There’s some pretty nice color on this cake

Time: 2 Hours 35 minutes + Cooling Time

Ingredient Availability: 5/5

Difficulty: 2/5

In the Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, this was one of the first cake recipes. The picture looked pretty simple, yet pretty tasty. That’s really all that got me to make this recipe. The recipe includes a recipe for a lemon curd buttercream that goes with it, so I made that, too.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

Given that this is a butter cake with buttercream, this recipe calls for a pretty good amount of butter. With that being said, it may be worth it to use a higher quality butter. Other than that, I wouldn’t say that any of the ingredients are particularly special or hard to find. When reading through this book, Rose does make a point of saying that you should use the ingredients that she has specified in the specific amounts listed, so I would just do my best to abide by the ingredients list. Also, make sure that you let certain ingredients come to room temperature before using (butter, cream cheese, and eggs).

Tools:

• Stand Mixer

• Immersion Blender or regular Blender

• Double Boiler Setup

• Bowl(s)

Cooking Review:

Prep for Lemon Curd: 6 minutes

To start, I went ahead and squeezed a lemon for the lemon curd. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of juice, which I was able to get from just one lemon. I also separated the egg yolks and whites to the required ratio,

Make Curd & Buttercream: 1 Hour 9 minutes

After waiting for my double boiler to come to a light simmer, I added the yolks and sugar to the bowl and whisked until combined. I added the lemon juice and some salt and proceeded to stir the mixture until thickened and about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This took me almost 40 minutes of stirring the mixture constantly in the double boiler. This is where the increase in difficulty comes from. Once the curd had been made, I pushed in through a fine mesh strainer and set it a side to cool for about 14 minutes. Next, I added a stick of butter, one tablespoon at a time, to the warm curd, using an immersion blender to incorporate it. I left the buttercream out at room temperature until I was ready to top the cake.

Making Batter: 30 minutes

The recipe says to make the buttercream about 3 hours ahead of the cake, so about 2 and a half hours after finishing the topping, I mixed my liquid ingredients in a bowl (eggs, sour cream, and vanilla). I mixed my dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and added the room temperature butter and cream cheese, along with cold sour cream. I mixed the dry ingredients until moistened then added the egg mixture in two additions, letting the batter mix for 30 seconds before the next addition.

Preparing and Filling the pan: 12 minutes

You should probably prepare the pan earlier when you preheat the oven. I don’t have cake strips, so I just coated the bottom and sides of the pan with butter and lines the bottom and sides with parchment paper. I sprayed the parchment paper with cooking spray and filled the pan with the batter, I used an offset spatula to get the batter as even/flat as possible.

Bake & Cool: 30 minutes + cooling time

I baked the cake for 30 minutes and transferred the cake in the pan to a cooling rack. After 10 minutes, I inverted the cake onto the cooling rack to cool completely. This is supposed to even out and flatten the top. I waited about 2 hours before topping the cake.

Adding Buttercream: 6 minutes

I added a half cup of the buttercream to the cake, which I had flipped back over onto a cake plate. I used an offset spatula to spread the buttercream as evenly as I could.

Analysis:

Immediately after topping the cake, with everything at room temperature, the topping really overwhelms the cake. While I was able to tell that the cake on its own had a good flavor, it was really only after I had eaten most of the buttercream that the cake’s flavor really came through. The texture of the cake was nice and soft, but a little on the dry side (not unpleasantly so). The buttercream is very lemony, which makes sense that it would overpower the cake, which is more buttery with a toasted vanilla flavor. The two parts separately at room temperature would probably get a 8/10. Each component is quite good. However, when combined, I don’t think that they really complement each other, resulting in a score closer to a 6/10. I will say that after being refrigerated overnight, the cake with the buttercream is better. Although the cake has firmed up from being in the refrigerator, the lemon curd kind of mellows out and allows for more of the cake flavor to come though along side it. When cold, I would give this recipe a 7/10. I know it’s an odd way to score this recipe, but that’s jut how it turned out.