Recipe courtesy of Rose Han

Makes one 8 inch round 3 layer cake

Prep-time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

• Butter and some flour or nonstick spray for the pans
• 2 ¼ cups cake flour
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (1 large lemon)
• 1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter of room temperature
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup buttermilk

Lemon Curd

• 3 egg yolks 1 whole egg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 lemons zested and juiced (1/2 cup lemon juice)
• 1 stick unsalted butter of room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pasteurized egg whites room temperature
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
• 4 oz real white chocolate (made from cocoa butter not chocolate chips)
• 10-12 oz fresh blueberries

Make the lemon cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour (spray) three 8 inch cake pans set aside.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Place the sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl. Rub them together between fingertips until fragrant.

In the bowl of stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until light in color (about 2 minutes). Add sugar mixture and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes). Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl.

Turn the mixer on medium-low and add lemon juice, vanilla, eggs, and egg whites, one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl.

Turn mixer to low and add dry ingredients mixture alternating with buttermilk in 3 batches beginning and ending with dry ingredients mixture. Mix on medium for no more than 30 seconds after the last streaks of the dry ingredients are combined.

Evenly divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of the cakes comes out clean. Let them cool on a wire rack got 10-15 minutes before removing from the pans.

Make the White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Beat sugar-egg white mixture in the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on high until mixture is thick, glossy, and the meringue riches medium to hard picks. Change attachment to the paddle attachment and continue mixing on low speed adding butter, 1 cube at a time. Beat until silky-smooth (5-10 minutes). If mixture curdles, continue mixing and it will return to smooth. Set microwave to medium power level and melt white chocolate 30 seconds at a time, mixing in between. Once it’s completely melted add to the buttercream mixing on medium high speed. Make sure to scrape the bowl to prevent chunks of chocolate sticking and hardening on the side of it.

Make the lemon curd

Put sugar and eggs in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add the lemon zest and juice, and salt to the mixture and stir well.

Pour the mixture into a 2-quart (1.9-l) saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5-10 minutes. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 F (77 C), or just below simmer.

Remove from the heat and add the butter mixing it until well combined. Strain the curd to remove the zest.

Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until completely chilled.

As the curd cools, it will continue to thicken.

Assemble the cake:

Wash the blueberries and set aside to dry.

Once the cakes have completely cooled, level them using serrated knife. Place the bottom layer on a cake plate or a serving dish. Pipe a strip of buttercream around the edge of the cake creating a boarder. Fill in with some lemon curd (the more curd, the more lemony and sour the cake will be). Using wide flat piping attachment pipe a thin layer of buttercream right on top of the lemon curd, and spread around gently pushing into buttercream half of blueberries. Place the next cake layer on top and repeat the buttercream, lemon curd and blueberries step. Using the remaining buttercream crumb coat and frost the cake. You cake decorate the cake any way you wish.

Rose Han is an award-winning cake artist and owner of Rose Dream Cakes, a fully licensed and insured home-bakery located in Dublin, Caifornia, specializing in custom designed cakes for all occassions. . Rose has been featured on the Food Network Show, Cake Wars.