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In Search of the Perfect Lemon Layer Cake

October 1, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Ahhhh the lemon layer cake. You’d think the combination of cake, lemon curd, and frosting would be relatively simple, right? Well you’d be wrong, especially if you’re me. I’ve been on the search for the perfect lemon layer cake for almost as long as I’ve been writing this blog – as evidenced by my previous three attempts (and a fourth here, if you count a crêpe cake) – but I have yet to find The One.

So this summer, I tried again – twice. First, I made Nate yet another lemon birthday cake using Bon Appetit’s Lemon Curd Layer Cake recipe, which sounded absolutely spectacular with its whipped-cream-and-lemon-curd frosting. Things started out well with a solid lemon curd recipe and a beautifully fluffy, spongy, light cake recipe, but the frosting let me down (why does this always happen?!). According to the picture accompanying the recipe, it should have been stiff enough to pipe, but it definitely wasn’t, and it – and the lemon curd filling – ended up running all over the place. To save the cake, after I filled and stacked the layers (which were totally crooked!), I had to chill it with a skewer down the middle to hold everything in place long enough to solidify and hold its shape.

Lemon layer cake fail

Lemon layer cake fail

As a last resort I added some gelatin to the remaining whipped cream frosting – which is a common way of reinforcing whipped cream – only I overestimated the amount of gelatin and ended up with bouncy whipped cream that set as I spread it on the cake (NOT IDEAL), and the rosettes I piped around the edge of the cake to hold in the lemon curd topping ended up sliding off because they also set before they could stick. So all in all, not a slam dunk, but still pretty delicious – especially the cake itself, which included lemon curd in the batter and was definitely the winner in this particular recipe.

Lemon Curd Layer Cake | Korena in the Kitchen

Take two was a Lemon-Blackberry Cake with Lemon Buttercream adapted from the Flour cookbook by Joanne Chang, which I made to take to a family gathering. I doubled the recipe, and the resulting cake weighed about thirty pounds and included over a dozen eggs and an entire forest of lemons! I had high hopes for this recipe, but sadly, it did not deliver for me.

Lemon-Blackberry Cake with Lemon Buttercream | Korena in the Kitchen

The lemon curd recipe was good (and it made a ton) but cake itself was a bit too dense for my liking and it didn’t soak up even half of the lemon syrup it was supposed to. It was the frosting that was the real disaster though: a hybrid of Swiss meringue frosting (which uses egg whites) and French meringue frosting (which uses egg yolks), it was the soupiest mess I’ve ever dealt with – even worse than the Swiss meringue cream cheese frosting misadventure of several years ago. It WOULD NOT emulsify or thicken properly, and I literally worked on it for hours, using every trick I know – chilling, resting, beating, stirring – you name it, I tried it. I was taking process pictures as I went with the intent to post the recipe, but the frosting was so demoralizing that I deleted them all. Eventually I just held my breath and crossed my fingers and went for it with frosting the cake, chilling it as often as I could during assembly and surprisingly, I was somehow able to pipe a border around the top of the cake. After all that effort for a less-than-perfect result, I sort of hated this cake, even though in the end it tasted pretty good (albeit a little dry) and the family all appreciated it 😉

cut cake

cake slice

So, after all this, I have come to some decisions. The next lemon layer cake I will probably use the cake layers from the Bon Appetit version, either the lemon curd from Flour or Tartine’s lemon cream (so good!), and a regular Swiss meringue buttercream frosting – unless anyone has a brilliant, perfect lemon layer cake recipe to recommend, in which case, I’m all ears! Sadly, any experimenting will have to wait a while though, as I’m currently nursing a fractured left elbow and banged-up right arm from a mountain biking spill two weeks ago, and any mixing, beating, kneading, rolling, piping and other lovely baking actions are currently off limits – but I can still drool over lemon layer cake recipes 😉

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Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Miscellaneous Tagged With: baking, cake, dessert, frosting, layer cake, lemon, lemon curd

A Wine Tour, Cake Balls, and a Cake with Balls

July 16, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

Winer Tour of the Cowichan Valley | Korena in the KitchenLast weekend our friends Sam and Whittney tied the knot (for those who are trying to follow along here, Sam is my friend Lynette’s brother. He is also Nate’s good friend, which is how Nate and I met). We were fairly involved in the wedding – Nate was the best man and I made the wedding cake (more to come on that, I promise!) – which for me included Whittney’s stagette weekend. Whittney and Sam live just up the road from us in Shawnigan Lake in a house with lots of extra bedrooms, so the stagette was basically a big girls’ sleep-over at their house with lots of drinking and eating (Sam spent the weekend at my house with Nate).

stagette1…

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Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Eating Out, Miscellaneous Tagged With: cake pops, Cowichan Valley, lavender, NSFW, penis cake, stagette, wine tasting, winery tour

Happy Canada Day!

