This is THE Birthday Cake.
If you want to make something extraordinary for somebody you found the perfect recipe. It's not an easy and fast cake but it totally worth it! I made this cake for my mother's birthday this year.
I wanted to combine everything she loves. So the colour was obvious ... Purple because it's her favourite. The pattern on the side came from that she likes this kind of henna designs.
And the flavour. I make a lot of Lemon Meringue Pies and everybody loves them. So I wanted to make a Lemon Merinque Pie but in a cake form. Lemony sponge, lemon curd filling, italian swiss buttercream and the meringue part on the top and some inside. I adopted all the recipes from the Cupcake Jemma YouTube channel.
The base is the best lemony sweet and moist sponge you have ever had!! Since I made this cake I used this recipe a million times.
The next part, lemon curd. If you have never made lemon curd before you have to! It's amazingly sweet and a tiny bit sour at the same time. You can use it in a lot of ways for example in cakes, cupcakes, pies, cookies or you can just eat it from the jar. ( Of course I have never done something like that... :D ) You can store it in a jar in your fridge.
The meringue is a simple recipe and you can make it in advance and store it in an airtight box.
Only the chocolate part was a little bit more complicated. Chilli helped me with the design. But if you don’t want to make it that’s not a problem at all. Your cake will be beautiful and delicious without the pattern as well.
It was my first really big cake and I think it ended up being pretty good ;).
Lemon Meringue Pie Cake
Prep Time: 1 hour Baking Time: 2,5 + hours Total Time: 4,5 + hours Portions: 10-12 big slices
Ingredients:
Sponge: (for 4 layers of 8-inch or 20 cm round sponges)
500g granulated sugar
500g butter (roome temperature)
8 eggs
6 lemons zest
*500g self-rasing flour
2,5 tablespoons milk
3,5 tablespoons lemon juice
Lemon Curd:
5 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
zest of one lemon
juice of 3 lemons or 110 ml
110g granulated sugar
60 g cold butter
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
4 egg whites
300 g caster sugar
400 g chopped unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Purple gel food coloring (optional)
Meringue:
2 egg whites (room temperature!)
double the weight of your egg whites in caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Purple gel food coloring (optional)
White chocolate decoration:
around 200 g of white chocolate (it depends on how big your pattern is)
*If self-raising flour is not available in your country you can make your own. Add ½ teaspoon baking powder to 1 cup plain flour. In this recipe add 1 and ½ teaspoons to the 500g flour.
Directions:
Sponge:
Preheat your oven to 340 F or 170 C. Butter and flour 4 8-inch or 20 cm round cake pans. (I have only one so I baked one at a time.)
Put the butter and the sugar in a large bowl and start mixing it with a hand mixer or a stand mixer on low speed first then medium-high speed for around 5 minutes or until it’s pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time while you are mixing it on a low speed.
Add the lemon zest and the flour and mix it until it’s well-combined.
Pour the milk and the lemon juice and mix it just until it’s combined.
Divide the batter into four pans evenly and smooth the tops with a spatula.
Bake the sponges for 25-30 minutes. It’s good when the middle is firm and if you push a fork in it, the fork comes out clean.
If the sponges are not straight enough on the top, you can trim the top with a serrated knife.
Lemon Curd:
Put the lemon juice, zest,eggs, sugar in a metal or glass bowl. Start cooking it on a bain-marine. ( Fill a pot with water and start boiling it. Then put the metal or glass bowl on top of the pot. Be carefull and make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water and the bowl is big enough. When you stir the curd use a kitchen cloth to hold the bowl because it can be hot.)
Keep your eyes on the curd and stir until it thickens.
When it’s thick take it off from the pot and mix in the cold butter.
I mixed it through with a hand blender until there were no lumps in it.
When it’s cold put it in a jar and you can keep it in your fridge until you need to use it.
Meringue:
Preheat you oven to 210 F or 100 C. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet
Use a big metal bowl and make sure it’s very clean. Put in the eggs and measure them. If there is any yolk in it you have to make an other batch.
Measure out the sugar (double the weight of your eggs) and add a pinch of salt.
Use a whisk attachment and start to whisk your eggs on a low speed. When it’s foamy whisk it on a higher speed.
Beat it until it’s firm and you can turn the bowl upside down.
Put it back on a medium-high speed and add the sugar one tablespoon at time. Mix it for about five minutes or until if you rub it between your fingers you don’t feel any grains of sugar left.
Add the vanilla extract and beat it until it’s combined for a few seconds.
For the purple stripes prepare a piping bag. With a clean brush draw two stripes inside the pipping bag with the food coloring. Then fill the bag with the meringue batter. The first few blobs won’t be colored but then you will start to see the color.
Pipe little meringues to the baking sheet.
Bake them for about 30-35 minutes or until you can pull them off the paper.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
Put the egg whites and the sugar in a metal bowl.
Make a bain marine. Put some water in a sauce pan and put the metal bowl on the top. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water. Start heating the water slowly.
Stir with a whisk until all the sugar is dissolved. You can check it with rubbing some between your fingers.
If it’s smooth take it off the pan. Use a standing mixer and a whisk attachment. Whisk it for about ten minutes, until it’s cool white and fluffy.
Add the butter squares one at a time.
Mix in the vanilla.
Divide the buttercream into 4 bowls. Add food coloring to the creams. Leave one white and add a little food coloring to the second bowl then a bit more to the third and the fourth one. So you get 3 shades of purple.
White chocolate decoration:
Melt 150 g of the white chocolate in the microwave at 30 minutes intervals. Chop the other 50g of chocolate into small pieces.
When your chocolate is totally melted put in the chopped pieces and mix them well.
Here is how we made the decoration of course you don’t have to make this part if you don’t want to.
We melted some white chocolate and put it in a ziploc bag. Chilli drew the design on a parchment paper. Then she flipped the paper and drew the pattern with the melted chocolate following the lines. She did it in two halves so it was easier to stick it onto the cake later. ( Make sure you make some extra just in case ;) ) The most difficult part is that you want the chocolate to dry in the appropriate angle so it doesn’t break when you put it on the cake. So we used the ring part of a removable bottom cake pan. We sticked the parchment paper with the pattern inside the pan with double sided tape and put it in the firdge for 5-10 minutes. Then we did the same with the other half.
How to put together the cake:
Put some buttercream on the edges of the first sponge. Fill the circle with some lemon curd and break some meringue on top.
Repeat this two more times and then put the last sponge on the top.
Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of white buttercream. This is the crumb coat. Chill the cake for around 30 minutes or until the buttercream is set.
Then cover the cake withe the purple colored buttercreams.
Stick the chocolate covered parchment paper to the side of the cake and pull of the paper carefully.
Put the meringues on the top.
P.S.: I know it's a looong recipe but you can do it!
