Lemon Layer Cake with White Chocolate

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Recipe for lemon layer cake with white chocolate

Layer cake ALWAYS holds up, and the fantastic thing about layer cakes is that they can be varied endlessly and again endlessly! There are virtually no limits (okay, ALMOST no limits) to what you can fill in a layer cake.

Layer cake is somewhat a “celebration cake,” and I must say there was something to celebrate recently.

Last week, one of my good friends climbed nothing less than the Atlas Mountains in Morocco! Yep, she simply packed her backpack and headed to northwestern Africa to “climb around” on a mountain range that stretches over an impressive 2,450 kilometers.

My friend is also CRAZY about lemon (she claims my tarte au citron is the best in the world), so her accomplishments naturally had to be celebrated with 1) layer cake and 2) lemon!

I am a huge fan of combining fruit and chocolate, and I always try, as far as possible, to incorporate both sour and sweet in my cakes.

Lemon can easily go hand in hand with either dark or milk chocolate, but I thought that the tangy lemon could benefit from a super delicate contrast of smooth and mild white chocolate.

This lemon layer cake is therefore filled with a white chocolate mousse and lemon curd mousse, and topped with lemon jelly.

I am quite fond of incorporating one flavor in different forms and textures in the same dessert, which is why the lemon appeared both as the smooth, tangy lemon jelly and the more fluffy, sweet-tangy lemon curd mousse.

The challenge with layer cake bases can be getting them completely flat during baking. The reason is that baked goods primarily rise in the middle, but this is obviously not desirable in a layer cake base – otherwise, there is a risk the filling could run to places it wasn’t quite intended to, plus a layer cake traditionally should be even and “flat” on top.

As you can see, I was slightly challenged with the top cake layer, which is why the lemon curd mousse ran a bit towards the sides. Therefore, you get the recipe WITH gelatin, which I unfortunately omitted in my lemon curd. I’ll remember that for next time.

The top cake layer also ended up slightly on the thick side – believe it or not, but my intention was to cut them evenly! Other than that, all the flavors just played together 100%, and the layer cake was a HUGE hit!

I garnished each piece of layer cake with a bit of fresh mint, and the mint flavor elevated the whole cake to COMPLETELY new heights! Therefore, next time I will try to incorporate the fresh mint in the actual lemon jelly and color the jelly with green food dye instead.

Servings: 12 people

Lemon Layer Cake with White Chocolate

Author: Anette Søstrøm Asmussen

Keyword: Birthday, Cake, Chocolate, Dessert, Food For Guests, layer cake, lemon, Sweet

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Metric - US Customary

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Ingredients

Layer Cake Bases

• 4 Egg
• 139 gram Sugar
• 7.5 gram Vanilla Sugar
• 7 gram Baking Soda
• 106 gram Wheat Flour White/flour for cakes
• Butter for the springform pan

Lemon Curd Mousse

• 2 Gelatin Sheets leaves
• 4 Lemon
• 277 gram Sugar
• 4 Egg
• 125 gram Butter

White chocolate mousse

• 3 Gelatin Sheets leaves
• 250 gram White chocolate
• 600 gram Whipping Cream

Lemon Jelly

• 2 Gelatin Sheets leaves
• 75 gram Lemon Juice
• 63 gram Sugar
• Fruit color yellow, 1-2 drops

Instructions

Layer cake bases

• -

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) convection (top and bottom heat).
  2. Take a bowl.
  3. Crack the eggs into the bowl and add sugar.
  4. Whisk both together until it becomes airy.
  5. Take a new bowl and mix vanilla sugar, baking powder, and flour in it.
  6. Take a sieve.
  7. Sift the dry mixture into the egg mixture and stir until it comes together.
  8. Take a springform pan. My springform is 24 centimeters.
  9. Use butter on a piece of paper towel to grease the springform. I chose to use a grease spray because it is easier, but the result is the same.
  10. Pour the cake batter into the springform. Make sure to push the batter a bit towards the sides of the springform to compensate for the rising and doming that usually happens around the cake's center.
  11. Place the cake batter in the middle of the oven and bake for about half an hour.
  12. Take the finished cake base out of the oven and let it cool without removing the springform. In the meantime, move on to the next step: Lemon Curd Mousse.

