Lemon Chiffon Cake with Coconut Cream

I love lemon and coconut together and when I stumbled upon a recipe for Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake from the cookbook Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes I knew it was my chance to mix the 2 flavours together.

The original recipe I used for the cake and lemon curd is listed below. To add my own coconut touch, I torted one of the 3 layers of cake, increased the whipped cream to 3 cups, omitted the 3 tablespoons of lemon curd in the frosting, folded in 1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut to about 1 cup of whipped cream and filled the middle layer of the cake with the coconut whipped cream. I frosted the outside of the cake with the rest of the whipped cream and topped with more sweetened flaked coconut.

TRIPLE LEMON CHIFFON CAKE
ADAPTED FROM: SKY HIGH IRRESISTIBLE TRIPLE LAYER CAKES
BY ALISA HUNTMANS AND PETER WYNNE

FOR THE CAKE:
MAKES A 9-INCH TRIPLE LAYER CAKE

8 eggs, separated
1/4 cup walnut oil** (I used walnut oil)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
1 ans 3/4 cups of cake flour* (I used cake flour)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
[*1 cup of cake flour is equal to 3/4 cup of AP flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch]
[**equal amount of either almond oil, hazelnut oil, or canola oil]


Preheat the oven to 350*degrees F. Line the bottoms of three 9-inch pans with parchment paper but do not butter or grease the pans.

In a med-large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar on medium speed until light and frothy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
Sift the flour, remaining sugar, baking soda , and salt into a large bowl. Whisk gently to combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg yolk mixture and mix to create a smooth paste. Add one-fourth of the egg whites and fold in to lighten the batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites and divide the batter among the three pans.
bake for about 16 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool in the pans. Once cool run a knife around the cake to in order to un-mold the cakes. Carefully pull off the parchment paper from the bottoms of the cakes.
To assemble the cake, place one layer on a cake stand. Top with a heaping 1/4 cup of lemon curd and spread it evenly. Repeat with the remaining layers. Frost the top of the cake and the sides with the lemon cream frosting.

RICH LEMON CURD
MAKES 1 CUP

3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
grated zest of three lemons
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temp.
Whisk together the whole eggs, yolks, sugar, lemon juice , and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Transfer to a small non-reactive saucepan. Gently heat the mixture, whisking until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. make sure not to boil the mixture. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. Stir in the butter and cover the curd with plastic making sure the plastic touches the curd. This should prevent a skin from forming on the curd. Refrigerate until cold. Refrigerate until cold. Then remove 3 tablespoons of curd and set it aside for the icing.

LEMON CREAM FROSTING MAKES 3 AND 1/4 CUPS
1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoon of lemon curd
Whip the cream and sugar in a large chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd, forming a stiff frosting.

This made one VERY tall delicious cake! Next time I make it (and there will be a next time) I will torte and fill the cake put it in the fridge for a couple hours to set a bit and then frost it with the whipped cream. Because it was so tall and the lemon curd was a little slippery it was a little tricky to frost it, I was afraid it was going to topple over a few times. The next day it seemed to firm up quite a bit, I even transported it from my house to my parents (about a 25 minute drive) with no problems whatsoever and it cut beautifully!