Lemon Raspberry Truffle Cake

This weekend I am at my grandparents house who live in San Angelo. Every year, for as long as I can remember, we have always gone to the Christmas in Ole For Concho here in San Angelo. It's tradition! I was very excited to get off work for it. Even though it's warm outside, the traditions make it feel like Christmas. Lights on outside the house, fort concho, christmas trees and Christmas movies.

We went to a special showing of the movie "A Christmas Story" at Tinseltown this past Wednesday and let me tell you it was fun! I don't know if i've ever watched the whole movie from beginning to end before then, but it always makes it feel like Christmas.

To continue my baking spree, this past week my brother had brought us some fresh lemons, so I really wanted to make something lemony. I searched for recipes, and this Lemon Truffle Cake from Recipe Girl looked just too good! 

I used Magnolia Bakery's recipe for vanilla cupcakes, the curd and frosting recipe from recipe girl, and made up my own raspberry spread to go with it. 

This cake was so good! The cake was moist and dense, and the raspberry jam balanced the tartness of the lemony frosting perfectly! For garnish I just placed some fresh lemon peal on top with a spring of fresh basil from our garden, since we didn't have any mint. 

The raspberry filling is not an accurate recipe, as I didn't go from a recipe. I measured by eye so it may be off somewhat. I tend to measure by eye with a lot of my cooking so if anything is off it is my fault, although I feel it is pretty accurate.

Lemon Raspberry Truffle Cake

(Recipe slightly adapted from Recipe Girl)

Cake

1-1/2 cups self-rising flour

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Lemon Truffle Filling

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

2 large egg yolks

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1/3 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

6 ounces (1 cup) chopped white chocolate or chips

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

Raspberry Filling

1 cup frozen raspberries

3/4 sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

Directions

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 3 8inch cake pans.

In a small bowl, combine the flours and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Distribute batter evenly between cake pans. Bake for 30-35 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the frosting

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk in water until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low and cook 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a fork. Slowly stir about 1/4 cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, whisking quickly while adding the hot liquid. (You don’t want to create scrambled eggs, so be sure to add the hot mixture slowly, whisking it into the eggs as quickly as possible). Continue adding 1/4 cups of the hot mixture to the eggs until you have warmed up the egg mixture. Whisk the egg yolk mixture back to the mixture in the saucepan. Cook over low heat until the mixture boils, whisking constantly, then continue to cook for 2 minutes, stirring.

 Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and lemon juice and zest. Transfer half of the hot filling to a small bowl and set aside to cool. Add the white chocolate to the hot filling in the saucepan and stir until the chocolate is melted; set aside. In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in the white chocolate mixture until light and smooth. At this point, you should have a small bowl of lemon curd and a bowl of white chocolate truffle filling.

 Spread one third of the white chocolate filling over one layer of the cake. Top with a second cake layer, then spread with one third more of the filling; top with a third cake layer and spread the remaining filling over. Top with the last cake layer and spread reserved lemon curd. Refrigerate, uncovered, until the filling is set (2 to 3 hours).

For the Raspberry Filling
Combine raspberries and sugar in a medium saucepan over high heat. Stir and cook until boiling, reduce heat to medium and continue cooking, about 4 minutes. Add cornstarch and continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble.
Place one layer of cake on a cake pan, spread on a layer of white chocolate frosting, then a layer of lemon curd, then raspberry filling. Repeat process with next piece of cake, then top with the final cake layer. Top with remaining frosting and garnish.