White Cake with Lemon Curd and Italian Meringue

Name: White Cake with Lemon Curd and Italian Meringue
Yield: serves 12
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans; 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for pans; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 3/4 cups sugar; 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (page 469); 1 cup milk, room temperature; 8 large egg whites (reserve yolks for the lemon-curd filling); 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1 1/2 cups Lemon Curd (page 477); Italian Meringue (recipe follows)

January 26, 2012

White cakes, as opposed to butter cakes like the one on page 428, are made with egg whites only, and they offer another good lesson in how French meringue can help give loft, or leavening, to a cake. (The heat of the oven causes the beaten whites to expand; in this case, they are helped by a chemical leavener, namely baking powder.) It’s important to beat the whites until they are stiff but not dry, and to make sure that you fold them into the batter very gently, in parts, so that they retain their volume. First, you fold in just a third of the beaten whites to “lighten” the creamed batter (so it is easier to incorporate the rest without overmixing), then you very gently fold in the rest and quickly transfer the batter to the prepared pans, lest it lose any volume. True to its name, the cake remains pure white inside after baking, save for the brown flecks of flavor-enhancing vanilla seeds.

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