a whisk and a spoon

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Lemon (or Yuzu) Meringue Layer Cake

Another month, another layer cake. This time it’s a Lemon Meringue Layer Cake to celebrate Mardi’s birthday month! I actually used yuzu instead of lemon, because I have a stash of frozen yuzu juice at the moment…I rarely see it sold here, and I kind of go nuts whenever I do.

I cut the 8-inch cake recipe in half to make a 6-incher, my regular move when I’m just slicing for the two of us. This cake has two layers of soft lemon cake, a lemon soaking syrup, a lemon cream filling and lemon meringue frosting. I just straight up replaced the lemon in all the components with yuzu…well, apart from the soaking syrup, which I skipped making. I have a sweet yuzu liqueur that I found at the wine shop some time ago, and I used that in its place. (I am, btw, a huge proponent of brushing cake layers with sugar syrup or booze to keep them moist. I do this even if a recipe does not specify to, especially since just a 6-inch cake will last us three or four nights.)

I know there’s another recipe Dorie also calls “lemon cream” that she learned from Pierre Hermé. It’s a lemon curd that’s set with like two sticks of butter blended in at the end. That was what I excepted we’d be making for this cake, and I was kind of surprised that this lemon cream is more like a lemon pudding: milk-based and thickened with cornstarch. Not to worry- all that butter that’s absent from the lemon cream finds its way into the frosting instead! The meringue component of this cake is not a marshmallow fluff, but a Swiss meringue buttercream– the most luxuriously buttery-smooth cake coating in all of frosting-land (in my opinion, at least).

My taste tester said this was like wedding cake. It’s been a minute since I’ve made one of those, but I see what he meant. This comes together as a very grown up and elegant cake. I like the touch of adding a thin layer of extra lemon cream over top of the frosting. Now go and wish Mardi a happy birthday!

If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: A Big Banana Cake

I just had a big birthday, one that ends in a zero and makes me think about what I’m doing (or not doing) with my life. That has been a bit hard to swallow, but what does go down easy is A Big Banana Cake. How’s that for a segue?

I did, in fact, make this as my at-home birthday cake, but I turned the really big 9-inch original cake into a 6-incher, which is still plenty big for the two of us. I used 1/3 of all ingredients to avoid it being too tall. The batter is flavored with bananas (obvi), vanilla and allspice. I don’t have any allspice on hand, so I subbed a pinch of this and a pinch of that, which in the end basically mimicked pumpkin pie spice. Another twiddle I made with the batter was to add just a bit of baking powder along with the soda. The amount of leavening seemed a little skimpy to me given the amount of flour, some of which is even whole wheat.

Once the three cake layers are baked and cooled, they are filled and frosted with flavored cream cheese frosting. Dorie adds cookie butter to the frosting, which does sound really yummy, but I didn’t want to buy a jar of it only to use a couple of tablespoons. I considered some alternative options I already have like peanut butter and dulce de leche, then settled on Nutella, an open jar of which I’ve had on the counter forever. I didn’t successfully finish off the jar, but the combo of the Nutella frosting and the banana cake is delish. I brushed my cake layers with rum (not only because I firmly believe that rum improves just about every dessert , but it also helps keep a cake that will last a few days a bit more moist) and frosted away. I could spend all day trying to perfectly frost a cake, and dirty just about every sized offset spatula I own in the process, but I’ve wisened up in my advanced age…a swoopy homemade look is really quite charming.

If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Jelly Roll Cake

This month we have a Jelly Roll Cake to celebrate two TWD June birthdays– Margaret’s and Kim’s.  Jelly rolls are also called “Swiss rolls” or “roulades” and can have a variety of fillings rolled up in sheet of flexible sponge cake. Dorie, indeed, gives several variations to consider (hello ice cream roll-up!), but I went with the jam and whipped cream-filled classic. I had my fun playing around with flavor options. I had an unopened jar of yuzu marmalade in the cupboard, which became my jam component. The pulp of a fresh passionfruit went into the whipped cream. All rolled up in a lemon-scented sponge, I was very excited to see the cut slices reveal a tidy spiral of passionfruit-flecked cream. I have lots more ideas for filling and flavor combos, and since this was relatively easy (and extremely tasty), I might just have to have my own “playing around” session with the old-fashioned jelly roll.

If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Curd, Cream and Berry Cake

This Curd, Cream and Berry Cake is a showstopper…something to impress mom, and make tons of washing up! It’s kind of an update on the Victoria Sponge, and its many components include: a hot milk sponge cake split into two layers, mounds of mascarpone whipped cream, lemon curd, lemon soaking syrup and lots of fresh berries.

I don’t have much experience with making hot milk sponge, but it’s super light and nice and it cut in half beautifully, so I’m into it. The cream filling was supposed to be a mascarpone-meringue-whipped cream concoction, but I decided to skip the egg white meringue step, figuring it would hold up better without (and hadn’t I dirtied enough bowls already?). Mascarpone-whipped cream is my fave way enjoy whipped cream anyway and it stays pretty stable for a few days, too.

I really debated what to do about the lemon curd component for this. I made just a half size (6-inch) cake and, adjusting the recipe, would need just 2 tablespoons of curd for dotting around the berries. It didn’t seem like enough to really justify making or buying it. I thought about just using jam instead. Then I found a recipe for whole-egg lemon curd that looked quick and easy and wouldn’t leave me stuck with a bunch of whites. I made 1/3 of that to use one egg (and I strained it before I chilled it). I wound up with at least twice what I needed but decided to fold the excess into the middle layer of cream for an extra-lemony filling.

If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!