Kitchen Project #174: My Dream Birthday Cake
A new series starting with this fancy lemon drizzle
Hello,
Welcome to today’s edition of Kitchen Projects. Thank you so much for being here.
I am super excited to launch a brand new rotating guest column on the newsletter today called My Dream Birthday Cake! I’ll tell you more about it below as well as share my take on fancy lemon drizzle cake.
Over on KP+, I’ve got another dream cake to help you start your birthday from breakfast - combining my favourite things to eat in the morning, yoghurt, blueberry muffins and granola, it’s a one-bowl blueberry yoghurt crumb cake that I cannot stop eating. Click here to read it.
What’s KP+? Well, it’s the level-up version of this newsletter. By joining KP+, you will support the writing and research that goes into the newsletter (including the commissioning - and fair payment - of all the writers), join a growing community, access extra content (inc. the entire archive) and more. Subscribing is easy and only costs £6 per month or £50 a year. Why not give it a go? Come and join the gang!
Love,
Nicola
SIFT NEWS!
Before I get into the newsletter, I just wanted to share the superbly exciting news that last weekend my debut book SIFT won a James Beard award in the Baking & Desserts category!
It was a real pinch-me-am-i-dreaming moment, especially since it was awarded to me by the legendary Rose Levy Beranbaum. I was also fortunate enough to win the Guild of Food Writers award for Debut book in London just a few days later. It has been a totally mad week and I’m feeling immense gratitude and pride. I have been so lucky to publish this book with the help of so many talented people - it takes a village!
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of SIFT and this newsletter over the years - you are part of this village! I am so grateful to do this job and I will continue doing my best to develop recipes for you and investigate all things baking so we can all learn together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Welcome to a brand new series on Kitchen Projects called: My Dream Birthday Cake.
On a relatively regular basis, you’ll be hearing from a series of guest authors who will drop in to Kitchen Projects to tell you all about their dream birthday cake. Whether that's a simple single layer cake, a litter of kittens made out of chocolate mini rolls or a lasagne, this column will explore and honour the role that cakes, or conceptual cakes, play in our lives.
I cannot wait to start welcoming in the guest pieces, but for today (and it actually happens to be my birthday! 33 today!) I figured I’d kick the series off.
What’s the deal with birthday cakes anyway? It would be remiss of me not to fill you in on why we have birthday cakes before dedicating an entire series to it. Cakes, or sweet baked goods, have been enjoyed - ritualistically - of course, for millennia, and it's possible to link the ceremonial birthday cake back to ancient Roman and Greek times. Despite possibly having origins elsewhere, it wasn’t til 18th century Germany at children’s parties called ‘Kinderfest’ that candles became commonplace and properly documented. It seems not much has changed since then, other than it’s proliferation in culture. Though adapted to local tastes and traditions, a birthday cake is almost universal.
I’m so excited for this series to develop and invite some of my favourite bakers (and perhaps, not bakers!) to share what their dream birthday cake is. And, I’m also desperate to hear what YOUR dream birthday cake is, too! So leave me a comment below.
My Dream Birthday Cake
Whenever people ask me what my dream birthday cake is, the answer I’ll give most often is: Anything I haven’t made. I know there are plenty of keen bakers that read this newsletter and I’m sure we can all agree that the tragedy of our efforts is that the cakes or bakes we make will never taste quite as good to us as they will to someone tasting it for the first time.
Palate, or flavour, fatigue is a real thing - we’re trained to taste and adjust as we go, but by doing so we chip away our capacity to experience that ‘first bite’ pleasure and joy.
So, sure, while the number one pre-requisite for ‘my perfect’ birthday cake is that I don’t make it, I’m more than happy to be the architect. This, my friends, is my blueprint!
A personal cake history
I’ve been lucky enough to have had some incredible birthday cakes over the years. My mum, who wouldn’t have called herself a baker, made the most epic cakes for us. I’m talking about multi-layered ice cream cakes decorated with animals, the aforementioned mini roll cat situation, and full blown Jane Asher directed railways made of Cadbury fingers.
As a teenager, I remember forgoing cake entirely one year and, instead, chose a crusty white sourdough loaf as my birthday cake and joyfully ate it in the grassy school playground (was this a clue I’d become baker within the decade?!). In my early 20s when I’d made the leap to become a pastry chef full time, my friends Genevieve and Tom made me a cake in the shape of a chef’s clog, served in a shoebox. It’s safe to say that I’m firmly in the camp that anything can be a cake, ceremonially speaking. But for me, my spiritual dream birthday cake also happens to be an actual cake.
