Ingredients
* 1 3/4 cups cake flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 6 egg yolks
* 3/4 cup water
* 1 tablespoon lemon zest
* 6 egg whites
* 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 cup heavy whipping cream
* 2 1/2 cups lemon pie filling
* 8 slices lemon
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Add oil, egg yolks, water and lemon rind. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. In a small bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, and beat until very stiff and shiny peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain. Turn batter into ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Invert cake and cool completely in pan. When cool, loosen edges and shake pan to remove cake.
5. To Make Filling: Beat cream to stiff peaks. Fold in lemon filling. Chill until stiff.
6. To Assemble Cake: Slice cake horizontally into 3 equal layers. Fill layers with 1/3 cup of filling. Spread remaining filling on top layer. Decorate with lemon slices.
A few mishaps/adjustments during the baking of this...
1. A little bit of egg yolk got into the whites
2. I used Splenda instead of regular sugar
3. I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour
4. I baked it for the full 60 minutes
5. I sprayed the tube pan with Pam
6. The eggs weren't at room temperature so I had them in warm water to try and raise the temp
7. I had to add cornstarch to the lemon meringue mixture because it was too runny.
The final result was okay - it was edible and everyone enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect. It didn't rise as much as I had hoped. The lemon meringue powder may have been old or it could have been the Splenda substitution but the frosting should have been thicker. I was also in a bit of a rush because it was getting late into the evening and I wanted everyone to have cake after dinner.
I forgot to take a photo but I'm definitely going to try this again soon since I still have half a carton of whipping cream. Here are the adjustments I'm going to make next time:
1. Use real sugar instead of Splenda in the lemon meringue mixture
2. Naturally raise the eggs to room temperature before starting the recipe
3. Don't spray the sides of the tube pan before baking. Apparently leaving the pan non-greased helps the batter creep up the sides of the pan and helps the cake rise
4. Watch the bake time - some readers indicated they only needed 20-25 minutes and all agreed they didn't need the full 60 minutes. If left for too long, the cake starts to deflate.
5. Use a wire whisk to fold in the egg whites instead of a spatula.
Update February 15, 2011:
Tried this again. Did all the adjustments as I had outlined above and the cake STILL didn't rise high enough to my liking. The frosting didn't work either because Nica used all the whipping cream for his morning coffees, unbeknown to me. Not that it mattered much anyway because the lemon meringue mixture I made was still runny, even though I used real sugar. I'm convinced the powdered mix was just simply old. It looked old and you really can't count on anything in this house being recent. Oh well. Maybe I'll try a different recipe next time.
Update February 27, 2011:
After reading baking101 on the internet in the wee hours during an insomniac night, I decided to try this recipe again. And this time - perfection! Here is what I changed:
- Used real sugar, no splenda
- Used cake flour, not all purpose
- separated the eggs when they were cold, and then raised the temperature of the whites to room temperature naturally (i.e. left them for about an hour at room temp)
- when beating the whites, started to beat them at medium-low speed, and then added the cream of tartar. Then slowly raised the speed (to avoid large air bubbles)
- gently (VERY VERY gently) folded the whites with the lemon mixture and used a whisk.
- removed the cake at about 25 minutes.
The final result? Ohmigod, it actually came up ABOVE the tube pan! I was so excited and proud. I was able to slice the cake into three horizontal sections and layered it with mango and strawberry. Again, the meringue part was awful awful AWFUL. It was the last packet in that box so at least I'll never have to worry about something being out of date again. The mango was still quite firm (made slicing easy on the mandoline) but the strawberry was the real winner as a fresh filling. I took the cake to Julie and Francis' Oscars party and it was a huge hit.
I made it again the next day so my parents could taste what I had been aiming for, for so long and I went back to using Splenda in the lemon mixture although I used real sugar when making the egg white peaks shiny. It didn't raise as much, BUT, to be fair I don't think I beat the whites as well as I had the time before. The volume was less which resulted in the final cake being a little less high. However it was still light and moist.
So the secret? it's all in the whites!
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