Waiter There's Something In My...Lemon Curd Cake (Glutenfree & DairyFree)

I like lemons. My first lemon meringue pie experience was at Darling Harbor in Sydney. I was there on a trip with the mother, the father and the sisters. I don't remember quite how old I was, but I think I had fully developed my set of sweet teeth and greedy eyes. The greedy eyes saw the many beautiful cakes all lined up neatly in the glass window. Never seen cakes quite that tall before, I stood there, absolutely still, hoping the parents would get the message. Me Want Cake. I don't think I had even seen meringue before, I probably e made didn't even know how to pronounce it really. FUNNY.

So I asked for that one, I pointed and insisted. And I got it. You'd think I'd sink into glorious heaven and announce that I had found a replacement for chocolate. Nah. The crust was really thick and the meringue was just, too much of a good thing. Couldn't they have made the crust a little thinner, a little more delicate and the meringue just enough to allow the lemon curd to shine through just a little bit more? Overload-in a bad way. But hey, for what it's worth, it was a pretty cool first lemon meringue pie to have, it was THAT tall!

So back to me loving lemons, I went completely nuts at the market the other day and bought 10 lemons for 2bucks. So you know, I had to use them up, soon. So when 'Waiter, there's something in my ... layered cake' was announced, I thought I might do something lemony. I've been feeling all sorts of fruity lately. I was adament on using my new gluten-free cookbook 'Gluten-Free Baking' by Rebecca Reilly so I decided on a simple sponge cake and a lemon curd recipe I scrounged from Cooking Light. I'm fussy, I don't like recipes with fat or too many eggs or this or that. So this combination was light AND tasted rich and beautiful, like a lighter lemon cheesecake. But oh so good. I'm not being biased-REALLY!!! It's not a fancy schmancy cake, guess you could always dress it up with strawberries and kiwi. Maybe you could add some matcha powder into the sifted flour for a green tea sponge and layer it with a dark chocolate + ginger ganache. That was my second plan if I didn't have enough eggs. Luckily I had 5, so I halved the lemon curd recipe. It was just right.

Sponge Cake from Gluten-free Baking by Rebecca Reilly (pg 106)

4 eggs, seperated
1 cup sugar (I think 3/4 cup will suffice)
1.5 tsp g.f. vanilla
2 tbsp plus 1/4 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 cup rice flour

Preheat the oven to 325degrees (160 C). Lightly grease 2 8-inch cake pans or jelly roll pan

Ribbon the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow (it will look kinda grainy-ish, just ribbon until a thick uniform thread forms on the surface of the mixture, when whisk is lifted). Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Whip the egg whites with the salt and 1/4 tsp lemon juice until soft peaks form. Gently fold in 1/4 of egg whites into the ribboned base. Slide the remaining egg whites on top and sift the flour over. Fold in until homogenous.

Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the bottom of the pans once to remove any air pockets. Bake the cake layers for 20-25 minutes, 12-15 for the jelly roll.

If making the cake layers, invert onto a cooling rack. If making jelly roll, invert onto a tea towel dusted with icing sugar, trim edges and roll up lengthwise. When completely cooled, unroll, fill and decorate.

Lemon Curd recipe from here.
I made half the recipe, yummers! I could've just eaten it with a spoon. =)