Let me get this out the way now: The number one ride or die cake of my life is, without a doubt, the lemon drizzle. Eating an entire lemon drizzle loaf solo, in one sitting, before lunchtime back in 2012 is one of my happiest birthday cake memories (thank you Lou!).
But, I’ve already written about and developed my perfect lemon drizzle recipe! So, I wondered if I could take all my favourite parts of the drizz and dress it up for a special occasion. BEHOLD: My fancy lemon drizzle, ft. a grounding chamomile buttercream, buttery brown sugar chiffon with a lemon and bay leaf syrup, a whisper of blueberry jam, whipped mascarpone cream, whipped lemon custard, finished off with shards of crusty lemon sugar:
Over on KP+, I’ve developed a second cake: A Birthday Breakfast Cake. Since learning that coffee cake is a legitimate breakfast item in the US (thanks Bronwen Wyatt - read her piece here), I’ve been obsessed with the idea of mashing up all the things I love about breakfast: Yoghurt, blueberry muffins and granola. Behold, for she is gorgeous and you’ll want 5 slices, it’s a one-bowl wonder and she takes about 10 minutes to put together:
Alright, let’s get into the fancy lemon drizzle!
The cake
Citrus and olive oil is a marvellous pairing seen often in cakes, crudo, pasta and dressings, but the combination of lemon and butter is one of my favourites. Cutting through the rounded richness, lemon is a lightning bolt. I wanted the cake to have an overall sense of creaminess and lightness - princess cake, esque! - so a traditional door stop butter sponge was out of the question.
I turned to the airy cakes in my arsenal, a classic genoise and then the richer chiffons. I mixed up a few options, including a chiffon made with 100% butter and then 100% oil. Knowing that this cake would be built in sheet-cake style rather than as a round cake (more on that later), I tested the recipes in my 27x40cm tray to gauge thickness.
The genoise was predictably reliable and relatively dry and springy. The oil chiffon was - dare I say it - FAR TOO FLUFFY, while the butter chiffon was a bit too dry. After trying it with the fillings, I decided to split the difference (it’s MY birthday and I’ll not-decide if I want to!) and go for a 50/50 oil and butter chiffon. It isn’t as squishy and airy - more robust - but it has a good balance of structure and softness.
I also decided to use a mixture of light brown sugar and caster for this recipe - I think brown sugar and citrus is a seriously underrated combination (grapefruit + demerara = gift from the Gods). It does give the sponge a cafe latte esque colour which is quite alluring, too.
The fillings
One of my dream cake non negotiables is having fillings that are as thick as the sponge. I like cake, but I REALLY like it when it has plenty of generous fillings. So, obviously lemon had to be involved, but structure was crucial too. I drew up a list of all the lemon creamy things I could think of and made small batches: Whipped lemon ganache, lemon mousse, a posset (could I whip it?) and curd:
The mousse (lemon juice heated with gelatin then whisked into yolks with sugar, folded into cream then whipped egg whites), while successful, was finicky. Very light and bright, it also is very soft before setting up in the fridge which - unless we are constructing a scaffolding situation for the cake - makes it hard to place in layer cakes. I tested to see if, once set, it could be smoothed into place while still retaining airiness and though somewhat successful, it wasn’t my top candidate.
The whipped lemon ganache, while a delight, was too rich and lacked the airiness I was after. I tried a second batch with more cream, but it wasn’t much nicer than cream just whipped with a little lemon juice,
The posset, rich though light on the tongue, was lovely and whipped well. BUT, all that extra effort just to make lemon whipped cream? I don’t think so.
Lemon curd, with its intense butteriness, was my top candidate, but it is far too intense on its own, and entirely lacks the strength and body to hold up cake layers alone. I decided to take inspiration from creme legere (afterall, is curd not custard? A topic for another day!) and folded together equal parts whipped cream and lemon curd. The result was a super airy, but quite strong filling.
Lemon and lemon alone can be too intense, so I knew I’d need to provide some ying for my yang. Enter, whipped cream. BUT, because this cake should have an overall sense of tanginess, the addition of mascarpone brings it all together. Not only does it help provide stability and body to the layer, the flavour both grounds and magnifies the citrus.
