Lemon Curd Cake

The Lemon Curd Cake from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook

4 layers of cake, 3 layers of lemon curd and lemon swiss meringue buttercream frosting

I couldn't wait to try the Lemon Curd Cake from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. And this past weekend, my friend Sumi flew down from San Francisco for the day. She walked off the plane with a purse and a shopping bag (very cosmopolitan! :)

The shopping bag held a total treasure. It was the lemon meringue cake from Tartine. Oh, damn. Cake, curd and meringue. Not only beautiful (with lovely torched meringue), but delicious, delicious. I've requested the book from the library and can't wait to make their cake.

In the meantime, I tried this one from Martha Stewart. It was definitely a "weekend" (or holiday) cake as it involved three main steps: The Cake, The Curd, and The Buttercream.

I made this yummy cake while watching some sad Bowl games on New Years day. The cake was a basic butter cake with added lemon zest, and the curd was pretty easy to make over the double boiler (and 8 egg yolks). I've never made a Swiss buttercream (or any buttercream!) and it was much easier than I feared!

All put together = yum!

(The recipe called for an extra batch of lemon curd to decorate the top of the cake with cute little curd dots. However, after using 6 sticks of butter, 16 eggs and tons of sugar, I didn't make the extra batch and saved an artery I think).