Versione Italiana

Lemon Cake

THE RECIPE OF IGINIO MASSARI

To be accomplshed following these steps:

- HONEY SHORTCRUST
- LEMON PASTRY CREAM
- LEMON FILLING
- DECORATION

TOOLKITS


MIXING BOWL, GRADUATED PITCHER, CAKE RING, GROSS MESH SIFTER, CITRUS GRATER, BAIN-MARIE, ROLLING PIN, DOUGH SCRAPER, WHISK, SPATULA

HONEY SHORTCRUST


Ingredients
175 g butter
100 g powdered sugar
50 g eggs (1 egg)
50 g honey
½ lemon grated rind
½ vanilla bean
2 g salt
250 g superfine flour
3g yeast

Method
Place butter, sugar and honey in a planetary mixer and blend homogenously without whipping up. Add in the spices (vanilla and lemon), eggs, salt and mix; as soon as the buttery mass gets uniform, add-in flour and baking powder, both previously sifted and process just to total absorption of the flour.


LEMON PASTRY CREAM


Ingredients
250 g milk
70 g sugar
120 g egg yolks (6 yolks)
50 g acacia honey
½ lemon grated peel
½ Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean
20 g rice starch
50 g lemon juice

Method
In a kettle, boil the milk with the vanilla and the lemon peel. In a bowl aside, mix with the whisk egg yolks, sugar, acacia honey and rice starch. Strain the boiled milk and blend in the still hot sugary dollop. Cook using the Bain-Marie, stirring constantly with a whisk. As soon as the cream has formed and begins to thicken, stir-in the lemon juice. Carrying on the stirring, remove from the heat. To avoid granulation, cool down quickly by pouring into a cold saucepan, stirring up to the release of most cooking heat (down to 50 °C). Do not add the lemon juice during the initial cooking phase, because its strong acidity would cause the milk to coagulate.


WHIPPED FILLING FOR LEMON CAKE


Ingredients
100 g butter (softened)
100g granulated sugar
1 g salt
100 g almond paste in small pieces
150 g eggs (3 eggs)
1 lemon juice
1 lemon grated rind
75 g superfine flour
2 g yeast

Method
By means of the whisk or of an electric mixer, whip in a mixing bowl butter, sugar and salt; then add the almond paste previously kneaded on the table and divided into small pieces. As soon as the dollop is well-whipped and stable and the almond paste is regularly distributed, gradually incorporate the eggs and the lemon, alternating with the flour previously sifted together with the baking powder. The filling is ready when all the ingredients are well blended and the mixture looks glossy and lightweight. Assemblage Remove the honey shortcrust from the fridge, make it softer working it for a while by hand. Then roll it out with the rolling pin - using a little flour for dusting - down to the ideal thickness of 2 mm. Place the honey shortcrust in a 22 cm diameter baking tin and make it adhere to its walls. Then spread with a spoon 150 g of lemon pastry cream, leaving a gap of 5 mm from the pastry top edge to secure the filling. Starting from the space free of cream, pour in the whipped lemon filling up to 2/3 from the edge, then smooth the surface with a spoon. Bake at 170 °C for about 30 minutes. After baking, sprinkle the cake with some granulated sugar and turn it upside down on a baking paper sheet in order to cool it down. When the cake has cooled down, a dusting of powdered sugar on the surface will complete the job.