Raspberry Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd & Buttercream Icing

A few weeks ago, I was asked to bake a cake for a birthday party for a group of ladies.  Instead of deciding to make a time-tested favourite, I thought I’d create something brand new.  What is wrong with me?  The worst part of it was I was not at the party to see how it turned out!  I had so much anxiety over how it cut and presented and how the flavours and textures worked together, if at all.  And even though I had great feedback, I couldn’t trust its success until I recreated it for myself.  So, I made another, licked the plate clean, and decided I should share the recipe and process with you!

Lemon Chiffon Cake

7 eggs, separated 

2 C. flour

1 1/2 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3/4 C. water

1/2 C. canola oil

4 tsp. grated lemon peel

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Let egg whites come to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl, whisk the yolks, water, oil, lemon peel and vanilla.  Add to dry ingredients and mix until blended.  Add cream of tartar to egg whites and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.  Gently fold into batter.

Grease and flour three round cake pans.  Line the bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper if you want a guaranteed “no fail” turnout of the cakes!  Gently spoon the batter evenly between the round pans and bake for approximately 25 minutes.  When lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, remove to a cooling rack and let cool for about 10 minutes.  Run a knife around the outside of each pan to make sure the cake is loose, invert the pans to remove the cakes, and cool completely.  If you are like me, you prefer to do as much as possible ahead of time, so at this point you can wrap the cakes and freeze until ready to fill and decorate!

Note: If you are reading this and thinking, "There is no way I am separating those eggs and dirtying 2 bowls so I won't bother.", just use the eggs whole.  It won't be quite the same texture, but ALL cake is awesome in my opinion, so if it's going to stop you from making the cake, just do it the easy way!

Lemon Curd Filling

(between the bottom and middle layers) 

A friend of mine developed this great lemon curd recipe which I have made quite a bit lately as the husband and kids love lemon.  It was actually the inspiration for this whole cake!  See Culinary Cool for the recipe.

Raspberry Filling

(between the middle and top layers)

There is really no recipe here.  All I did was mash up approximately one cup of raspberries with a bit of jelly that I had on hand (I think it was actually crap apple jelly). Of course, if you had raspberry jelly or jam, that would make even more sense!  You could just put a jam layer here too, but I wanted to bring in some fresh berries, in a very quick and easy way!  And if you prefer, use blueberries or saskatoons, or whatever you love and have on hand!

Lemon Buttercream Icing

1/2 C. Crisco vegetable shortening

1/2 C. butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 C. icing sugar

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a large bowl beat shortening, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy.  On medium speed, add sugar one cup at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Gradually add the lemon juice until icing reaches a spreadable, smooth consistency.  

For each filling layer, pipe a large bead of buttercream around the circumference of the circle to hold the filling in place.  Fill with curd or berries and top with the next cake round.  The rest of the buttercream is used to ice the top and sides of cake.  Garnish with fresh raspberries and you are done!