   

Lemon Curd Mousse

• I based this on my own lemon curd, but it’s here that I would add gelatin for future reference:

  1. Soak the gelatin in a bowl of cold water. This takes about 10 minutes.
  2. In the meantime, squeeze the juice out of the lemons.
  3. Bring two pots of water to a boil and find two bowls, each of which fits over one of the pots (for a double boiler).
  4. Melt the butter over one double boiler until it reaches 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit).
  5. Whisk lemon juice, sugar, and eggs together over the other double boiler. Whisk for about 5 minutes.
  6. Add the melted butter and whisk everything together. I used my super-smart stand mixer with built-in heating function to mix it together. If you use such a device or a similar one, you can find the method in this recipe.
  7. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a bowl to strain the egg threads out.
  8. Stir the soaked gelatin into the hot lemon curd.
  9. Place the lemon curd mousse in the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours. After that, you can start assembling the cake for the first time.

   

First Assembly of the Cake

• 1. Release the cooled layer cake base from the springform.
  2. Cut the cake base crosswise into two equally sized bases. This was where I messed up a bit and ended up with two bases that weren't exactly the same size ?
  3. Place the springform in the center of a dish or plate of suitable size. It's important not to choose a dish or plate that is too large to fit into your fridge!
  4. Take a piece of cake plastic about 26 centimeters long.
  5. Place the cake plastic on the inside of the springform. Optionally secure it with a clip to hold the plastic in place.
  6. Place one of the cake bases at the bottom of the springform.
  7. Spread half of the cooled lemon curd mousse over the cake base.
  8. Place it in the fridge.

   

White Chocolate Mousse

• 1. Fill a bowl with cold water and soak the gelatin for about 20 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the white chocolate on a cutting board.
  3. Transfer the chopped chocolate to a clean bowl.
  4. Pour the heavy cream into a pan and heat it. Take the pan off the heat just before the cream reaches boiling point.
  5. Immediately pour the hot cream into the bowl with the chopped chocolate and stir together into a homogeneous mass.
  6. Add the soaked gelatin to the chocolate mixture right away.
  7. Stir the gelatin into the mixture until it is completely dissolved.
  8. Pour the mixture into a new bowl.
  9. Take a piece of plastic wrap and place it over the mixture so that it has no contact with the air. This prevents condensation from forming on the underside of the plastic wrap.
  10. Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Here the mixture will thicken. Let it sit until it is completely cold (refrigerator temperature).

     

Second Assembly of the Cake

• 1. Take the thoroughly chilled chocolate mixture out of the fridge.
  2. Use an electric mixer to whip the chocolate mixture into a delicious, airy chocolate mousse.
  3. Take the cake base with the lemon curd mousse out of the fridge. Leave it in the springform.
  4. Now spread half of the chocolate mousse on top of the lemon curd mousse and place the last cake base on top of the chocolate mousse.
  5. Spread the remaining lemon curd mousse on top of the cake base.
  6. Put the whole cake back in the fridge for about an hour to allow the lemon curd mousse to set before adding the chocolate mousse on top.
  7. After an hour, take the cake out of the fridge again and spread the last layer of chocolate mousse on top of the lemon curd mousse.
  8. Put the cake back in the fridge. Let it sit overnight.

   

Lemon Gelée

• 1. The next day: Fill a bowl with cold water and soak the gelatin in it.
  2. Meanwhile, pour the lemon juice and sugar into a pan and put it on the stove.
  3. Heat the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved.
  4. Fish the gelatin out of the water and squeeze out the liquid.
  5. Stir the gelatin into the heated lemon and sugar mixture until the gelatin is dissolved.
  6. Add the yellow food coloring and stir it in.
  7. Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes. The mixture should be cooled but still liquid.

   

Final Assembly of the Cake

• 1. When the lemon gelée has cooled but is still liquid, take the cake out of the fridge.
  2. Pour the lemon gelée over the entire top of the cake (still in the springform with the cake plastic around it).
  3. Place the cake back in the fridge and let the lemon gelée set. This takes 1-3 hours. Once set, release the cake from the springform and carefully remove the cake plastic.
  4. Serve - enjoy!

   

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