Lemon Layer Cake

This has been a week. And no, not in a good way.

My brain is old fashioned, like a calendar, so my weeks start on Sundays. And this Sunday did not start out so fantastically. After a whole day of wonderful with some of my favorite once and future travel companions, I got a big old dose of reality on Sunday morning thanks to a trip to the office. Yeah, I knew I had to work on Sunday all along and I know I’m very fortunate to have a job that doesn’t require a lot of weekend work, but you see, I’m a girl who believes weekend are practically sacred, so a little part of me cries when weekend work is on tap. But I went into it with a positive outlook, knowing I could be in and out in a few hours and then get on with my day.

So I went and did, fully intending to come home and get on. But Noel greeted me at the door with some unexpected news–it seemed we had a plumbing situation. Not a major “there are six inches of water in the basement” situation (thank goodness!) but a “the water isn’t leaving the house properly” situation. Eight hours and two trips to Home Depot later and the problem still existed, and I had managed to do a ridiculous amount of cooking in the interim, generating an enormous pile of dishes that we now had no way to wash. FANTASTIC!

On to Monday. Noel calls a plumber, who informs us that snakeing our pipes is more complicated than usual and therefore ridiculously expensive. But what are we going to do, go with out water? A few hours and a big check later, we have water again, along with a whole stack of dishes and a mound of laundry waiting for it’s return.

Pile on top of that a crazy exhausting work schedule and the other commitments of this sometimes frantic life, and by Wednesday afternoon I was beat, and so ready for the week to be over. But thankfully, this cake saved me AND my week.

The saving started on Wednesday night with class, which was just so much fun with a great group of ladies and a gent, I felt rejuvenized. Like the true extrovert that I am, I get recharged around a great group of people and class really filled my batteries for the rest of the week. And then there was the cake itself, which I served up to my equally battle-weary coworkers on Thursday. With it’s forward lemon flavor in a light, fluffy cake form it was a wonderful Thursday wake up and almost a breath of spring. It was enough to get me over the death of our burr grinder on Thursday morning. And a reminder that when things are rough, tomorrow I’ll find better days.

Lemon Layer Cake
Adapted from Serious Eats

Serious Eats adapted this recipe from Cooking Light, and I was amazed that a cake that tasted this good could be remotely healthy. Not that my particular iteration was, once I topped it with all of that crisco laden icing that is the assigned recipe for class. But I do have to say, after this particular cake class I see the purpose of the crisco stuff. It crusts and holds it’s shape like nobody’s business, which is essential when you’re doing a design like what we had on the cake. Yep, everything on top is made of icing, except for the basket itself, which we did with a chocolate mold.

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk or skim milk with one tablespoon of vinegar stirred in
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind (I used Meyer lemons for both the zest and the juice)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of pans with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray, and set aside.

Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and nonfat buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon rind and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350°F for 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack; remove wax paper from cake layers.

Ice cakes with the icing you please (there is a lighter version at the Serious Eats link). If you use a traditional decorating or plain vanilla icing like I did, know that some of the lemon flavor from the cake will seep into the icing–but trust me, it’s a good thing! Serve up as a bright dessert.

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