And finally, jam. My birthday lands in June, so omitting berries would be foolish and they make a good partner for the lemon. My two top picks with lemon are blueberries and blackcurrants (blackberries are just too gritty for me in a cake situation). You can make your own jam but good quality shop bought preserves are encouraged, too.
The syrup
Though not essential, a syrup is always a tempting way to add flavour and improve the texture of a cake. The syrup was actually the last flavour I came up with for this cake. I had already decided on the chamomile buttercream and the lemon (obvs) throughout, along with the sweet-tartness from the blueberry. Vanilla is a comfort ingredient, but it didn’t seem right here. I thought about doubling down on the chamomile, but those hutch-like (in a good way!) flavours can be overkill.
Perhaps lemon thyme or lemon balm to keep the flavours ‘in the citrus’ family? Possibly good, but hard to source on short notice. And then it hit me - MY BESTIE, BAY LEAF! I adore Bay-Leaf-everything - caramel, custard, soda. In fact, my dream birthday cake wouldn’t be complete without it. I made a concentrated bay leaf syrup then added a little lemon juice to lift it (making the syrup with lemon juice from the off proved too risky and overwhelming) - it was grounding perfection.
The drizzle
The best part of the lemon drizzle cake is, of course, the crunchy, sweet/sour, citrussy topping. The way the crunch, gritty with sugar, gives way to the tender, buttery crumb is an unbeatable combination. It is decidedly rustic though, so figuring out how to transform this characteristic into my ‘fancy’ version was the number one priority. To get that frosted finish on the lemon drizzle, you make a lemon sugar syrup then pour it over your cake whilst hot. Much of the lemon juice and syrup seeps into the cake while the undissolved or excess sugar settles on the top. To quote my friend Jordon, the crust has the look of “fine Italian leather”. So how do we recreate this?
I actually took a run at this concept almost three years ago. I mixed up a few ratios of lemon juice and sugar, spread them on trays and left to dry. The tests were a sort of a success, giving me fine shards of lemony sugar (not that I made great notes), but looking at my camera roll, I had left the mixtures for at least 3 days before checking on them! Evaporation had done its job, but not within a reasonable timeframe, hmmmm.
Two thoughts - could I adjust the ratio this time to make it crystallise more quickly? Or, could I employ the help of the oven, ala meringue drying out, to form the shards?
The latter was a big flop - rather than dry out, the sugar/lemon mixture became syrupy and sticky, a super-glue esque acidic sugar mixture that would give my dentist nightmares. Perhaps it was the heatwave, perhaps it was a too-hot environment, or perhaps it was just a bad idea altogether. If I had a dehydrator, I might give this a go. But dehydrators aren’t exactly known for speed if this is what I was trying to solve...
The ratio, however, was a big help. A touch less lemony, yes, but an overnight (8-12 hour) rest, spread thinly, made gorgeous sheets of citrussy crystallised sugar that could be broken into shards. Even in areas that hadn’t entirely set, you can still lift off the top crust for decor. The longer you leave it, the more it dries out of course, but at least this was on a less tedious time scale! Whether you use granulated or caster also makes a difference - caster makes a more homogenous and solid shard, while granulated has more of a rippled glass effect.
One thing I was really worried about was the lasting power of these shards. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it eagerly draws water in from the environment, turning into sloppy syrup at a moments notice. I figured that I’d just have to share this recipe with you with a major disclaimer, telling you to avoid decorating the cake too far in advance, and to warn you that the shards will turn to syrupy mush in the fridge. BUT… I made this cake on Friday afternoon and popped it in the fridge overnight expecting the worst. As of writing this at 11:45AM on Saturday (and proofing at 7:30AM on Sunday… today!), the shards are intact, still crunchy and the cake looks perfect.
My preference would still be to decorate this cake pretty close to serving (all of our fridges are different and humidity may be well controlled in mine?) but good to know that this decor has more staying power than I thought!
Balancing the cake: The crucial test spoon
If making a test spoon, or two, of your chosen cake and fillings isn’t already part of your cake making process then you’re missing out. I always build a test mouthful of cake - it helps give you a sense of what the overall balance and flavour of the cake will be. From here, you can adjust acidity and salt if necessary, as well as think about if you have the right ratio of fillings.
My first test spoon had far too much jam - a good reminder to go easy when building the full cake. I also added more salt into the buttercream to ground the flavours, though I could have easily added salt into my syrup instead. This is also a bit of a treat for yourself - i’ve built SO many cakes over the years that I’ve never managed to get a slice of in the end, so make sure you get at least a spoonful for your hard work.
