Life is too short too be lived by counting years. Just enjoy the ride and make awesome memories. Happy birthday!!
-Unknown-

My birthday has just passed and I had a great time celebrating my special day with my loved one. I didn't throw any party because I've been so busy this past few weeks but I will celebrate it with my partner's family this Saturday. This is the second year that I made my own birthday cake for myself. Ever since I started to love baking, I'm always in charge for the cake for me and the whole family. I love doing this.

Talking about the cake, I wasn't planning to decorate my cake this way. The initial plan was using of some flower decorations from white chocolate but I didn't have enough time to make them because I had to go to work. Well, I knew that this would happen, I should have prepared it a night before. My bad! But it's ok, I still love my cake. It's also beautiful like this. Pretty in pink ;-)

Light Lemon Cake

For the cake I opted for something fresh, so I went for this Light Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd filling and Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting. I got the recipe from my Layered cookbook by Tessa Huff but I managed to find the similar recipe from her that is available online. The difference is the use of buttermilk instead of milk and omit the thyme since it's lemon cake. You may also find the recipe of the lemon curd, exactly the same as found in the cookbook. After checking the recipe, I have just realized that I forgot to put butter into my lemon curd, haha.. But my lemon curd tasted ok even though I knew that there's something missing from the taste. I didn't know what because I've found the problem just now, three days after making it, hehehe...

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

This recipe is enough to fill and to frost an 6 inch (15 cm) three-layer cake.

Ingredients

• 150 ml egg whites (4-5 large eggs)
• 250 gr granulated sugar
• 450 gr unsalted butter, softened, cut into cube
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Methods

• In a saucepan, bring some water to simmer for bain-marie (double boiler).
• In a bowl of a stand mixer, place the sugar and egg whites, whisk until well mixed.
• Place the bowl on the saucepan, make sure the bottom the bowl doesn't touch water. Whisk the sugar-egg whites (meringue) mixture on double boiler, keep whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved. I feel with my fingers to check whether the mixture is ready or not. If it doesn't sandy anymore, you may remove the bowl from double boiler.
• Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the mixture until it forms medium-stiff peaks on high speed.
• Lower the speed, add in the unsalted butter, small amount at a time.
• Add in vanilla extract, beat until the buttercream looks smooth.

It was quite hard to work with the buttercream when it's cold outside. I made my buttercream a night before and used it the next morning. I left my buttercream on the counter top but it still solidified. I had to beat my buttercream again so I could spread them easier on my cake. You may warm it up for 5-10 seconds in microwave as well to soften it.

Overall, I was happy with the result though I could do better. Those who tasted this cake said it's so good. So, it's reassuring. I was afraid that it'd be too tangy because there were also lemon simple syrup poured on the each layer of the cake but it's just perfect.

Thank you everyone for reading. Wishing you a nice week end and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate :-)

Love,

PS: All content and images are original and mine. Photos were taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000.