It’s finally springtime! And for us, that means spring desserts. In this case, it means a lemon cake with a Maria cookie crust, vanilla bean cake layers and lemon curd cream topping. The cake starts with a cookie crust. We use Maria cookies for the crust base. After baking off the cookie crust, we add the vanilla bean cake batter on top. Once the layers are baked and cooled, we make a lemon curd. The lemon curd then gets folded together with whipped cream. We then top the cake with more of Goya’s Maria cookies.
Goya has a full cookbook filled with recipes similar to this one using the delicious Maria Cookies. The cookbook is called Desserts to Impress and we’re giving one away so you can get a copy of it! How to enter the giveaway: 1. Follow @goyafoods and 2. Subscribe to the La Cocina Goya Newsletters (link here). The giveaway is open until April 28th at 11:59 PM. The winner will be announced and contacted 48 hours after the giveaway closes via email from: goyamariacookies@upfluence.com. For full terms and conditions, tap the link here.
Components of the Lemon Cake with Maria Cookies:
- Maria Cookie Crust: this layer is made of Maria cookies, sugar, melted butter, and salt. It gets baked and goes underneath the cake as a sweet, slightly crunchy layer
- Vanilla Cake: Layers of tender vanilla bean cake get baked on top of the cookie crust
- Lemon Cream: The lemon cream is made with a combination of lemon curd and
Lemon Cake with Maria Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie crust
- 1 ½ sticks butter melted
- 6 ounces Maria cookie crumbs 1 ounce will remain from the package for topping
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
Vanilla cake
- 4 cups cake flour 480 g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 10 ml
- 1 teaspoon baking soda 5 ml
- 1 teaspoon salt 5 ml
- 170 g coconut oil room temperature
- 170 g butter room temperature 1.5 sticks
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar 500 g
- 8 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract optional adds almond flavor if you don’t enjoy this leave it out
- 2 cups buttermilk 480 ml
Lemon curd
- 1 ¼ cups lemon juice we prefer meyer
- Lemon zest of 2 lemons
- 6 large eggs
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup salted butter
Whipped cream
- 2 cups whipped cream whipped to medium stiff peaks
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- In a food processor or with a ziploc bag/rolling pin, grind the Maria cookies until fine
- As soon as the cookies are fine, incorporate with melted butter, salt, and sugar. Mix until the ingredients are all evenly combined.
- In the base of greased and parchment lined cake pans (we used 3 8″ pans). Evenly distribute the graham cracker crust between the pans. After distributing, press the mixture down with a measuring cup or other flat surface until it forms a very compact layer (these will be thin)
- Place the pans in the oven and bake for 8 minutes (or until slightly golden) and set aside to cool while you make the cake
Vanilla cake:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside
- In the base of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter, coconut oil, and sugar until pale, light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes on medium high speed. Scrape down the bowl halfway through
- With the mixer still running, slower pour in the egg white and whip for 1-2 minutes until well combined
- Add in the extracts and mix until well combined
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and then add 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined then add ½ of the buttermilk and repeat the remaining flour and buttermilk, alternating. You should start and end with the dry
- Divide the batter evenly into 3 and place it evenly into the 3 prepared cake pans
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool
Lemon Curd:
- In a saucepan that a bowl can sit on top of or double broiler, pour about 2 inches of water and bring it to a simmer. (The bowl should be able to sit on top without touching the water)
- In a bowl, add lemon juice, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Place the bowl on the saucepan and whisk the curd continually until the mixture becomes very thick, this will take about 10-12 minutes (or it is 180° F on a thermometer.)
- Remove the bowl from the saucepan and cool until it reaches 140° F, stirring from time to time to release the heat.
- While it is cooling, cut butter into 1-tablespoon cubes. When the curd is ready, whisk in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring until melted after each piece.
- Once all the butter is added, the curd will be pale yellow and thick. Place in the fridge until cold (~1 hour)
- Once it’s cooled fold in whipped cream
- Top the cooled cake layers with the curd cream mixture. Lightly crush and sprinkle the remaining 1 ounce Maria cookies on top.. Store in the fridge until ready to serve
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