White Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

I made a birthday cake for a friend and his favorite cake has a lemon curd center.  I have made lemon curd, but to make it really easy, Trader Joe’s has a really good one and I used that for the filling along with a nice layer of the butter cream in the center.  To make the candied lemon slices for the decorations I made a sugar syrup with equal parts of sugar and water.  Bring it to a boil and add a sliced  lemon and cook them in the syrup over low heat for an hour. Remove them to a wire rack and let them dry overnight and then dip them in sugar so they sparkle.  I used America’s Test Kitchen recipe for the cake and it sounds strange, but you mix the butter into the dry ingredients until it is sand like, and then you add the egg whites and remaining ingredients and give it a good beating with the mixer.  I use a carton of egg whites to make the cake and butter cream frosting.  The texture is feather light and moist. Swiss meringue butter cream takes a little more effort than just a regular butter cream frosting with powdered sugar, but for butter cream addicts, this recipe is delicious and is really a no fail recipe.  Click here for the recipe….