Fusion Lemon Cake
A nice fusion of beautiful ideas and methods.
It is based on a French soft lemon sponge cake corpus with some discreet poppy seeds. The main role in the cream of the cake is played by the English lemon curd, which is complemented by the strong presence of gentle Italian Mascarpone. Yes! And let’s not forget the little puckish Finnish vodka that soaks the French sponge cake properly.
They act beautifully together!
INGREDIENTS:
for the sponge cake corpus:
• 200 g unsalted butter
• 4 whole eggs
• 140 g granulated sugar
• zest and juice of a lemon
•a pinch of salt
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 ts baking soda
• 2 tbs poppy seeds
for the English lemon curd:
• 4 egg yolks
• 120 g granulated sugar
• 100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
•1 tbs lemon zest
• 2 pinches of salt
+ 500 g mascarpone
for the lemony vodka syrup:
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 50 ml vodka
• 1-2 tbs granulated sugar
• 150 ml water
PREPARATION:
1. In the first step prepare the sponge cake corpus. Begin by mixing sugar and butter together. Whisk well until light and fluffy with a manual whisker. Once done, add the eggs one at a time and blend well. Beat further so that the mixture turns white and creamy. Sift together the flour, baking soda, pinch of salt and poppy seeds. The point is to evenly distribute the baking soda in flour. Gradually, add this to the soft egg mixture.
2. Take a baking tin (approximately 24 cm in diameter) to cook the cake and grease it well using some butter or cooking spray, then sprinkle some flour on it to prevent the cake from sticking to the base. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and place it to the oven preheated to 170 degrees. Bake it for cca 30 minutes or until “toothpick test”. Insert a toothpick into the cake and if it comes out clean, then the cake is ready. Let the cake cool in its tin a bit before inverting onto a cooling rack, where it’ll need to cool completely before frosting.
3. While the the cake is baking make the lemon curd. Put the lemon zest, juice, sugar and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the butter has melted. Then, using a small whisk, stir in the egg yolks. Keep gently whisking the mixture over the heat for around 10 mins until thickened like custard. There are two important things here: never make lemon curd on direct heat and always keep on stirring.
Once it is cool enough combine it with the mascarpone. And here we go! Our filling, frosting is ready.
4. Now let’s make the syrup, which is a very simple process: mix the ingredients well and heat it up to let the sugar dissolve.
5. Now we are ready to assembly the cake. Cut the cake base evenly into two halves so that you get two beautiful layers. Brush or soak them with the lemony vodka syrup. Spread the half of the cream on the bottom layer, place the other on top of this and cover with the rest of the cream and decorate it as you wish.
