A great way to take advantage of winter citrus!
The cake base is adapted from the water cake recipe from American Cake. I made a lemon citrus curd and a meringue to top the cake. I made the citrus curd the day before to allow it to set up.
Water Cake
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup water
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1½ cups flour
I had a hard time getting my sugar to dissolve in the water because of the 3 to 1 ratio. I heated it for nearly half an hour and still had a cloudy, slightly grainy mixture but it didn't effect the texture of the cake.
Gently heat your water and sugar over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Like I said above this may take a while and not all of your sugar will dissolve. Let the sugar mixture cool before using
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line the bottom of a 9in springform pan with parchment paper. I didn't spray the sides of the pan since it's a variation of a sponge cake and needs to cling to the side of the pan in order to raise.
Whisk the eggs and egg yolks until combined. Then add the cooled sugar mixture to the eggs and whisk until it is frothy and has doubled in volume.
Sift the flour into the egg and sugar mixture and fold it in, being careful not to knock the air out.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and set in the middle. I put the springform pan on a cookie tray while baking in case the pan leaked. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before running a knife around the sides and removing the sides of the pan. Let the cake cool for another hour before topping with curd and meringue
Lemon Citrus Curd
¼ cup lemon juice
Zest of one orange
½ teaspoon dried lemon peel
⅓ cup sugar
4 egg yolks
3 tbsp butter
⅛ tsp salt
I didn't have much citrus on hand when I made this lemon curd inspired by life, love and sugar's recipe so I used bottled lemon juice instead.
Combine all ingredients and heat in a double boiler whisking constantly until the curd reaches 160°F or is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon
Strain curd into a bowl, cover the top with plastic wrap to prevent a film from developing and refrigerate until set. It can take upwards of three hours for the curd to set, I chilled mine overnight before using
Meringue
2 egg whites
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Let your egg whites come to room temperature before starting for a more voluminous meringue.
In a clean, medium bowl whip egg whites until frothy then add the cream of tartar and beat until combined
With mixer on high speed beat in the sugar one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition
Keep beating on high speed until your meringue has reached stiff peaks
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 200°F
Flip the cake upside-down to remove the base of the springform pan and parchment paper. Place on the desired oven safe serving platter right side up
Spread all the citrus curd over the top
Spread the meringue over the curd
Place the whole cake in the warm oven for 10-15 minutes for the meringue to set up
Use a kitchen torch to torch the top of the meringue to get the desired golden brown color
Serve and enjoy!
This cake was born out of a free afternoon, many substitutions, some leftovers and the urge for a fun bake! I had some leftover egg yolks from the pink champagne cake I'd made a few days earlier and so I whipped up some lemon curd. Only... I didn't have any fresh lemons, so I made a lemony citrus curd instead. I thought lemon curd would be a great cake topping for a chilly winter day. And what better way to top lemon curd than with a meringue! I got a kitchen torch for christmas and I was pretty eager to test it out. Filling it with butane was definitely a tad intimidating, but lighting the torch was very exciting. At first I just torched the meringue, it looked beautiful but the inside was still a bit runny. So I popped it in the oven at a low temperature for about 15 minutes to set up the inside of the meringue.
All in all it is a delicious cake; a sunny slice for a winters day.
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