Slip Slidin' Away -- Bonus Baking Episode!

My older brother's birthday is September 1, and as has become something of a custom, we twinned in a family celebration with a Labor Day weekend get-together. Baking is a must, of course, and I was keen to try the Many-Layered Lemon Cake from the Olive's Dessert Table by Paige Retus. My dear friend Wolvie speaks very highly of this cake, which is good enough for me (and should be good enough for you, too -- let me know if you'd like the recipe and I'll email it!).

The base cake layers are redolent of lemon zest and enriched with coconut milk, and further gilded by a soaking with a coconut syrup before assembly. The layers are sandwiched with lemon curd and baked lemon custard, and the whole magilla is frosted in a rich French meringue buttercream (lemon flavored, of course) and then showered with toasted coconut shreds. This is a over-the-top cake with many elements, each of which is delicious on its own. When they are combined, the effect is fabulous.

Here's how it went.

Cake layers cooling:



One of two baked custard layers -- not too pretty, but very tasty:



We're ready for fillings:



Note the cheap-o plastic turntable. The turntable is really essential to being able to assemble and frost cakes without making a huge mess.

First steps -- a layer of custard, then a layer of lemon curd:





You can see on the edge how soft the curd is -- it's getting ready to flow over the side of the cake. This is where I started cursing myself for not making a buttercream dam around the edge of the cake before laying on the curd. I was following the recipe to a T, but should have trusted my instincts, as you will see........

Next layer -- cake and custard:



The structure was so precarious at this point that I dropped the camera and didn't get a photo of the next layer of curd, or of the top layer of cake. This baby was wigglin' and jigglin' all over the place. Buttercream (when chilled) is much more stable than curd or custard, so I grabbed the buttercream and started spackling (there really is no other word for it) the sides in an attempt to lend structure. Rough coat, then into the fridge for a chill. When it came out, it looked like this:



Leaning Tower O' Cake. And the ugliest icing job you ever did see. Good thing it's getting covered with shredded coconut........



And candles are always good for some distraction.



(Note the footed cake dish, if you like Foreshadowing with your dessert.)

This heavy monster was carefully hand-carried down the street from my house to my parents' house (the locus of the festivities) and I was quite shocked that it stayed in one piece right up until serving time. Right up until about the sixth slice, when the pressure of my slicing hand became too much for the footed cake dish, and the whole affair went ass over tit onto the kitchen table. My brother, sister-in-law, hubby, and parents were howling too loudly to even think about grabbing a camera until the rescue operation (such as it was) was complete:



And there you have it. When life gives you lemons, by all means make the Many Layered Lemon Cake from Olive's Dessert Table, because it is deeeeeeeeeeelicious. But don't forget to dam your lemon curd layers, and a dowel or two from top to bottom would hurt, either.