Lemon Cream Cake

I am not much of a baker. That is Sharon's thing and I don't like to venture into desserts often as I tend to eat them and my rear end is big enough. However with the weather getting warm and my kids begging for something sweet I decided to try and make a light and refreshing cake.

In this recipe you can either make a white cake from scratch or use a boxed mix if you are so inclined. Sometimes not every part has to be home made. I made a white cake from a Betty Crocker box. Spray your spring form pan really well with cooking spray so it doesn't stick. And follow the box directions. Or Mama's/Grandma's cake directions.

There are a lot of recipes out there that use lemon pie filling but it never seems to me to be creamy enough. So I mixed one package of softened cream cheese, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup heavy whipping cream. First mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar, then add the lemon juice. If you want a bigger lemon punch you can certainly add about a tablespoon of lemon zest just make sure you finely grate the zest not the strip kind. After that is well mixed then whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold the two together by hand not using the mixer cause it will deflate the whip cream. Put in the fridge while the cake cools completely.

Crumble : 1/2 cup and 1 TBS of flour, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup plus 2 TBS powdered sugar, 1/4 cup softened butter, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Here is where things got a little funky for me. There is a crumble in this recipe and it sounds really simple to make. A crumble is supposed to be light and fluffy and pretty and this is what mine started out as...

That is GOOP! There is nothing light and fluffy about it. There is nothing that says crumble and everything that says dough. What when wrong? The butter is supposed to be softened when you do this but my butter was too soft and with my hands being warm too the butter melted and caused this. I was about to toss it and start over but then I decided to see if I could pull it back. I put the bowl in the fridge to let the butter harden up again and when it had been in there for about an hour I pulled it out and used a fork and a butter knife to break it up into chunks. Adding powdered sugar as I went I finally ended up with....

Isn't it pretty! It did take some work to get it back to where I needed it to be but chilling it and adding more powdered sugar seemed to work out very well. The crumble you will cover the cake with after you frost it with that lemon cream we made earlier.

Okay once the cake is completely cooled, don't rush it....you know how when you try to frost a cake you let sit and thought 10 minutes was enough? Yeah that is why the frosting ends up dotted with cake bits. Even worse is trying to cut a cake through the middle when it is still warm. As yummy as that sounds the cake will fall apart so let is hang out for a long while. So when it is completely cooled cut the cake so that you have two layers. Me? Well the next time I make this cake I have decided that I will make extra frosting and cut the cake into 3 layers...but that is just me wanting to over achieve. 

Reserve about a half cup maybe add a dollop more for the frosting and use all the rest for a creamy center. Pile the chilled cream on the bottom half of the cake and spread it around in an even layer. Carefully place the top half of the cake on and then with the reserved cream frost it. Cover the top and sides with a thin layer of the lemon cream. 

I wish this next part went smoothly for me....I made a mess. Do I wish I had done something smart to make the plate look pretty? Yes. Do I wish I had the foresight to leave the cake on the lower part of the spring pan and did a pedestal thing so the crumble wouldn't have had the plate to stay on? Yes....so do those fancy type things. And when I make another cake I will take pictures of what I am talking about....so anyway. Get the crumble everywhere and hope you get it mostly on the cake top and sides. Pop it all in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours so the cream can get set. This is what a slice of the cake looks like...

Even though some parts of the process gave me a fit the cake really was good. There are only a few things I would try different next time...I did not find there to be quite enough lemon flavor so that is why I would add lemon zest to the cream or perhaps use a lemon cake mix for the crumble. As is though the cake really hit the spot.
~Charity