I must admit I’ve been obsessed about lemon cakes these days so I guess it’s normal that I would have reoccurring dreams about making them. I would have liked to have had more lime in this cake, but I made do with what I had in the refrigerator. I was pleased with the result, and so was Kemal.
They’re light; you can eat one without feeling heavy. They’re sweet, but not too sweet. And they’re lemony without being too tart. I only ate one tonight, but I could have eat two…or three for that matter.
Now I guess you noticed by now that my Valentine cakes are heart-shaped but they’re not pink or red the way they probably should be. What can I say? I’m different, and well…besides that I’ve been dreaming about lemon cakes. I’ll try to make pink cakes next Valentine’s Day.
Alrighty, before getting started, let me just suggest that if you want to decorate your cake with the candied lemon peel, I’d recommend doing that step the night before you make the cake. Then in the morning you can get up and finish the rest. How much candied lemon peel you make is really up to you.It just depends on how much you want to garnish your cakes with. I used this stack (the peels from one lemon) to garnish my cakes:
Lemon-Lime Valentine Cakes
Karen’s “One Bowl” Perfect Pound Cake
Ener-G Egg Replacing Whipped Topping
and thanks to my friend, Vesna, because my lemon filling was adapted from her cream filling for Russian Hat Cake.
Here’s a link to a short video on this page if you want to see how to make the candied citrus peels.
How to make a “dump cake” with the leftover cake scraps, lemon filling, and whipped cream topping:
Now that you’ve finished your Valentine cakes, you’ll notice you have leftover cake scraps, filling, and whipped cream. A really easy way to put those leftovers to use is to make a “dump cake.” If you’ve never made one before, a dump cake is just basically a cake that’s put together by dumping the ingredients into a pan. I took my dump cake, as well as some Valentine cakes, to work, and everything was gone in minutes. My co-workers seemed to really enjoy it. I would show you a picture except I didn’t have time to photograph it. I barely finished making the cakes before it was time to go to work. I photographed the Valentine cakes that I saved for me and Kemal when we got home from work.
Okay, you’ll need just a few more minutes to make your dump cake. Ready?
- Find a serving dish that will hold your leftovers.
- Take all your leftover cake pieces and break them apart onto the bottom of your serving dish.
- Pour the leftover lemon filling onto the cake pieces and then spread it evenly.
- Now spread the whipped cream on top of the lemon filling.
- If you have any leftover candied lemon peels, decorate the top of your dump cake with that. I didn’t have any left over so I just sprinkled the top of my dump cake with multi-colored sugar crystals and candies. It looked like a festive Easter cake and tasted great!
Before you clean up the mess, I think you deserve to eat a little Valentine Cake, don’t you.
