Lemon Creme Cake

My husband makes me happy. Lemon anything makes him happy. Therefore, if I make him lemon deliciousness, I win in the end. Done. Deal. Lemon creme cake, O we loved this. So did our neighbors. We all devoured the moist, hint of lemon cake that graced it’s presence in my kitchen for, O, 10 minutes! It’s great, worth the work, and will be made again. And again. And again.

Lemon Creme Cake
Printable Version

Cake
1 ¾ cup cake flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
6 eggs, separated
¾ cups water
1 Tbs. grated lemon zest
½ tsp. cream of tartar

Filling
1 cup heavy cream
1 recipe lemon pie filling, below (or to simplify, use pre-made lemon pie filling)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and ½ cup of sugar. Add the oil, egg yolks, water, and lemon zest. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth
Using clean beaters in a small bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form. Slowly add the remaining ¾ cup sugar, and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold one third of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in the remaining whites until no streaks remain.
Turn the batter into greased and floured 10 in tube pan, or two 9 inch rounds. Bake for 1 hour (tube pan), or 20-30 minutes (rounds), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely in the pan, when cool, loosen the edges of the cake to remove it from the pan.
To make the filling, make the lemon pie filling recipe, below. Then, beat the cream to stiff peaks. Fold in the chilled lemon pie filling  into the cream. Refrigerate until firm.
To assemble, slice the cake into 2 or 3 even layers. Spread the bottom layers with ⅓ cup of the filling. Spread the remaining filling on the top layer and sides. Decorate with lemon slices.

Lemon Pie Filling
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbs. cornstarch
3 Tbs. flour
dash salt
1 1/2 cups HOT water
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Mix the sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt in a sauce pan and gradually add hot water, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over high heat until mixture boils. Reduce heat and continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes more.

After the mixture has cooked for the above 2 minutes, crack eggs yolks into a DIFFERENT BOWL. Add a small amount of hot mixture to gradually temper the eggs. (Temper=slowly warm up the eggs before adding them to the boiling mixture, if they are added while cold they will immediately cook, yuck!) Then add the eggs to the boiling mixture and bring to a boil again. Cook and Stir for 2 minutes. Remove the hot mixture from the heat and add butter and lime juice. Stir until well blended (the butter will be melted). Allow to chill for 2 hours or up to 2 days.


Recipe highly adapted from America’s Most Wanted Recipes Book
Serves 10-12