Buttery Raspberry Lemon Cake

We went to game night hosted at a friend's house and this was our contribution to the meal: Buttery Raspberry Lemon Cake. This is also includes my "Homemade Ingredient" for this month! I found this recipe in Sunset Magazine and it just looked beautiful, not too mention extremely tasty. (Serves 15)

The homemade ingredient this month is lemon curd. I unfortunately found out the hard way that lemon curd in a jar has dairy. Go figure since its basically 3 or 4 ingredients, one being butter. I learned this only after going to two grocery stores. :( The recipe for lemon curd is as follows:

• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 lemon juice (freshly squeezed!)
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar (I ran out of white sugar so I substituted powdered sugar. Just multiply whatever the recipe calls for by 1.75)
• 4 tablespoons dairy-free butter at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

Use a double boiler if you have one, or create one. Put a stainless steel mixing bowl over a pot or saucepan of simmering water. Add sugar, lemon juice, and then eggs (you don't want the eggs to start cooking before you mix the other ingredients). Stirring constantly while mixture cooks until it becomes thick (approximately 10 minutes). Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove lumps. Cut butter into small pieces and whisk into mixture until butter is melted. Add lemon zest and let cool, the lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately and refrigerate up to a week.
Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

The recipe following is for the cake:

• 1 cup dairy-free butter, softened
• 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar (the same rule applies for substituting powdered sugar)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup of plain almond milk yogurt
• 1/2 cup almond milk (plain and unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup lemon curd (see end note)
• 2-1/2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 18 oz fresh raspberries
• Powdered sugar, fresh raspberries, and lemon curd for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9x13" baking pan. In a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in the rest of the "wet" ingredients until mostly blended. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and beat until smooth. Spread half the batter in the pan and scatter half the raspberries on top. Gently spread remaining batter over the berries and scatter remaining berries on top. Cook for about an hour, tenting with foil if browning too quickly. Let cool for an hour, garnish and serve.

Thoughts of the Recipe: The cake overall was a bit dense, although the basics of the recipe somewhat resemble a pound cake, it was very moist. The recipe calls for a minimal amount of lemon curd which wasn't enough to actually give the cake any lemon flavor. I will definitely make this recipe again but probably double or triple the lemon curd for more flavor.

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