A cake worthy of an Oscar

... because it is top of the tops!

I love cake, I do, actually in reality I love the frosting on the cake more so than the cake itself but it would be gross to eat just frosting so I eat a little bit of cake and a lot more frosting. This recipe that I made for my birthday, I actually ate more cake then frosting and that is saying a lot. Lemon is a personal favorite taste of mine because it is bright and fresh. I love a recipe that calls for lemon zest and this cake and frosting recipe calls for that, the more lemon the better. Then you get the sweetness from the blueberries and it all comes together in a delicious combination. Oh, did I mention there is homemade lemon curd tucked in between the three layers of this cake?

Yah, homemade lemon curd, enough said.

Onto the cake!
First, gather together your ingredients for the cake: 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 3 cups fresh blueberries, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup whole milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 4 eggs, room temperature. For the frosting, 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, 2 teaspoons lemon zest, 5 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/4 cup heaving whipping cream, 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract. For the lemon curd, 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 whole eggs plus 4 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, 4 tablespoons butter, cubed, 2 teaspoons lemon zest.

You can make the lemon curd ahead of time, in fact, I recommend it to give the lemon curd time to cool so lets make that now to get it out of the way.
In a metal bowl fitted on top of a sauce pan that had water already in it, add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and eggs and egg yolks. Add in the cubed butter then turn on the burner to let the water simmer. Stir the lemon curd the whole time it is cooking because you don't want scrambled eggs in your lemon curd. Allow the lemon curd to thicken, it should coat the back of a spoon and if it stays it is thick enough, it will take about 10 minutes. After the curd has thickened, remove it from the burner and pour the curd through a sieve to strain it. Cover the curd with plastic wrap letting the plastic wrap touch the top of the lemon curd. This will prevent a skin from forming on the curd. Let the curd cool in the refrigerator, preferably overnight. Then it is ready for the cake!

Let's make the cake!

*side note - I used cake flour rather than regular flour and for each cup of regular flour, I used 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of cake flour. With the extra 6 tablespoons, I just used regular flour. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three cake pans with a circle of parchment paper, some grease and a little bit of flour. In a large bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

In another large bowl, combine the blueberries and add 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture to coat the blueberries.

Why do you do this? Because for some reason coating the blueberries in flour and then adding them to the batter will prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake pan while baking. So do it! In another bowl, combine the sour cream, the milk, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest.

In your mixing bowl, cream your butter then add in the sugar and mix the ingredients together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Once they are fully mixed, alternate adding in the flour and milk mixture.

Start and end with the flour mixture. Give the batter one final mixing then remove it from the mixing stand. Now you add in the blueberries and gently fold them in with a spatula.

You don't want to use a beater or mixer for this step because you will create blueberry juice. Fill the cake pans with the batter into three equal parts.

Then bake the cake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake pans from the oven once they are cooked then let the cake cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing.

 Let the cakes cool completely before frosting them.

Moving right along to the frosting.
in your mixing bowl, cream the butter then add in the lemon zest until the butter is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

 Add in the powdered sugar and mix it completely into the butter mixture. Incorporate the heavy whipping cream and lemon juice until completely mixed.

Now you are finally ready to assemble the cake!
On a plate or cake stand, spread a teaspoon of frosting in the center to make the cake stick. Put one layer of cake onto the cake plate then pipe frosting on the perimeter of cake then spread half of the lemon curd you made all over the first layer.

Then add the second cake layer on top of the frosting and lemon curd. Repeat the piping of frosting and lemon curd step on top of the second layer then finally add the third cake on top.

Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake, this is called your crumb coat then refrigerator the cake for 30 minutes The crumb coat helps to prevent crumbs from forming when frosting.

Once the crumb coat has been allowed to set, finish frosting the remainder of the cake. Then serve, eat and enjoy!!

recipe found here