Meme’s Lemon Cake

Name: Meme’s Lemon Cake
Yield: makes one 8-inch cake
Ingredients: 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for the pans; 3 cups cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for the pans; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 cups sugar; 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract; 1 cup whole milk; 8 large egg whites; Pinch of fine sea salt; 8 large egg yolks; 1 cup sugar; Grated zest and juice of 4 lemons; Pinch of fine sea salt; 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into bits; 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature; 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted; 1/2 cup Lemon Curd (see above)

December 9, 2011

Meme called this “lemon cheese cake,” which is somewhat confusing since people more often use that name for a New York–style cheesecake. This is one of the recipes that “got away.” Meme often recorded a recipe on a card or on the previously mentioned interior of her cabinets. Trouble is, she only wrote down the ingredients and rarely included instructions. She used to actually cover her version of the cake in lemon curd. Normally, lemon curd is soft and not firm enough to frost a cake. I have tried to make the curd with her ingredients list every way but Sunday with no success. I’m afraid now I will never know. Instead, I fill between the layers with curd and flavor the frosting with it as well. The cake itself is an excellent rich, moist, cake that would also be delicious with chocolate frosting or served with strawberries and cream.

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