I am back with yet another recipe on lemons this month. Tart, citrus and refreshing juiciness of lemons is what goes really well with the contrasting hot scorching summer days. And lemons are the real saviors, when we have touched 37 degrees already here in Delhi. Good enough to keep us going.

I had some lemons left in fridge from the last week’s recipe, lemon drizzle cakelettes. And I had no clue, what to do with them except squeezing them over my salads or in my cool glass of lemonade. So, I whipped up some tangy, luscious lemon curd.

The recipe was a no brainer and I was happy that I didn’t get any traces of scrambled eggs nor I felt the need of straining the curd. I just let that sit in fridge for a couple of days, before the weekend came. And I was all set to rock the kitchen.

It was Parul’s birthday when we last met at blogger’s table a week ago and sweet Ruchira made her a wonderful lemon ricotta and blueberry olive oil cake. Such a light and moist cake. It had me smitten. It feels so good that food brings people closer and inspires them.

Lemons and blueberries, a perfect pairing. And I knew, that I had to have baked a cake with these two wonderful fruits. And you know, how much I love baking with fruits.

Sadly, we don’t get fresh blueberries here in India, so I had to resort to frozen ones. And it didn’t matter much, as I cooked them into a compote. A generous squeeze of lemon juice, and the berries were back to life. Plump and lively.

For the cake, I made a sweet vanilla butter sponge cake, which complemented the tart lemon curd very well. A dollop of whipped cream and the blueberry compote made it more lavish and delish.

Lemon Curd, recipe adapted from JoyOfBaking.com

Ingredients

2 large eggs
100 gm granulated white sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp butter

Instructions

1. Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon juice lightly in a bowl and let it sit on a double boiler on medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick.
3. It will take approximately 10 minutes.
4. Once it becomes nice and thick (will coat the back of a spoon), remove it from the double boiler and add the butter and mix to incorporate it well into the lemon curd.
5. Place a cling wrap directly over the lemon curd and refrigerate for up to a week.

Blueberry Compote

Ingredients

1 cup frozen blueberries
juice of one lemon
4 tbsp granulated white sugar

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, add 1/2 cup of blueberries, lemon juice and sugar and mash the berries with the back of a spoon.
2. Simmer the saucepan for 3-4 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil. Take off the heat and add remaining berries to the saucepan and let them sit for a while until the compote cools down completely.

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

For The Cake
100 gm salted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
1 tsp tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For The Filling
1/2 cup of lemon curd {recipe above}
blueberry compote {recipe above}
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla powder/extract

Instructions

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Butter a 9-inch round cake pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl.
3. Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat in vanilla.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake, about 40 minutes, until the skewer inserted in the middle of cake comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack, and let cool in pans for 20 minutes.
5. Run a knife around edge of cake, and invert onto rack; and let cool completely.
6. For the filling: Whisk cream with confectioners’ sugar until medium peaks form.
7. Slice cakes in half horizontally. Spoon 1/2 of the whipped cream over bottom cake layer. Spread over the lemon curd. Top with remaining cake layer, pressing gently. Spoon over remaining whipped cream on top of the second cake layer and top with blueberry compote, letting all the juice drip down through the edges.