lemon cheesecake tart

I love cheesecake, but I sometimes get overwhelmed by the huge volumes of cream cheese required to execute the typical towering cheesecake monolith - 3, 5 even more bricks of cream cheese go into these giants. This is a thinner, low key layer of cheesecake, just one 8 ounce brick of cream cheese needed. It also has an excellent ratio of crumb base to cheese cake filling, because the graham crumbs are one of the top two reasons for eating cheesecake in the first place.  

You can get all that rich, tangy cheesecake flavour, in a petite little tart package. A puddle of lemon curd on the top takes it to the next level.

lemon cheesecake tart:

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 ⅓ cup graham crumbs

• ¼ cup melted butter

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

• ¼ cup + 2 tbs sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

• ½ cup lemon curd, store bought or homemade

Combine graham crumbs and butter, and press into the bottom and sides of a 13” rectangular fluted tart pan. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Combine cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla and lemon zest and juice; whisk until very smooth. Pour into graham crust and bake until just set with a slightly wobbly centre, 15-20 minutes.

Cool completely and spread lemon curd over the cheesecake. Cut into thin slices to serve.

pistachio & lemon cake

In my many-years-long search for the most perfect frosting, I have come across many contenders that seemed to be the one, the true, perfect frosting. But they all eventually disappointed me. American buttercream is usually way too sweet, and mostly just tastes like icing sugar (though there are appropriate uses - a confetti cake calls out for American buttercream) . Swiss and Italian meringue buttercreams both briefly enchanted me, as they are more butter than sugar based, and so they aren't quite so cloyingly sweet. But as I used them I eventually found both to sometimes be too buttery, and they don't hold much flavouring before splitting or doing strange things to their texture. So it was hard to get rich flavours using any of these methods that didn't taste like just sugar or butter.

Then I found ermine frosting, sometimes called boiled milk frosting. It's a strange technique, you start by making a strange cooked milk and flour paste that looks an awful lot like wallpaper paste. Then you cool that goop and mix it into creamed butter and sugar, which after extended mixing turns into a super fluffy, silky, not too sweet or fatty, basically perfect frosting.  Cooking the flour in milk gets rid of any chalky, flour flavour. It is so well balanced.  I think I may finally be ready to settle down and commit to a long-term relationship with just one frosting. I think this is the one.

I made this cake for my friend's birthday and I wanted something light and springy to go with Spring. The tangy lemon curd is perfect with the rich, nutty frosting. This is kinda a showstopper of a cake, perfect for a birthday or another proper celebration. Or maybe just because it's springtime?

pistachio & lemon cake

yellow cake:

adapted from smitten kitchen

• 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 2 cups buttermilk (or two cups milk soured with a splash of lemon juice)

Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of two 6" cake pans with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add vanilla and eggs and beat to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and eat again until well incorporated.

On the lowest speed, beat in buttermilk. Add flour mixture in three additions. Hand mix with a spatula a little to avoid flour explosions. Scrape down bowl to make sure there are no unmixed spots.

Reserve about ⅓ of the he batter for another use (pop it in the freezer for some emergency cupcakes). Divide remaining batter between two prepared 9" pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cakes and run a knife around the edge so they come out of the pan cleanly. Trim off the outer edges and level the cakes, cutting off any domed top portion.

pistachio frosting

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 6 tbs unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 ½   cups whole milk

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Pinch of kosher salt

• 1 ½ cups butter room temperature

• 1 ½  cup sugar

• ⅓ cup pistachio paste

• 2-3 drops green food colouring (optional)

Cook milk and flour in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens to a gluey, pudding consistency. Cover pan and cool to room temperature. It needs to be completely cool before the next step or it will melt the butter. Also, if you chill this mixture in the fridge, do not proceed before bring back up to room temperature - a cold mix added to butter will seize and split the frosting.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes. Add in room temperature milk mixture and increase speed to medium-high. Whip until the mixture is smooth and very fluffy, which can take more than 15 minutes sometimes. It may look split or grainy, but just keep on mixing until fluffy and velvety. This always takes way longer than I think it should, so I recommend that you walk away at this point and don’t look at the frosting more often than every 5 minutes. I like to use this time to do some of the dishes I have made or have a snack. Just don’t stare at your frosting getting stressed out.

When you have smoothness and fluffiness, add in the vanilla, salt, food colouring and pistachio paste and beat until fully incorporated.

If your frosting becomes a little soft and droopy after the pistachio paste is added chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes, and the beat again. Repeat until frosting is smooth and holds a peak.

Note on pistachio paste: if you can’t find pure pistachio paste (just ground pistachios, no sugar or anything else) you can make your own. Toast 1-2 cups pistachios until fragrant and puré until a smooth paste forms. Keep in the fridge in an airtight container.

lemon curd:

adapted from Martha Stewart 

• 6 egg yolks

• ¾ cup sugar

• ½ butter, cut into 1” cubes

• ½ cup lemon juice

• Zest from one lemon

• a pinch of salt

In a saucepan off heat, combine all ingredients, combining well. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly. When the mixture is thickened remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate until cool.

