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Tangy Lemon Curd – So Easy to Fall in Love!

Lemon Curd!  So intimidating for some, but so very easy to make at home!  I know – you’ve all heard the stories about people trying to make homemade lemon curd and ending up with scrambled eggs.  It’s so tempting to just pick up a jar from the shelf at the market and call it done, but what’s the fun in that?!  Making lemon curd at home is so easy!  It’s also pretty quick!

Imagine your life with this recipe under your belt…  Imagine the oohs and ahhs of those who taste it when they ask where you bought it and you reply (modestly, of course and with a little exaggeration) “Oh, I made it myself!  It wasn’t easy, but you’re worth the extra trouble!”  We can’t give away all of our secrets, friends!

Imagine, if you will, a delicious cake, with the thinest coating of fragrant and tangy lemon curd between the layers!  Or, perhaps filled inside a cupcake (which is what we’re doing in the video below).  If you like lemons, and I know you do, you won’t want to miss out on this one!

I’ll show you a super easy technique to make fresh, homemade, lemon curd in first video below.  Then, we’ll use that curd to fill some Pink Lemonade cupcakes and frost them with a tri-color rosette to finished them off in a lovely way.  I love the way that these turned out!  Be warned, this curd is tangy, so if you are looking for a softer taste, you may prefer a different filling – perhaps the white chocolate lemon ganache that we’re making next week!

Tools

Making the Lemon Curd

 

Filling and Frosting the Cupcakes


Print Recipe
 Tangy Lemon Curd - So Easy!
Easy Lemon Curd Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Servings
Ingredients
  • 3/4 Cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 3 ea. Egg Yolks
  • 3 tbsp Cold Butter
  • 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 1 pinch Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Servings
Ingredients
  • 3/4 Cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 3 ea. Egg Yolks
  • 3 tbsp Cold Butter
  • 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 1 pinch Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Easy Lemon Curd Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Instructions
  1. Get Water Simmering for the double boiler while you collect your ingredients.
  2. In a heavy saucepan, combine the lemon juice, sugar and egg yolks.
  3. Whisk to thoroughly combine and place over the double boiler.
  4. Whisk constantly while heating to a simmer. The curd should start to thicken.
  5. Once the curd has started to simmer and has thickened, remove from the heat.
  6. Whisk in each of the tablespoons of butter until completely incorporated.
  7. Whisk in the salt and vanilla.
  8. Strain into a container and place plastic wrap directly on top of the curd so that a skin doesn't form.
  9. Cool to room temperature and then place in the refrigerator until cold.
Recipe Notes
  1. This is very tangy and works absolutely best as a thin coating in between cake layers.
  2. If using for cupcake filling, I recommend a sweeter recipe to offset the tartness of the curd.
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Beautiful and Refreshing Pink Lemonade Cake

Join Ana and me as we walk you through making this beautiful and refreshing Pink Lemonade cake!  In May, our month of lemony goodness, I knew that I wanted to attempt a pink lemonade cake.  I’d seen recipes for them before, but they all required frozen pink lemonade concentrate.  If you’ve been following us the last couple of months, you know how I feel about that!  Not good.  That’s how I feel about that, not good!  I just knew that there had to be a way to get that tart lemony flavor that is perfect offset by another, as yet unidentified, fresh fruit.  I also knew that that I would have to figure it out.  Challenge Accepted!

I began my research into pink lemonade with my dear friend Google Search.  Perhaps you’ve heard of her.  She’s actually kind of my best friend, but we don’t talk about that out loud.  Anyway, I simply started looking for homemade pink lemonade recipes and my pal returned more results than you could shake a stick at!  Seriously, I tried shaking a stick – not a dent.

There are two schools of thought on pink lemonade, and these are either the addition of fresh strawberry or the addition of fresh raspberry.  I read a little further, browsed a few more articles and recipes and decided that the raspberry seemed to be the most authentic.

A plan was born!  A plan was tested, and a plan failed.  Brainstorming continued…  more tests were run, and a winner emerged!  To describe how proud of myself I was would be impossible.  This was one of my first attempts ever at making modifications to a recipe and delivering something completely different.

Pink Lemonade Cake Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho

Isn’t she gorgeous?

This definitely won’t be the last!  I’m in love with this cake and am eager to keep pushing my own boundaries and if the experiments work out, you can bet I’ll be sharing them here – If you want to see experiments that don’t work out, well, those are on our Facebook LIVE broadcasts!  You could try the nut butter episode as a great example of me modifying a recipe to a spectacular failure!  But I digress – you’re here for a Beautiful and Refreshing Pink Lemonade Cake, and a pink lemonade cake you shall have!

As a bonus, we’re also posting the video on how to make the oh-so-pretty tri-color rosettes that cover the cake.