July 1, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Candied Salmon Salad Rolls | Korena in the KitchenCanada turns 147 years old today! If you are looking for a way to celebrate, may I suggest you make these salad rolls with candied salmon, which I posted about over on the SeaChange Seafoods blog. They are perfect to take to a picnic or barbeque, and can stand as either an appetizer or a side dish or a full meal, which is how Nate and I usually eat them.

Candied Salmon Salad Rolls | Korena in the Kitchen

And while you’re here, may I also suggest that you make this cherry almond Dutch baby: it is TO DIE FOR. I made it for breakfast a few days ago and I’m still thinking about it. It tastes like a cross between a cherry clafoutis and a cherry-almond danish, ie: really, really amazing. The only changes I made were to add a bit of vanilla bean paste to the batter and to bake it in a slightly smaller (nine inch) cast iron skillet. So good!

Smitten Kitchen's Cherry Almond Dutch Baby | Korena in the Kitchen

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Recipes, Soups, Sides & Snacks Tagged With: almonds, barbeque, breakfast, brunch, Canada Day, candied salmon, cherry, Dutch baby, guest post, picnic, recipe, SeaChange Seafoods, summer

Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival at the BC Forest Discovery Centre

February 7, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Last Saturday was the Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival held at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. I was pretty excited to go last year, but I got my dates mixed up and missed it by a day. I was so sad. So when I saw this year’s festival advertised, I made sure I had the right date. Nate and I arrived just as the festival opened, and I’m glad we did because by the time we left a few hours later, there were line-ups to get in. Seems like everyone is as excited about maple syrup as I am!

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: BC Forest Discovery Museum, bigleaf maple, Duncan, local food, maple syrup, The Canadian Food Experience Project, Vancouver Island

Christmas Cookies 2013: The Round-Up

December 29, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

As promised, I’m back with cookies. Or more accurately, pictures of cookies, links to recipes, and more promises. I have recipe posts in the works for two of the following goodies, so stay tuned and bookmark this post as inspiration for next Christmas!

Christmas cookie sweatshop

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, Christmas baking, Christmas cookies

Hugs, Lis xoxo

November 15, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

When I started my blog back on January 2011, one of my main reasons for doing so was to join the Daring Bakers. It took me a few months to work up the courage to actually join the group, and I completed my first challenge in April 2011: maple mousse in an edible container, pictured above. I remember logging on to the forum for the first time and reading the introduction to the challenge recipe, posted by someone named Lis, whose message included such effusive, effervescent positivity, quirky humour, and lots of smiley faces. I soon learned that Lis was the co-founder of the Daring Bakers and the driving force behind the Daring Kitchen (which encompasses both the Daring Bakers and the Daring Cooks), the one who maintained the website, who organized the hosts for each challenge, who basically kept the lights on in the kitchen, as it were.

I also discovered that many of my favorite and inspirational food bloggers, including Julie Van Rosendaal of Dinner with Julie, Helene Dujardin of Tartelette, and Zoë François of Zoë Bakes, had themselves been Daring Bakers at one point. I got to know Lis a little bit better through emailing back and forth with her this summer when I hosted a Daring Bakers challenge, and more recently a few weeks ago when she invited me to write product and recipe reviews for the Daring Kitchen website.

I am so, so sad to learn that Lis passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday. This woman who I never met in person and most likely never would, who I only knew via email, but who provided a huge opportunity for personal growth, confidence, and inspiration to me and countless other food bloggers, home cooks and bakers – literally, I bet there are thousands of us who owe some of our kitchen chops to Lis and the Daring Kitchen, not to mention the network of blogging friends that I have met through the Daring Bakers.

Kelly of Sass & Veracity suggested that we all celebrate Lis with a tribute post today, sharing something we’ll remember about her. I will remember how Lis always ended her emails and messages on the Daring Kitchen forums with, “Hugs, Lis xoxo”, sending support and love as if she was your closest friend. For the past three years of my life, each month has started with a message on the Daring Bakers forum from Lis with her cheerful sign-off, kicking off the month with humour and the chance to challenge myself. Lis, you leave a giant hole in our hearts, but you also leave the Daring Kitchen as your legacy, and for that I will always thank and remember you.

