1-2-3-4 Lemon Cake

A friend made her husband a lemon cake for his birthday that looked fantastic back in December, but of course it was made with real butter (as it should be for anyone's birthday, although I do really appreciate when people have some dessert for me at a party, even if it's just fruit!).  It looked delicious so of course I had to get the recipe and see if I could adapt it, and our department monthly birthday celebration sounded like the right time!

The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen for the Lemon Layer Cake.  Here's my adapted dairy-free version:

1-2-3-4 Cake
Adapted from several sources: this cake is a classic

This cake gets its name from its proportion of ingredients: 1 cup butter and milk, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs, and from cupcakes to layers cakes, as a basic, white cake, it does not fail.

Yield: 3 9-inch layers (for the purpose of this cake) or 24 cupcakes or 2 9x9 pans(good to know, eh?)

1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance "butter", at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups + 1-2 teaspoons sifted self-rising flour*
1 cup almond or soy milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil & flour the pans.  (Recipes always forget to write in that step!)  Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. It takes a bit longer, but Earth Balance will actually cream.  :-) Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and DF milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla, lemon juice and zest and continue to beat until just mixed. 

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure a level cake. I only had one 9x9 pan, oops (guess what I got for Christmas! 9-inch round pans!) so I baked the layers one at a time and the batter stood well on the counter between baking.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (start checking at 15 minutes if you are making cupcakes).

* Self-rising flour has both salt and baking powder in it, but you can make your own at home with the following formula: 1 cup self-rising flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour, minus 2 teaspoons + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

From the Joy of Cooking: This makes a sensation filling for sponge rolls or an Angel Food Cake. You can also marble it into a cheesecake.

8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance "butter"
3 lemons, zest grated and juiced

Place the ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Don’t let top pan touch the water. Cook and stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken ever-so-slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate it to thicken.

Place layer one on a plate, spread the top with lemon curd and place the second and/or top layer, then another layer of lemon curd.  I then finished it with a layer of classic white vanilla icing from Duncan Hines due to time, but could have made an icing now that I know Earth balance works pretty well for icing.

It was delicious, well enjoyed at work, and the extras were happily brought home to be enjoyed for the next few days.  It was possibly even better a few days later!  (Classic.  Forgot to take a final picture.  I'll just have to make it again!)