He ... [read more]]]>

He decided though that he’d try to make me a cake from scratch for my birthday…a citrus gelatin cake that he remembered his mother making for him when he was little. He thought I’d like it because I love anything with natural lemon and orange flavors. And he was right!

Anyway, he wasn’t sure how his mother made the cake; he only had a general idea of the flavors and how it looked. He said she made a sponge-type cake, poked holes in it, and then poured a glaze over it. He said she had a layer of gelatin on top of the cake, as well as a layer of whipped cream on top of the gelatin.

Kemal found a recipe online for cake that he thought was similar to the one his mother made, and then he surprised me by making the lemon gelatin from scratch instead of buying a box of lemon Jello in the store. I was quite impressed!!

Anyway, I really didn’t do anything at all to help him, although I was in the kitchen with him while he was making the cake. He wanted me there for moral support, and of course, I cheered him on!

The birthday cake he made for me turned out awesome! It has a wonderful flavor and is perfect both in taste and appearance! It tastes heavenly, and I love every lemon-orange bite! Here’s what my piece looked like.

Now that I’ve had my cake, my birthday is officially over. Did you know I’ve been having my birthday for six weeks now? Yep…for the past six weeks, Kemal’s been buying birthday presents for me. Every week he’s gotten me something new, and I’ve loved everything! I have to admit though that this fantastic cake that he made for me is my favorite gift by far!

Homemade gifts are always the best because they’re made with care and love straight from the heart!

Multi-Layer Citrus Sponge Gelatin Cake…The Only Cake Kemal Has Ever Made

Sponge Cake Recipe Adapted from:  coolinarinka.com

Ingredients for Making the Sponge Cake:

• 5 large eggs
• 12 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 16 tbsp. sugar

Ingredients for the Citrus Glaze:

• 2 cups water
• 2  1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 2 oranges, sliced
• 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for Making the Lemon Gelatin:

• .6 oz. (10 g) unflavored gelatin
• 8 oz. yellow sugar crystals
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. lemon extract (lemon oil)
• 4 cups boiling water

Note: If you don’t want to make your own gelatin, just purchase some lemon Jello in the grocery store and make it according to package directions.

Ingredients for Making the Whipped Cream:

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1 pkg. whipped cream stabilizer
• 6 pkgs. vanilla sugar (you can substitute 6 tbsp. of granulated sugar if you don’t have vanilla sugar)
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• zest from two Valencia oranges
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Step One:  Prep Work:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Line a square 9-inch Springform pan with parchment paper. Use a big enough piece of paper so some of the paper hangs out of the edges after you tighten the clasp of your pan.
• Spray the paper and pan with Baker’s Joy.
• Wash 2 lemons and 2 oranges.
• Grate the orange peel from both oranges, and then refrigerate the orange zest until you’re ready to use it later.
• Slice both the oranges and lemons into medium-sized discs. Refrigerate them until you’re ready to use them later.

Step Two:  Make the Sponge Cake

• In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until you start seeing “trails”  or lines behind in the batter. In other words, the beaters from the electric mixer will leave trail lines in the batter at one point. If this doesn’t happen, just add a little more sugar as needed and continue beating until you see the trail (lines) in the batter. When that happens, you’re done beating the eggs and sugar.
• Add the flour, one spoon at a time, mixing it into the egg mixture by hand.
• Pour the batter into the prepared Springform pan.

Optional: It’s fine to pour all the batter into the Springform pan, but Kemal  left about 1/2 cup of the batter in the bowl in order to make two mini cakes. If you want to do that too, just grease and flour two small baking dishes (like ramekins) and pour 1/4 cup of the batter into each of them.

Treat those little mini cakes the same way you do the large one (poking holes in them, letting them cool, and then later transferring them to a parfait glass, adding the glaze, gelatin, and whipped cream).

Here’s a picture of the two little mini cakes that we put in parfait glasses and layered with glazed, gelatin, and cream.

• Bake on 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes. When the cake is done, it will be golden brown. You can test it to be sure by inserting a toothpick or cake tester. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.
• Remove the cake from the oven so it can cool.
• Using a fork, poke holes in the entire cake.

Step Three:  Make the Glaze

• While the cake is baking, make the glaze by placing the orange and lemon slices, as well as 2 cups of water, in a medium sized pot and bringing it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pot with a lid.
• Reduce the heat to medium after the water comes to a boil, and continue cooking (covered) for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Now you want to remove the seeds, fruit pulp, and peels from the water. If you have a sieve, place the sieve over a large glass and/or stainless steel bowl, and then pour the mixture into the sieve.
• Pour the citrus water back into the pot, discarding the fruit pulp and peels (or you can pick out the seeds and put it in a kettle of hot tea like I did)
• Stir in the 2 1/2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of honey, and 1 tbsp. of vanilla into the warm citrus water.
• Cook the mixture on the stove (uncovered) on medium heat only until the sugar dissolves (about 10 minutes).
• Remove the glaze from the heat and put it in the refrigerator so it can cool some. You don’t want it to cool down completely. You want it to be lightly warm when you get ready to pour the glaze over the cake.

Step Four:  Make the Gelatin

• Bring 4 cups of water to a boil (uncovered) in a medium-sized pot.
• Remove the water from heat, and then stir in the gelatin, .6 oz. unflavored gelatin, 8 oz. sugar crystals, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and 1 tbsp. lemon extract.
• Refrigerate the gelatin until it starts to thicken (15-30 minutes).

Note: If you don’t want to make your own gelatin, buy some lemon Jello and make it instead.

Step Five:  Make the Whipped Cream

• While the cake, gelatin, and glaze are all cooling, make the whipped cream by beating a pint of heavy whipping cream and the whipped cream stabilizer with your electric mixer on a low speed for about 3 minutes or so.
• Add 6 packages of vanilla sugar and 3 tbsp. granulated sugar, and 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar.
• Continue beating the cream, increasing the speed to high and beating it until the whipped cream becomes thick.
• Fold in the grated orange zest.
• Refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble the cake.

Step Six:  Assemble and Cut the Cake

• Pour the warm glaze over the cake. You might have some left over, and that’s fine. You can add it to hot tea or use it as a simple syrup for making cocktails.
• Let the cake sit out at room temperature until the gelatin has just begin thickening up a little (the gelatin will still be slightly warm at this point).
• Then pour the gelatin over the glazed cake.
• Refrigerate for about an hour or so until the gelatin has gotten completely firm.
• Then spread the whipped cream on top of the gelatin layer.
• If you like, you can sprinkle the top of the cake with dried orange peel, colored sugar crystals, and/or candied orange or lemon peels. Or you can just keep the top of the cake plain…whatever you prefer.
• Refrigerate the cake again for 8 to 12 hours.
• Remove the edges of the Springform pan.
• Slice the cake, and transfer a slice to a serving plate, making sure to transfer the parchment paper.
• Serve chilled.

Yesterday, Kemal bought me a cake pan mold which makes little individual torte-shaped cakes like ... [read more]]]>

Yesterday, Kemal bought me a cake pan mold which makes little individual torte-shaped cakes like what you see here:

They’re just so darned cute, and they taste oh-so-lemony. You can make the cake in any kind of cake pan…doesn’t have to be a molded one like this what we used.

You can also make the glaze sweeter. While we really like the cake just as it is, Kemal and I both think the glaze could maybe be a bit sweeter. Next time we might make our glaze with some sugar added to the honey and water.

Honey Soaked Lemon Cake (Adapted from: www.recipesource.com)