Lemon & Basil Cake

Hello, friends.

In this contest, I’d like to share with you the recipe of tasty, refreshing and not usual desert. Lemon cake, that has basil cream, chocolate coating and decorated with lemon meringue - that is how our cake made of. I’m always trying to bake this cake for the Easter holidays. My friends and relatives are like it. Unfortunately, this time, most of us are in a “stay home” mode. I think that it's a perfect time to try something new, especially in baking.

Step 1: The Baking Form…

For such cake it's better to have a baking form like on the reference picture, maybe some of you already saw such forms in stores and surprised "what for they need?!". If you never saw this kind of form and interested, ask in your local baking store or search the web. If you have no such form and want to repeat the recipe, do not worry, there will be an extra option. That will be cupcakes, not cake, but the taste will be absolutely the same.

Step 2: Prepare the Form

Remove the inner tube, and moisture the form with butter, scatter with flour. Moisture the tube with butter and insert it back into the form. Put the form to the baking sheet.

Step 3: Ingredients for Cake

Preheat oven to 170 ˚C.

When you making the dough, all ingredients have to be room temperature. Take them out from the fridge ≈1h before you start.

* 260g white sugar

* 10g trimoline

* 170g eggs (approx 3pcs)

* 120g milk

* 215g flour

* 10g almond flour

* 80g unsalted butter, melted, no more than 40˚C

* 30g Limoncello liqueur

* 5g baking powder

* pinch of salt

* 45g candied fruits (optional)

* lemon zest from one lemon

Note: Trimoline could be easily replaced by white sugar in a 1:1 ratio but adding Trimoline extends the shelf life and makes the end product wetter.

Step 4: Making Dough

Add sugar, trimoline, eggs into the mixer's bowl and mix at high speed until the mixture becomes white. Add milk, butter, liqueur into the bowl and mix on medium speed. In a separate bowl, mix all flour with baking powder and salt. Then add the flour mix into the bowl and mix. When the mass becomes consistent, add candied fruits and lemon zest. Even if you see that dough is soupy, do not add any flour, it has to be like this.

Step 5: Backing

Put the dough into the piping bag. Fill the form with the dough until the form's tube will be covered with it. If you have no such form, fill the cupcake form, like on the attached photos.

Put all forms into the preheated to 170˚C oven and bake ≈20 min, always check the condition of readiness with the toothpick. If required, leave in the oven for 5 more minutes.

Step 6: Pulling Out the Cake

Once the cake is done, we have to put it on the table and pull out the tube. Take the knife and split the cake from the form. Remove the extra dough, that left in the cake's hole. Let it rest for ≈ 10 minutes on the table, wrap in the cling film and put in the freezer for ≈ 3 hours. If you decided to bake cupcakes, there is no need to put them in the freezer.

We're putting the cake into the freezer because it'll help it to save the form when we'll be filling it with cream.

Note: everything is very hot, so use some safety gloves or towel to avoid burns.

Step 7: Ingredients for Lemon & Basil Cream

While our cake is chilling in the freezer, it's time to prepare the cream.

* 50g white sugar

* 10g light corn syrup

* 20g water

* 80g lemon fresh

* 100g white chocolate

* lemon zest of 1 lemon

* 3g of green basil leaves

* 50g unsalted butter

Step 8: Making Basil Cream

Put the sugar, corn syrup and water into a high sided pot with a thick bottom and cook the caramel on the medium heat. Once the caramel changed the color to amber, we have to add hot lemon fresh into it and mix.

Beware: Mixture will be intensively boiling with a lot of steam.

When the mixture appears consistent, pour it into the chocolate and uniformly mix it. Let it cool for ≈ 40˚C, add butter and basil leaves, blend it. Fill the piping bag with cream and move into the fridge until we need it.

Step 9: Filling With Cream

Take the cake from the freezer, unwrap the film and fill it with the cream from both sides. Wrap it back into the film and return it to the freezer for ≈ 1h.

For the cupcakes, I'm using any suitable piping tip to make a pit for the cream. See photos for reference, looking at photos will be much clear than describing the process.

Step 10: Ingredients for the Chocolate Coating

* 300g white chocolate

* 80g grape seed oil

* 50g royaltine

* yellow fat-soluble dye

Note: Royaltine is the DGF brand name for Pailletee Feuilletine. You can buy it ready to use or make it by yourself, here is the link to youtube. That's easy enough. You can also make a coating without royaltine but it makes a great textural contrast, and It stays crispy for a long time.

Step 11: Making the Chocolate Coating

Melt the chocolate, add oil, fat-soluble dye and blend it. Add royaltine and mix with the silicone spatula.

Step 12: Coating With Chocolate

Take the cake from the fridge, unwrap it and cover with chocolate from all sides without using any specific methods or skills. Once this is done, we have to put it into the fridge.

Coating the cupcakes much easier, you can take a teaspoon and spill the chocolate on the top.

Step 13: Making Lemon Meringue

* 65g egg whites (≈2 eggs)

* 45g lemon fresh

* 180g white sugar

Put the sugar and lemon fresh into the pot with a thick bottom and cook until it reaches 118˚C. Once syrup reached that temperature, start mixing the egg whites on max speed. When syrup's temperature will be 121˚C we have to take it off from the fire and start slowly pouring it into the mixer's bowl (do not stop the mixer). Continue mixing on max speed approx 6 minutes, until the mixture extends in volume, see attached photos for reference.

Step 14: Decorating With Meringue

Take any piping tip you like and insert it into the piping bag. Put the meringue in the piping bag and start decorating in any way you like, or see photos for example.

Step 15: Finishing the Decoration

You can add extra decoration elements on the top, cakes in this Instructable were made for the Easter holidays and decorated accordingly. You can add some M&M's candies, waffle grass, Basil leaves, Candied fruits, lemon slices, Lemon zest and so on.

Go ahead, experiment and share your results.

Thank you for reading and happy Easter holidays 🐣