15 Layer Lemon Crepe Cake

About fifteen years ago I gained an interest in layered cakes. Just just cakes with 3 or 4 layers, but cakes made with 15 to 20 thin layers. My initial interest stemmed from a friendship at the time with a woman who lived in Georgia who remembered a cake her Grandmother made that was layers of spice cake filled with apple butter or apple filling. After discussing this old fashioned cake, my interest was piqued and I've always been enthralled with them since.

I saw this lemon version on a Martha Stewart website. I haven't made it yet but it seems the perfect 'summer' dessert, don't you think? I have 2 containers of Harry & David Lemon Curd in my cupboard and I am planning on adapting this recipe to use those instead of the lemon curd mousse it calls for. You know me... I never actually follow a recipe, but use them as a guide. I like to play with my food!



15 Layer Lemon Crepe Cake

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, melted, plus more, melted, for pan
Meyer Lemon Curd Mousse (recipe not included with this posting)
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
Candied Meyer Lemons, optional

Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk together milk, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually pour milk mixture into flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Whisk in butter. Pour through a fine sieve into an airtight container; discard lumps. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Lightly coat a 6-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet with butter. Heat over medium heat until just starting to smoke. Remove from heat; pour about 2 tablespoons batter into center. Swirl to cover bottom. Reduce heat to medium-low; return pan to heat. Cook until edges are golden and center is dry, about 30 seconds per side.

Slide crepe onto an overturned plate. Repeat with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed, and stacking crepes. Let cool.

Place 1 crepe on a flat serving dish. Spread about 1/4 cup lemon curd mousse onto crepe. Top with 1 crepe. Continue layering crepes and mousse. (Use 15 crepes, ending with a crepe on top.) Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Top crepe cake with whipped cream and 3 or 4 candied lemon slices for garnish.

Rainbow Layer Cake

This is just a basic cake recipe, there isn't anything special about it - but it's appeal is that you divide the batter between 6 different bowls and color each so you end up with a rainbow of colors. I'm adding this one to my online collection but I have an idea for you; with the Fourth of July coming up in just a few weeks, try making 3 each of red and blue to make a patriotic holiday cake. Mmmm. I love this cake. It's so fun!




Makes one 9-inch-round six-layer cake

* Vegetable shortening
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 1/3 cups sugar
* 5 large egg whites, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature
* Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring
* Buttercream Frosting


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush six 9-inch-round cake pans (or as many 9-inch cake pans as you have, reusing them as necessary) with shortening. Line bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper; brush again and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Slowly add egg whites and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and milk in two alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Mix until well combined.

Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Add enough of each color of food coloring to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached. Transfer each color to an individual cake pan. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes (working in batches if necessary).

Remove cakes from oven and transfer to a wire rack; let cool for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a wire rack; re-invert and let cool completely.

Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the purple layer on the cake plate. Spread a scant 1 cup buttercream filling over the first layer with a small offset spatula so it extends just beyond edges. Repeat process with blue, green, yellow, and orange layers.

Place the remaining red layer on top, bottom-side up. Gently sweep away any loose crumbs with a pastry brush. Using an offset spatula, cover the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (also use any of the excess frosting visible between the layers). Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

Using an offset spatula, cover cake again with remaining frosting.

Back to Normal Soon!

On May 23rd my oldest daughter flew to Kingston, Jamaica to start a 10 day mission trip. We had no idea that fighting and turmoil would be breaking out but her plane landed just as the council there was declaring a State of Emergency.

Since then, life goes on, but I'm spending a lot of time reading the news, finding updates of the situation in Kingston and where the barricades, the drug cartels, the deaths and random shootings are happening. I know she is currently safe and the fighting is still focused on certain areas but with civilians being killed and the US Embassy reducing services as well as three flights being canceled yesterday... well, my mind is occupied.

Don't worry - I haven't gone anywhere! But my mind is preoccupied so I tend to do tasks that keep me busy while my mind wanders. Scrubbing the bathroom floor and organizing closets come to mind!

I'll try to update tomorrow - check back soon. Thanks!

The Alfalfa Sprout Recall Is Up to 15 States

Alfalfa sprouts recalled because of salmonella poisoning were sold to more than 400 Wal-Mart stores in 15 states, a spokeswoman for the retail chain said Monday.

The raw sprouts sold by Caldwell Fresh Foods were sold to Wal-Marts in Alabama, California, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin, the company said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control said last week the alfalfa sprouts appear to have sickened at least 22 people in 10 states, including a baby in Oregon. Eleven of those sickened were in California.

The sprouts were sold in at least seven other stores in California, including Trader Joe's. Caldwell, based in Maywood, Calif., said in a release that the sprouts were sold at restaurants, delicatessens and retailers nationwide but the company has not released a complete list of the outlets that purchased the sprouts.

Caldwell Fresh Foods did not respond to requests for comment and no one answered the phone at the company's headquarters on Monday.

According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, which was first to announce the outbreak last week, Caldwell's alfalfa product was sold in 18 states in the West, Midwest and South.

In addition to those who were sickened in California, two were sickened in Nevada and two in Wisconsin. Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Colorado each had one person become ill, the CDC said. The illnesses began between March 1 and May 2 and six people were hospitalized.

Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems. It can cause diarrhea, fever and vomiting.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Caren Epstein said sprouts were removed from the produce departments of the affected stores as soon as the retail chain was made aware of the recall.

Caldwell said the recalled alfalfa sprouts were sold in plastic cups and plastic bags under the Caldwell Fresh Foods brand, plastic cups under the Nature's Choice brand and plastic containers under the California Fresh Exotics brand.

William E. Keene, a senior epidemiologist at the Oregon health department, said the baby sickened was a 4-month-old boy who ate alfalfa sprouts mixed with other foods. His sickness made the cause of the outbreak easier to identify, Keene said, because the infant had not yet eaten many foods. He was hospitalized but later recovered.

Amaretto Almond Cake (Personal Note: This is the one. Hailey's Favorite)

On Sunday afternoon I was doing the mundane household chores that are never-ending; dishes, laundry, vacuuming. Suddenly I was in the mood to make a cake. I didn't know what kind, but I knew I wanted to bake. I opened my files and glanced at a random untried recipe. It was for an Amaretto cake. It called for starting with a cake mix. Therein lay the deciding factor. Did I have a yellow cake mix on hand? I checked and the only cake mix in the house happened to be... yellow! I had bought it to make our families favorite lemon cheesecake bars but the almond flavored cake was going to win out.

It's a very light, moist cake with very good flavor. As a matter of fact my daughters friend was over after school, tried it, deemed it one of the best cakes she has ever had in her life. I sent 1/3 of the cake home with her to share with her family.

I hope you enjoy it as much as they did!




Amaretto Almond Cake

1 cup chopped almonds
1 box (18.25 oz size) yellow cake mix
1 box (4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding mix
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup amaretto liqueur
1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup amaretto
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Heat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10" tube or Bundt pan; sprinkle chopped almonds over the bottom and set aside.

In mixing bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water, amaretto and almond extract. Beat on low speed with electric mixer about 30 seconds until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat 4 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until done - approximately 1 & 1/2 hour for bunt/angel food style pan. Cool cake 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely and place on cake plate.

For glaze, in small saucepan, combine sugar, water and butter and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and gently boil 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool 15 minutes. Stir in amaretto and almond extract. Punch holes in cake from top to bottom with wooden pick or skewer. Slowly spoon glaze over cake until entirely absorbed. *I opted to boil the amaretto with the sugar syrup to boil off the alcohol and lessen the strength of the amaretto flavor so all family members and the kids friends could enjoy the cake without a strong amaretto alcohol flavor.