Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Who's birthday is it?
No ones.
Well, then why did you put a candle in the cake?
Because its cute. So have a Happy Unbirthday!
So this cake is very tasty. Refreshing, summery, a light moist cake with a not too sweet frosting. But I totally messed up with stacking it. I of course tried to make it in as many layers as possible. And the second to bottom layer was a bit rugged, not very solid, must have been a bit thinner than the rest of the layers. So when I finally stacked the sixth and final layer, that second layer was already starting to buckle. It was pretty much the shape of a wine barrel. So I chilled it as quickly as possible to harden up the frosting. So after a bit, I started to frost the outside, thinking that I could compensate the buckling sides with a ton of frosting. It did not go as planned.
Sorry there are no photos of the cake drama, I was too stressed to think about it. So when a lot of frosting didn't help with trying to make the sides more straight, I just shoved it in the fridge at the coldest setting.
So after sitting and staring at it for a while, with a completely defeated attitude, I came up with a solution. I just hacked at it with a knife, yes covered in frosting and all. It was pretty cold, so the frosting hardened a lot so i just cut off the bulging sides, shaving them down till they were as straight as possible. Then just frosted it again! With even more frosting.
It looked pretty normal from the outside. Those are little poppy seeds around the sides.
And the inside is where you can tell. It looks a bit sad, like a depressed cake. Luckily all of the frosting nonsense didn't affect the taste at all.
Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July! My weekend was full of personal drama :( that is stressing me out and making me too emotional. Thank goodness for some good cake and my lovely friend Megan, fellow photographer, who is always there for me when I send out that 'Oh my gosh, so and so drama, I can't be by myself right now' text.
Oh and about a little print shop, I'm going to go for it! Just working so editing, scanning, test prints, etc all that fun stuff. So I will update you all when I get all my stuff together!
Lemon-poppy seed cake with vanilla-cream cheese frosting
slightly adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
Cake:
3 cups (420g) cake flour*
2 cups (400g) caster sugar
4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, room temperature, coarsely chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 ¼ cups (300ml) buttermilk
5 egg whites
1/3 cup (80ml) water
Vanilla cream cheese frosting:
2 vanilla beans
5 cups (700g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
224g (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter three 20cm (8in) round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper.
Combine the flour, 1 ¾ cups (350g) of the sugar, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed to blend the ingredients and break up any lumps, about 30 seconds. Add the butter, lemon zest and 1 cup of the buttermilk to the flour mixture. Beat on low – be careful, the flour may fly everywhere – until completely mixed. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1-2 minutes to lighten and aerate the batter.
In a medium bowl, combine the egg whites with the remaining ¼ cup buttermilk; whisk to blend thoroughly. Add this mixture to the batter in 2-3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only enough to incorporate. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
While the cakes are cooling, make the lemon syrup: in a small nonreactive saucepan, combine the remaining ¼ cup (50g) of sugar, the lemon juice and the water. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Turn out the cake layers onto wire racks and generously brush them hot lemon syrup over the warm cakes to moisten evenly. Let cool completely.
Make the frosting: split the vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the sugar with the back of a knife. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Continue to beat until very fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and beat well.
Assembling the cake: place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake plate and spread about a fifth of the frosting over the cake to cover evenly. Repeat with the second cake layer + another fifth of the frosting, then place the third layer on top. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish with whatever strikes your fancy.
* homemade cake flour: 1 cup (140g) all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons corn starch
Serves 12-16 – I made the exact cake recipe above but only 2/3 of the frosting and it was enough to fill and frost the entire cake