#tributetolis #daringbakers

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Daring Bakers, daringbakers, tribute to Lis, tributetolis

The Canadian Food Experience Project: Experimental Lacto-Fermented Dill Pickles

October 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.

This month’s topic for the Canadian Food Experience Project is “Preserving: Our Canadian Food Tradition”. One preserving memory from my childhood is the smell of sun-warmed dill growing in my Mum’s garden every summer, destined for dill pickles. The dill plants would spring up randomly all over the garden, waving their frilly fronds in the breeze, until their yellow flowers started to get heavy with seeds and they would be stuffed into glass jars along with dozens and dozens of tiny lumpy pickling cucumbers. These days I love making jam and and canning fruit, but I’d not yet ventured into the pickling arena.

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: cucumbers, dill, lacto-fermentation, pickles, preserving, The Canadian Food Experience Project

The List

January 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 21 Comments

to do listThe following “to make” list has been floating around in my head for a long time. I figured I’d put it in writing and then it can act sort of like a New Year’s resolution, even though I’m not making any (other than more cheesecake) and I don’t intend on getting through all of these in 2013. In fact, I fully intend on adding to this list.

What’s on your list?

  • Lemon meringue pie or tart
  • Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies (as seen in the New York Times)
  • Doughnuts: yeasted (done!), sourdough, potato/spudnuts, sweet potato, French crullers…
  • Lasagne from scratch (pasta, sauce, etc) – done!
  • Ombre cake
  • Rose cake
  • Red (Wine) Velvet Cake with no food colouring (like this one or this one)
  • Two-tone layered truffles
  • Stollen
  • Panettone with natural starter
  • Crèpe cake (like this or similar)
  • De-boned, rolled, and stuffed turkey – done!
  • Porchetta – done! (sorta)
  • Tarte tatin
  • Things with brioche dough (tarts, buns, etc)
  • Millionaire’s Shortbread (chocolate caramel shortbread squares)
  • Montreal-style bagels – done!
  • Nut butter – done!
  • Mozzarella
  • Ricotta
  • Tiramisu with homemade savoiardi/lady fingers
  • Profiteroles/éclaires (croquembouche?)
  • Non Plus Ultra cookies
  • Dessert pasta
  • Ciabatta bread – done!
  • Focaccia bread that tastes like the stuff at Pagliacci’s – done!
  • Liège waffles
  • Upside down roast turkey
  • Baguettes
  • Butterflied roast chicken – done!
  • Cabbage rolls
  • Pierogies
  • Ice cream
  • Crème caramel/flan
  • Savory blue cheese-pecan shortbread
  • Sausage rolls like the one shown here
  • Chicken ballotine
  • Nectarine rose tart
  • Pavlova

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: bucket list, food, reciep list, to-do list

The Fair

September 5, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

The weekend before last, there was a fair in the area. It reminded me a lot of the Fall Fair in my hometown: baking, canning, fruit, and vegetable exhibits, livestock, sheep dog demos, horse shows, a midway, and all kinds of fair food. When I was a kid I used to enter stuff in the Fall Fair baking contests all the time. Once I entered a cake decorated like a locomotive, and didn’t get a prize because the judge suspected that I’d had an adult help me with it. (I hadn’t, I was just that good. Haha. 😉 ) Seeing all the baking entries made me wish I’d had the time to enter something this year, but being that it was only the week after we moved into our new house, that’s just crazy talk. But I’m already planning what to enter next year!! And I picked up an entry form for a pie contest later this month…

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: baking contests, Cobble Hill Fair, country fair, duck herding, fall fair, home baking, livestock, tractors

Salad Lyonnaise with Candied Salmon

May 21, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Just a quick note to say that I have another guest post on the SeaChange blog: Salad Lyonnaise with Candied Salmon. In addition to the candied salmon, there’s golden fried garlic, buttery toasted croutons, and a perfectly poached egg. I think it’s a good one – go check it out and let me know what you think. 🙂

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Miscellaneous, Recipes Tagged With: candied salmon, cooking, fish, garlic croutons, guest post, lunch, poached egg, recipe, salad lyonnaise, salads, SeaChange Canadian Gifts, smoked salmon, summer food

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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