Monday, May 19, 2008

Lemon Cream Cake

Kristens Food May 2008 037 #2 When Helen of Tartlette announced that she was hosting this months Sugar High Friday and that the theme was citrus, I knew I was in. I love desserts that are light and citrusy but what to make? I have a few lemon standbys that I always go for but this time I wanted to try something a little different. My mother-in-law has been talking about Olive Garden's Lemon Cream Cake a lot lately, so this post is dedicated to her and my attempt to recreate it. I think it turned out pretty darn close and boy was it delicious.

I decided to use the cake form Dorie Greenspan's party cake recipe since it had a nice crumb and was light. The filling I just kind of improvised as I went along, it's kind of a lemon and cream cheese mousse. The topping is just a crumb topping with powdered sugar, flour, butter and vanilla. Altogether delicious!

Lemon Cream CakeKristens Food May 2008 038 #3

Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites (save the yolks for the lemon curd)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

Filling

1/3 cup simple syrup (you will need more simple syrup to brush on the cake)
1 package unflavored powdered gelatin
1 batch of lemon curd (recipe follows)
1 pkg. (8oz) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup whipping cream

1. Bloom the gelatin in a few Tbs. of water for about 5 minutes. Heat the simple syrup over medium heat and add the gelatin, bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

2. In a chilled mixing bowl, beat the whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.

3. In the mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and the lemon curd until it is well mixed. Slowly drizzle in the cooled simple syrup, scraping down sides as needed. Add the whipping cream and beat with the whisk attachment until incorporated.

4. Chill the mixture until slightly thickened.

Lemon Curd

2 large lemons
4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cold

1. Zest the lemons and set aside. Juice the zested lemons and strain the juice. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until smooth. Stir in the zest and lemon juice.

2. Pour the mixture into a non-reactive saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and pour through a strainer into a glass bowl. Stir in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Cool to room temperature then press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface and chill in the fridge until completely chilled and set.

Vanilla Crumb Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. powdered sugar

5 Tbs. chilled butter cut into small pieces

1 tsp. vanilla

1. In a bowl mix the flour and powdered sugar. Cut in the chilled butter until small pea sized balls form. Drizzle the vanilla over and mix to combine. Chill the mixture until needed.

Assembling the cake.

When the cake cooled, slice in half horizontally. Brush the cut sides of the cake with the remaining simple syrup. Spread 2/3 of the filling on the bottom half of the cake. Top with the other layer of cake. Frost the top and the outside of the cake with the remaining filling and then press the crumb mixture onto the sides and top of the cake. Dust with powdered sugar. Chill for several hours or freeze to firm up the filling. Dust extra with powdered sugar before serving.

del.icio.us Tags: ,,

17 comments:

Unknown said...

OMG! This is heaven! I love it! Thank you for such a delicious entry!

The Marshall Family said...

This turned out great, despite the crumb topping!

Hi! I'm Jeni (Jen, Jennifer, or Mom) said...

This cake was sooooo yummy! I'm glad you decided to try it.

Lori said...

Wow this looks really good. I can not wait to try it!

Cakelaw said...

This is a truly gorgeous cake - thanks for posting this recipe.

Anonymous said...

In the recipe you say, "Beat in the extract...". I don't see any Extract in the ingredients...?

Anonymous said...

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!

JulieVarg said...

Hi, I found your blog through "Your home based Mom". I would like to make this Lemon cake for Easter and have two questions. How much lemon curd does your recipe make? I would like to use some already prepared lemon curd and am not sure how much to put in. Maybe 1 cup? Also, how much of the simple syrup do you brush on the cake. 1/3 of a cup for the filling, but how much for brushing on the cake? Thank you very much.

hair bows said...

My kids would love this!

HanaĆ¢ said...

First time here, great blog!! That lemon cake looks wonderful. I love lemon :o)

novice said...

The temperature to bake the lemon creme cake was not on my page. Also, what size pans? Do I split both layers add the syrup or just the bottom one?

Caryn said...

I know this is an older post, but I found this recipe through a google search. I made it for Mother's day because one of my mother's favorite desserts is Olive Garden's lemon cream cake. This recipe was very involved, but it tasted FANTASTIC and it was worth every second I spent on it. My mom said it was better than the Olive Garden!

Anonymous said...

I will be making it this weekend. Could you please explain: are you using 8 or 9 inch pans? At what temperature do you bake it?

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Found this online as well. I wanted a cake like the one Honeybaked Ham sells. But no instructions on baking temperature and what pan to use??? How did people comment this turned out great? And does it use extract because it isn't listed in the ingredients.

Haley said...

For those wondering, it would appear that the "extract" is the vanilla listed at the end of the ingredients. Also, most cakes bake at around 350F, so I would use that and just keep an eye on the cake.

Fantastic recipe, hon. Can't wait to try it. It sounds better than OG.

Dilujim said...

Omg the cake was amazing! I didnt really like the rest of the recipe. The filling had a strange taste and the crumbs I rather omit that. However, I would make the cake more again j uh st without those other things. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

This cake was SOOOOO good. It's the only cake from scratch (besides chocolate and cheesecake) that has come out extremely delicious! Thank you for letting me redeem my red velvet mishap this morning. :)