our neighbour’s second daughter arrived two nights ago. to welcome her, i made a lemon cake (adapted from chili und ciabatta).

ingredients:

dough:

• 240 g flour
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 170 g butter, at room temperature
• zest of one lemon
• 115 g cream cheese
• 215 g sugar
• 3 eggs, yolk and white separated
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• one pinch of salt

icing:

• 70 g icing sugar
• lemon juice
• red food color, white icing pen

sift flour, cream of tartar and salt into a bowl.

cut butter in small pieces, beat until creamy. add lemon zest and cream cheese, continue beating. add sugar by the tablespoon, continue beating. add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

add half of the flour mix into the cream, stir a few times. then add lemon juice, stir. add remaining flour, stir again (do not overwork the dough).

beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. first fold 1/3 of the egg white carefully into the dough, then the remaining 2/3.

bake at 160°C. the original recipe was used for a rectangular form and needed 70 minutes baking time. i made two cakes of 18 and 12 cm diameter, which needed 40 resp. 50 minutes.

in case you’re wondering: the wrapping is made of sandwich paper, two paper plates and a bit of silver ribbon.