Finishing touches
The thin (ish) layer of chamomile buttercream holds the cake together. I tried two routes to get the chamomile flavour into the buttercream - I first made an italian meringue with a chamomile syrup before whipping butter into it. It was promising, but the flavour wasn’t strong enough. I changed tactics and infused butter with chamomile instead and the results were much better.
Though the lemon crusted sugar is a treat on its own, fresh chamomile flowers are available in June so I wanted to turn my cake into a meadow, swaying in the wind. If you can’t find fresh chamomile flowers, I suggest dolloping bits of extra curd around the cake, or perhaps candying some lemon, as an alternative finish. That would look gorge.
The format
Something else I care deeply about is producing a cake that is easy to cut/doesn’t get totally destroyed after the first slice is removed. There’s nothing sadder than a gorgeous, tall, round cake being hacked unceremoniously as the day goes on. My dream birthday cake will give you a slice that remains just as beautiful from the first to the last. It is also crucial to me that the cutting and distribution is as non stressful as possible for the host/person given the task of cutting the cake. So, baking the cake in a sheet tray then cutting and stacking was non-negotiable. It also means less tin wrangling, so a win-win for everyone!
And sure, the shards might prove a bit of a challenge to cut neatly, but they can just be smashed up during cutting for that drizzle effect!
The timeline
You can make all of the elements in this cake well in advance. Even though the lemon shards stayed crunchy in my fridge, I wouldn’t recommend decorating the night before just in case your fridge is more humid than mine. In this case, I’d get the cake entirely built and buttercreamed, then bring to room temp for 1-2 hours before serving, placing the shards and chamomile flowers on when the buttercream is soft.
Ok, let’s make it!
My Dream Birthday Cake: Fancy Lemon Drizzle
Serves 12
Ingredients
Lemon shards (makes more than you need! but these in theory last forever in an airtight container)
160g sugar, granulated or caster
30g lemon juice
Cake
4 large eggs, about 220g
100g Light brown sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
40g Butter
30g Vegetable oil
80g Whole milk
150g Plain flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt
8g Baking powder
Pinch of cream of tartar (optional)
100g Caster sugar
Small Batch Lemon curd (to learn more about lemon curd and making all sorts of curds, check this post here)
50g egg yolks (use the whites for the buttercream!)
60g caster sugar
50g lemon juice + zest of 1 lemon
40g Butter
Pinch of salt
Blueberry Jam (or buy a good quality one! Blackcurrant also great)
300g Blueberries
150g Caster sugar
½ lemon, juice only
Whipped Mascarpone cream
175g Mascarpone
300g Double cream
1-2 tsp sugar, optional
Bay leaf lemon syrup
200g Caster sugar
300ml Water
4-5 bay leaves
15g lemon juice, or to taste
Chamomile Buttercream
5g dried chamomile flowers (the ones in fancy tea bags!)
250g Unsalted butter
100g egg whites
125g Caster sugar
1tsp Flaky salt (if using fine sea salt, use ⅓ of the amount), plus more to taste
Method
Start by making the lemon shards: mix together the sugar and lemon juice then spread thinly onto a baking tray lined with paper. Leave overnight (12 hours minimum, though the longer the better!) to crystallise. Once totally hardened, you can break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
For the cake, pre-heat oven to 160c fan and line a 39cm x 27cm tray with baking paper. Separate the eggs. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks, light brown sugar, milk, zest and oil together. Melt the butter then whisk this in. Finally whisk in the flour, salt and baking powder.
In your stand mixer bowl, start whisking your egg whites and, if using, add a pinch of cream of tartar once they start to froth. Add the sugar in a slow stream then whisk the egg whites for 4-8 minutes until a glossy, soft meringue forms. It should be shiny and thick but still flexible - when the beaters are lifted, the tip should flop onto itself. All our mixers are different, so keep checking – it’s important that your meringue is not too stiff. If it is too stiff, it will be difficult to incorporate it into your flour/yolk mixture and, in turn, will deflate. Trust in your bubbles and err on the side of under whipped.
Fold in the meringue, using the whisk (handy for meringue folding!) in about three batches. Add the next batch once the meringue is almost completely mixed in. The final batter should be quite fluffy and airy. Once it is almost all mixed in, you can switch to a spatula and gently finish the mixture off, scraping the edge and bottom of the bowl to ensure it is all well incorporated. It should be very smooth and puffy, but pourable.
