Lemon sponge
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees top/bottom heat.
2. Prepare two 15cm diameter baking tins.
3. Line the base of each baking tin with parchment paper.
4. For the sponge, first separate the eggs and beat the egg whites until stiff on the highest setting.
5. Then add sugar and vanilla sugar and continue beating for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is nice and glossy.
6. Now add the egg yolks and briefly fold in on a low setting.
7. Then mix the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder, sift over the egg-sugar mixture, add the lemon zest, and gently fold everything in.
8. Divide the batter between the prepared baking tins.
Tip: If you spread the batter up slightly at the edges,
the sponge will bake up nice and evenly!
Bake immediately in the preheated oven on the middle rack for approx. 20 minutes. Important: Be sure to do the toothpick test!
9. Leave the sponges in the tins for another approx. 10 minutes, then release them, turn out onto a wire rack, and let cool completely.
10. Then cut each in half horizontally, so you get two to three layers each.
Yogurt-mascarpone cream
1. For the cream, first whip the cream and mascarpone together slowly, then on the highest setting, until the cream starts to firm up.
2. Mix the yogurt, lemon juice and zest, and SanApart together, then add to the rest of the cream along with the grated chocolate and combine.
Soak
For the soak, mix lemon juice, sugar, and water.
Milkmaid buttercream
1. Whip the room-temperature butter in the stand mixer until pale and creamy.
2. Then slowly pour in the sweetened condensed milk in a thin stream while continuously mixing, and whip for at least another five minutes.
3. To remove the yellow tint from the cream, lighten it with Icing Whitener to the desired degree.
4. Then prepare four small bowls and add two tablespoons of buttercream to each.
5. Tint these with the Colour Mill food colorings so that each of the two shades has a paler and a bolder version.
6. Fill the remaining white buttercream into a piping bag with a round tip.
Filling the cake
1. Fix the first layer onto a cake board with a bit of buttercream.
2. Then pipe a thin dam of buttercream around the edge with the piping bag.
3. Then soak the layer with the soak, spread with about two tablespoons of lemon curd, and add some of the lemon yogurt cream in the middle and spread it out.
4. Place the next layer on top and repeat the steps just described. Continue like this until all layers are filled and the cake is finished with a layer on top.
5. Wrap the cake with acetate cake collar, secure with a cake ring, and let it chill thoroughly in the fridge for at least two hours.
Finishing
1. After chilling, remove the cake ring and acetate collar.
2. For the crumb coat, spread a thin layer of buttercream over the top and around the cake and chill again for approx. 30 minutes.
3. Then coat with the remaining white buttercream and smooth with a cake scraper. Chill for at least another 30 minutes.
4. Then decorate the cake with the previously tinted buttercream by applying it around the edge with a small palette knife and piping dots on top with piping bags fitted with various tips.
5. Place mini bundt cakes and macarons on the cake as decoration.
6. To finish, decorate the finished cake with Happy Sprinkles and Happy Sparkle.
