar. Blend the second cup of milk (preferably with an immersion blender) with the flour, starch, eggs and lemon zest until smooth. Pour the milk with the eggs and flour into the boiling milk and stir (constantly!), cooking a thick pudding over low heat and waiting until the mixture thickens. Set aside to cool.

Once it has cooled, add the lemon juice to the pudding (add it gradually), mixing constantly on the highest speed.

Beat the butter until fluffy. Gradually add the cooled lemon pudding to it, mixing the whole time (adding the pudding to the butter too quickly may cause the cream to curdle).

Refrigerate the cream until it firms up slightly.

Soak the finished sponge layers with 3/4 cup of a mixture of water with lemon juice and, optionally, vodka (I soak mine with water, lemon juice and sugar).

Layer the sponge with the cream and decorate the cake any way you like. Mine is sprinkled with shredded coconut and chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!