Yummo Cookbook: Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake! Oh My!

My husband and I celebrated our one year anniversary this past Monday. Wow does a year fly by! Let's see we traveled to Chicago, Washington DC, San Diego and soon Denver, renovated our kitchen, redid our decks, bought a ~~CUTE..~~ * ahem* sorry MANLY red Jeep Wrangler and participated and finished the Boston Ruckus. PHEW! No wonder why it went fast! SO instead of buying each other fancy gifts or fly off to some fancy schmancy destination we decided to go back to the spot where we exchanged our vows and partied the night away in Kennebunkport, ME. Since the gift is paper for your first anniversary we decided to exchange letters about this past year and about what we learned/loved about our relationship. We are saving them to re read after 25+ years of marriage and I am sure we will get a good laugh! :) Anywho... enough of the mushy stuff, we got married at St Anne's church which is a beautiful stone church along the rocky coastline of Kennebunkport. The minute we laid our eyes on the church we knew it was the right place to say our "I Do's". Our reception was held at the Nonantum an Inn that exemplifies New England charm with a touch of class. We incorporated unique touches in our wedding such as a lemonade stand outside the church, a lobster boat that carried the wedding party to the cocktail hour and a cigar tent that served Cubans and the finest scotch. The Nonantum provided excellent service and an unbelievable scenery, but for me best part about the Nonantum was the FOOD! We had stations of Prime Rib, Roasted Chicken, Lobster Ravioli, scallops wrapped in bacon...(Drool)…just to name a few. People to this day still talk about how delicious it was. We wanted our wedding to have that rustic Maine feel, but also be elegant and refined. Each time I think back on that day I feel blessed that we had so much love and support from family and friends and that I got to promise my heart and soul to such a wonderful man.

One of the traditions that we passed on was freezing and eating the top of our cake for our one year. We actually decided not to freeze it because we heard that it wasn't worth it and a waste of money. Instead we were to order cupcakes of our lemon blueberry cake from our baker. Well this is how my life goes, the baker quit her baking job two weeks before our anniversary and took an amazing job for National Geographic writing food columns for them. BAH! Lucky for us though Mom saved the day and recreated our lemon blueberry yumminess for us. She did an AMAZING job on it...and it made me think I could have saved some money in our wedding budget! :) I asked her to provide the recipe below which she got from the Food Network website. Trust me you don't want to skip this tasty treat.

Lemon Layer Cake

Ingredients

Lemon Cake
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large whole eggs, at room temperature
3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup whole milk
Lemon Filling
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. To make the lemon cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans. Dust the pans with flour and tap out the excess.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together the dry ingredients with a whisk. Set aside.
3. In an electric stand mixer, using the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds, or until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, increase the speed to medium-high, and continue to beat until the mixture is light, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in he lemon juice (the batter will appear curdled at this point smooth out after you add the dry ingredients). Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 10 seconds. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.
5. Bake the cakes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rakcs and cool completely.
6. To make the lemon filling, in a medium nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the yolks and sugar until combined (We made blueberry filling). Whisk in the lemon juice, butter, and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the mixture turns opaque, thickens, and coats the back of the spoon. Do not let the filling boil, or it will curdle. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Stir in the lemon zest and allow the filling to cool.
7.Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto the surface, and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until chilled.
8. In a clean bowl of the electric mixer, using the whisk attachment or beaters, beat the heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Remove the lemon filling from the refrigerator and whisk until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the filling. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the filling until ready to assemble the cake.

10. To assemble the cake, place 1 cake layer on a serving plate. Pile the lemon filling onto the center using a small offset metal spatula, and spread it into an even layer, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge of the cake layer. Top with the second cake layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the frosting. (If some of the filling oozes out from the middle, just blend it with the frosting around the sides of the cake.) Serve the cake immediately, or refrigerate and bring to room temperature before serving.

Mom Note: "I used all fruit blueberry jam for filling and I decorated top with blueberries, rinsed and dried off."

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency