Woody's Luxury Lemon Cake

This was a new recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbook. It consists of a white chocolate cake with lemon zest, lemon curd, and white chocolate buttercream with part of the lemon curd. The recipe indicated that I should reserve some of the lemon curd to put on the top of the cake in swirls. I decided I would skip that step and double the lemon curd that is between the layers of the cake.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a chocolate fan. That being said, this cake is DELICIOUS!

It was very time consuming. I started it at 9:30 a.m. and finished it around 3:30 p.m. There were several "let cool for x minutes/hours" in that time period, but I didn't extend any of them.

Other people who have made this indicated that the cake recipe is similar to another one of Rose Levy Beranbaum's, so I will be searching for that one. I also need to find a similar white chocolate buttercream. This one was made very differently than other buttercreams, the white chocolate and some of the butter were melted together and then the egg yolks added to that mixture, cooking them. After cooling, this base and more butter were beaten together and finally the lemon curd added. The part that's throwing me is what to use to replace the lemon curd.

Madalyn's Baby Shower

I made a cake for a coworker's baby shower last week. In order to make a 12x18 sheet cake and 8" layer cake, I made 5x the recipe of Butter Cream cake. I did this Saturday, June 26 and shortly after putting the cakes into the oven, the tornado sirens went off. Since Bret and Schandra don't have a good place to go for shelter, they brought the girls over here to sit under our stairs. (While Terry is painting in the next room so that we can be ready when our carpet and flooring arrive any day now.) As I was trying to help keep the girls calm and somewhat happy while they are in a 4'x8' area, I missed the timer on the cake warning me to rotate. End result - on Sunday morning I went to the store for good old Betty Crocker cake mixes.

I did stick with 'real' buttercream. I made mousseline buttercream which uses beaten egg whites. Even though I have a 7-qt mixer, I can't double the recipe because there's just too much. The first batch comes out wonderfully. The second batch does not - it is a curdled, weepy mess. I refrigerate it for an hour or so to see if that helps. Not so much. I'm guessing the fact that it's 80 degrees in the kitchen isn't helping. I use the icing anyway, hoping that it won't fall off the sides of the cakes. I make the third batch of icing at 8 pm and it also turns out fine. I'm guessing that it had something to do with the temperature and humidity of the kitchen.

I had cut out fondant decorations for the cake. My 2" alphabet cutters were probably just a bit too big, as my plan was to put all of the words on the sheet cake and just flowers on the 8". Oh well...

End result was that the cake was enjoyed at the shower, and most importantly, Madalyn is a doll!