Note on pistachio paste: if you can’t find pure pistachio paste (just ground pistachios, no sugar or anything else) you can make your own. Toast 1-2 cups pistachios until fragrant and puré until a smooth paste forms. Keep in the fridge in an airtight container.

lemon syrup:

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup lemon juice

Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool and store in the fridge.

assembly:

Drizzle lemon syrup generously over the cake layers and let soak in for a couple minutes.

Place one cake layer on a 9" cake board if you have it, or a flat plate or cake stand. Cover cake with a very generous layer of curd, it should be quite thickly set so you can really pile it on without oozing over the edge. Leave a thin border of uncovered cake around the edge to make space for squishing when you add the next cake layer. Sandwich next cake layer on top and cool in the fridge around 15 minutes to set up, to help the curd not ooze out into your frosting. This is a good time to finish make the frosting.

Frost the chilled cake quickly all over with an offset spatula, making sure to cover all exposed cake. Adding more frosting as you go, use an offset spatula, or bench scraper to tidy up and give the cake some nice clean angles. Chill again for 15 minutes and add a generous second layer of frosting, using the bench scraper to make smooth, straight sides. Chill again about 10 minutes, and decorate as you like, I used a sprinkles and chopped pistachios sprinkled over a little micro-forest of piped poofs and rosettes. But you do whatever feels right.

super lemony cake with cream cheese frosting

I think cake is almost always way too sweet. Super sweet frosting without any obvious flavour other than slick, fatty, sweetness with the faintest whiff of a mirage of vanilla. I never liked super sweet cakes and I think  that's why I like to make cake. I want cake to be its best self. Floofy and light and flavourful and intense and not quite so damn sweet all at once. It is possible! This cake combats over sweetness in two ways: super tart and thick lemon curd, combined with extra strength lemon syrup soaked cake layers; and a fluffy, tangy whipped cream cheese frosting. 

Layering the lemon in syrup and curd gets this cake intensely lemony: zingy and tart and puckering and bright. It's a summer time, sunshiney cake. This frosting is a little different that other cream cheese frostings, it's whipped up with whipping cream. It makes a really fluffy and light frosting that is pipeable and holds it's shape beautifully. 

Note about amounts: This cake recipe makes at least twice as much as you will need for the petite cake I made here. Either extra freeze raw batter in mason jars (make sure to leave 1" of space at the top of the jar and freeze without lid, put the lid on after batter is frozen) for using later, or just double the frosting, syrup and curd amounts and make a mega cake! The frozen cake batter will work great thawed, more on this coming soon. Frozen cake batter will change your life. 

yellow cake: 

adapted from smitten kitchen

• 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 2 cups buttermilk (or two cups milk soured with a splash of lemon juice)

Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of two 6" cake pans with parchment paper. 

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add vanilla and eggs and beat to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and eat again until well incorporated. 

On the lowest speed, beat in buttermilk. Add flour mixture in three additions. Hand mix with a spatula a little to avoid flour explosions. Scrape down bowl to make sure there are no unmixed spots. 

Reserve half the batter for another use. Divide remaining batter between two prepared 6" pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cakes and run a knife around the edge so they come out of the pan cleanly. 

lemon curd:

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 6 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup lemon juice

• zest from one lemon

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cub cold butter, cubed

Combine yolks, lemon juice and rind, and sugar in a small saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and stir in cubed butter, mixing until well combined. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, transfer to a glass jar and chill in the fridge until cool and very thick. The curd can be made several days in advance.

lemon syrup:

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Chill.

whipped cream cheese frosting:

adapted from Just a Taste

• 8 ounces cream cheese

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbs whipping cream, chilled

• 1/2 vanilla bean innards, or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese until soft. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well incorporated. Whisking at a medium-high speed, pour whipping cream into mixer bowl in a slow stream. Frosting should become very fluffy. 

assembly:

Trim cakes as required to flatten the tops, I like to cut the side crusts off too to get nothing but the super fluffy middle cake. Drizzle lemon syrup generously over the cake layers and let soak in for a couple minutes. 

Place one cake layer on a 6" cake board if you have it, or a flat plate or cake stand. Cover cake with a very generous layer of curd, it should be quite thickly set so you can really pile it on without oozing over the edge. Leave a thin boarder of uncovered cake around the edge to make space for squishing when you add the next cake layer. Sandwich next cake layer on top and cool in the fridge around 15 minutes to set up, to help the curd not ooze out into your frosting. This is a good time to make the frosting. 

Frost the chilled cake quickly all over with an offset spatula, making sure to cover all exposed cake. Adding more frosting as you go, use an offset spatula, or bench scraper to tidy up and give the cake some nice clean angles. I used a cake comb to make the ridges along the side on the cake.  

Optional: decorate your cake with some sprinkles. You really should do it though, look how cute they are.