To get started, there are a few things you’ll need:

Making the Pink Lemonade Cake

Frosting the Cake

 

 

Print Recipe
 Beautiful and Refreshing Pink Lemonade Cake
Pink Lemonade Cake Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings
ounces
Ingredients
  • 375 grams Cake Flour
  • 375 grams Granulated Sugar
  • 1 tbsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 6 large Egg Whites Room Temp
  • 1/2 cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 cup Raspberry Simple Syrup
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup Butter Room Temp
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
  • 3 drops Pink Food Color Use Gel Color
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings
ounces
Ingredients
  • 375 grams Cake Flour
  • 375 grams Granulated Sugar
  • 1 tbsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 6 large Egg Whites Room Temp
  • 1/2 cup Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 cup Raspberry Simple Syrup
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup Butter Room Temp
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
  • 3 drops Pink Food Color Use Gel Color
Pink Lemonade Cake Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare your 8" cake pans.
  2. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt).
  3. Add the softened butter.
  4. Turn the mixer (with the paddle attachment) on to stir speed.
  5. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients (egg whites, lemon juice, raspberry simple syrup, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, and pink food color.
  6. Add 1/3 of the mixture to the dry ingredients.
  7. Turn the mixer on stir, easing up to 4 (on a KitchenAid) and beat for about 30 seconds on 4. (scrape the bowl when finished)
  8. Add half of the remaining liquid ingredients and whip on 4 for another 30 seconds. (scrape the bowl when finished)
  9. Add the remaining liquid ingredients and beat on 4 for another 30 seconds. Once the mixture has come together and is starting to look like you'd expect cake batter to look, stop and scrape the sides of the bowl and the paddle attachment.
  10. Mix at speed 8 for about 15-20 seconds.
  11. Divide batter evenly between your prepared pans.
  12. Turn the temperature of the oven down to 325 degrees F and quickly put the batter filled pans in.
  13. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Make sure you test this cake with a toothpick to make sure it's done in the middle! If the cake needs more than 45 minutes to cook completely, check it every 2 minutes until it's done.
Recipe Notes
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Candied Lemon Peels – Quick and Easy!

Have you ever tried homemade candied lemon peels?  If not, you honestly just don’t know what you’re missing!  They’re so tasty!  Not only are they great to eat by themselves, they make a great garnish for your baked goods and drinks.  In our month of lemon love, this is one recipe I threw in as a bonus – they’re relatively quick and easy to make, they store well, and you can keep some on hand for whenever you like!

Lemons aren’t the only citrus you can candy, of course – Limes, oranges and grapefruit all candy nicely with just a few tweaks to the recipe.  I don’t recommend using the peels after a piece of fruit has been juiced, because they’re no where near as pretty!  Juicing the citrus can mangle the peels, and for this, you want pretty, pretty peels.

Buy the prettiest pieces of citrus you can find for this – bright colors and no discoloration to the peel makes a big difference in how these turn out, and you can use the “uglier” pieces for juicing and zesting.

Helpful hint – when you need fresh squeezed citrus juice, always zest the fruit first!  You can store the zest in an air tight container in the freezer and use whenever you want to add a little zing to a sweet or savory dish!

I used the peels I made in this video to garnish my adult version Pink Lemonade – fancy!

See the short video below for tips on both the candied lemon peels and the raspberry simple syrup used in the Pink Lemonade recipe.


Print Recipe
 Candied Lemon Peels - Quick and Easy!
Candied Lemon Peels Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Servings
Ingredients
  • 4 ea. Lemons
  • 2 cups Granulated Sugar Plus some extra for coating the peels
  • Cold Water About 8 cups total
Servings
Ingredients
  • 4 ea. Lemons
  • 2 cups Granulated Sugar Plus some extra for coating the peels
  • Cold Water About 8 cups total
Candied Lemon Peels Recipe and Tutorial - Bake with Rho
Instructions
  1. Cut the lemons into slices about 1/4 inch thick, then cut those slices in half
  2. Remove the pulp from the slices
  3. Place the peels in saucepan, add cold water, and bring to a boil.
  4. Drain the peels, add more cold water and bring to a boil. Repeat this step one more time, for a total of 3 boils.
  5. Remove the drained peels from the saucepan and set them aside.
  6. Add the Sugar and two cups of fresh water to the sauce pan and bring to a boil until the sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally.
  7. Add the lemon peels and simmer until the pith (the white part) is translucent. (about 15 minutes, typically)
  8. Prepare a cookie sheet by placing a cooling rack inside.
  9. Remove the peels from the saucepan with tongs or something similar, placing them on the cooling rack in a single layer.
  10. Put in a 170 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes.
  11. Remove from the oven and cool.
  12. Place a small amount of granulated sugar in a Ziplock bag, add the peels and shake to coat.
Recipe Notes

When I'm not using the peels right away, I just leave them in their ziplock bag with the sugar and store them in a cool, dry place.  Your refrigerator is not dry!  Don't put them in the fridge -

If using different citrus, you may need to add to the initial "boils" to remove the bitterness or to reduce the number of boils if fruit is sweeter, like an orange.  Rule of thumb is 2 boils for oranges, 4 boils for grapefruit or limes.