Lemons For Your Family

That stuff in there? In the pans? Glorious lemon cake batter! It makes a perfect birthday cake for a mom. My mom, to be exact. And the model? It's my brother, a visitor all the way from a much warmer place called Los Angeles, where they honk a lot less and wear white all year long. We were swamped with both playtime and catching up this past weekend, and we even honed our BLT-making skills by making them two days in a row. (Hint: chop the tomatoes, rather than using slices. Seriously, it's his idea and it's brilliant.)

We had great meals. He has fine taste for a big brother, so I hope he liked them. We had intense bacon dogs at Hot Doug's, breakfasty pastrami short ribs at The Publican, stellar wings at Coq d'Or, those lovely flatbreads (and a strawberry-black pepper cocktail!) at In Fine Spirits, and silky spaghetti neri at Piccolo Sogno. We had sweet potato muffins and asparagus eggs with toast at home, as well as a fair amount of salt and vinegar chips (Cape Cod brand -- no other!), plus a modicum of wine (he is in the biz, after all). We read and walked on the beach and made each other laugh by doing silly things with our bodies.

The most important project of the whole weekend, though, was the birthday cake, which was graced with photo cut-outs of our parents' faces, complete with conversational speaking bubbles, which we thought were hysterical. Mom: "I rock!" Dad: "Me, too!" Mom: "But it's not your birthday." I think we thought it was funnier than anyone else did, and we laughed wildly the whole time we developed the cake decorations. We found ourselves saying things like, "Man, we are FUNNY" and "take that, Ace of Cakes!" One thing I know about my brother is that we find ourselves, collectively, to be quite clever. It could be that A.) we have a similar sense of humor that is actually not funny to other people, or B.) we really are kind of funny. I lean towards option B.

So, we made a birthday cake from a recipe that I've had laying around for years. It's a lemon cake, which felt appropriately springlike for, you know, a spring birthday. It is a good cake because you can add other matching fruits, like berries, orange, or lime. Feel free to experiment. Keep in mind that this cake ages pretty well, too. I was devastated that I forgot to send some cake home with my parents, and considered boxing it up and shipping it off -- and , as it turns out, it might have actually done pretty well in the mail. Not sending cake home with the birthday girl means that I still have an abundance of cake in the refrigerator, but it seems happy in there, and it actually might be improving with age. The cake part is still a perfect consistency, and it's delicious when it is so dense and cold.

So, pretend it's your birthday. Or someone's birthday. Take those lemons, and don't go makin' lemonade. Make cake.

First, you'll need to get some things ready so that you don't feel so swamped later on.
zest your lemons

juice your lemons

cut yer parchment circles

grease and flour yer pans
(I sprayed cooking spray, then put in the parchment circles, then sprayed again, then floured.)

Now make that cake!

Nathan's Lemon Cake, which has been renamed Mama's Lemon Cake
adapted from Cooking Light magazine

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk (or make your own using 1 C milk and a tablespoon of vinegar)
  
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Whisk 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 2-3 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

5. Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for about 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans and cool completely.

Now it's time to make your icing. Here is what the original recipe called for:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Combine powdered sugar and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a whisk until smooth.

I'm sure that icing is very nice, but happen to know that my mama like cream cheese icing, just like on the carrot cake we love, so my ingredients were:

1 package of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 box powdered sugar

1/4 C lemon juice

1 T lemon zest

Smear some icing down so your cake will stick. Place 1 cake layer on the icing smear, then spread one-third of icing on top of cake. (At this point I arranged slices of strawberries on top, then topped with the remaining cake layer and spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake. I think mashed raspberries would also be amazing inside this cake.)

This made a very nice icing, but be warned -- it's quite lemony and very sweet. If you LOVE lemon, you will be happy with this icing, but you might want to start off with a little less lemon juice. I've also thought about making this without the lemon juice, and just using the zest. But my real dream is to make a pudding-like, custardy icing for this cake, maybe with some lime zest. I also ended up icing the whole cake, which was just too much icing for me. It looked prettier, but it was A LOT of sweetness.

Garnish with lemon rind strips or with faces of your mom and dad. Store cake covered in the refrigerator. The end.