Happy Birthday Sweetie!

I'm not much of a recipe follower.  In fact the reason I began this blog a few years back was because it would force me to capture some of the creations I come up with, in a recipe format.  Mostly because my boyfriend at the time (husband now) wanted me to be able to duplicate some of the dishes I had made for him and I couldn't remember what I had done!

Now baking is an entirely different animal.  You need to follow recipes to ensure that your cake rises or your bread doesn't turn out like a door stop.  So, I concede the point and use a recipe when baking cakes, though I still have to make them my own.  It's just how I roll. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't!

This time it was a resounding success.  My husband asked for a lemon cake for his birthday.  So of course, I toddled on over to Fine Cooking for their triple-lemon layer cake!  This cake is awesome.  It's finicky to make since you need to beat the egg whites & fold them in.  I also switched up the order and did the egg whites first so that I can start with a squeaky clean beater.  You know what fat does to egg whites, right?

I knew I wanted to cover it in strawberries, so I thought I'd whizz up some strawberries & cream cheese frosting for the middle layer and put the lemon curd between the other two layers.  Huge fail.  It ended up like soup.  I will save that for ice cream topping!  So I went with the filling as directed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But then I wanted something more dramatic so I toasted some sliced almonds and pressed them to the sides of the lemon frosting on the cake, piped on some rosettes and topped the whole thing with the sliced strawberries.  As a finishing touch, I glazed the strawberries with a simple syrup made with raspberry liqueur, which keeps them from drying out and maintains the color.  I love when people asked me what bakery I got it from!  Success!!  Happy birthday sweetheart!