Pour into your baking tray then smooth the mixture to the edges. Tap lightly on the counter to break any large bubbles then bake for 20 minutes until risen, springy and golden. Leave to cool completely - it might deflate a tiny bit. That’s ok. Once cooled, wrap if not using immediately. Stays fresh for a few days.
For the curd, in a small heatproof bowl whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, followed by the lemon juice and zest. Add in the butter.
Place the bowl on top of a pan of simmering water (a bain marie / double boiler set-up) on a low heat and whisk occasionally as the butter melts. Don’t walk too far away, but you can pretty much leave the curd here to do its thing. Depending on the batch size, it’ll likely take 10-15 minutes. Stir every now and again. You know the curd is ready when it looks thick and jellied and when you stir it, you interrupt a thick wobbly mass. You can temp it - it should be above 82c. Pour through a fine-meshed sieve (some bits of egg might have been uncombined with the sugar and juice and cook, solo! You’ll lose the zest, but the oils will be in the curd). You can leave to cool completely and store in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.
For the jam, mix the blueberries with caster sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and leave ideally overnight, either at room temp in the fridge. Camilla Wynne says you can do just 15 mins if that’s all you’ve got though!
After this maceration period, heat everything together on a medium heat and bring to a boil stirring often with a spatula. In this batch size, it took me about 10-15 mins of boiling until it was ready. The signs of readiness include - the bubbles slow down and it looks visibly thicker and glossier. When you lift your spatula out of the jam, it will cling to it. Once it starts to thicken, I suggest lowering the temp so you can get the set just right. Test readiness by putting a teaspoon of jam on a plate then putting in the freezer. After 3 mins, if the jam wrinkles, it is set! Transfer into a heat proof container or sterilized jars, if desired. Jam keeps in the fridge for weeks, even months, while sterilized jars will set you up for years to come!
For the syrup, heat together the sugar, water and bay leaves. Simmer for 8 minutes then leave to cool completely. Once cool, add lemon juice to taste. Syrup keeps in the fridge for 1 month.
To make the buttercream, melt the butter in a saucepan with the chamomile. Simmer for 2 minutes then leave to infuse for at least an hour. Pass butter through a sieve into a container and weigh it. Add more butter to make it up to 250g, then place the whole lot in the fridge til firm (or faster in the freezer!). Remove it from the fridge 1-2 hours before you make the buttercream so it can soften.
Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Heat over a bain-marie until you can no longer feel the grittiness from the sugar and it has reached around 70°C. Whisk on a high speed until the mixture has made a thick, fluffy meringue and is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Add soft butter in, bit by bit, until smooth, about 2–3 minutes. It will split. Don’t panic. Keep going. When it’s smooth, add salt to taste. I add the salt at the end because I want there to be crunchy salt crystals in the buttercream.
To assemble the cake, trim your cake (sometimes the edges are a bit thicker, or have fallen inward) then cut into three equal parts. Whip the double cream and mascarpone together until thick then remove 150g of it and mix with 150g of the set lemon curd - fold together to make a thick cream.
Douse the base cake layer, positioned on a cake board (or serving tray if easier), with the syrup, about 30-50g, using a pastry brush. Pipe a border of buttercream, about 60-75g, around the edge of the cake. Spread about 80g of jam thinly along the sponge then pile the whipped mascarpone cream, about 230g, on top and spread. Place the next layer of sponge on top and brush with syrup. Pipe the same buttercream border around the edge then pile the lemon cream in the middle. Finish with the remaining sponge then brush the top with syrup. Use an offset spatula to smooth and seal the edges of the cake then place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm up.
Coat the cake with the remaining buttercream, with a rough finish (don’t worry too much, the cake will be entirely covered). Break the lemon sugar into pieces and decorate the cake (best to do this close to serving, see ‘timeline’ earlier) with the crusty lemon sugar, smashed or divided into pieces, along with the chamomile flowers. Cake keeps for several days in the fridge, but make sure to enjoy at room temp!
Hey! This week is also my birthday, I’m in the process of making the cake right now :)
I noticed the ingredient list for the cake has milk in it, but it’s not mentioned in the instructions. I thought I recognized milk in the gif you posted so I added it in.
Can’t wait to see the final result! Congrats on your James Beard!
MILK listed in cake ingredients gets whisked into the oil/yolk/sugar mixture. Method updated!