The Lemon Crunch Cake - Take 1

Aiea Bowling Alley is probably best now known for their desserts - especially the Lemon Crunch Cake. At $5 a slice, you get a 3-layer white cake with a lemon filling covered with a light frosting and topped of with...yup, toffee.

Rumor has it that the cake is just box mix and the frosting is whipped cream. Who would have guessed? After much googling and looking through the only cookbook I had at the time, I made version 1.0 of the Lemon Crunch Cake.

The Alley's Lemon Crunch Cake. Picture taken from Yelp.

Cake:
2 boxes of white cake mix (I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic white cake mix and followed the directions on the box) to make four 9" round cake layers

Lemon curd (filling): recipe from Tea with Bea
4 eggs yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 stick unsalted butter

Heat the lemon juice and half of the sugar in a pot over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it comes to a simmer. Wisk the remaining sugar and egg yolks together until it's slightly frothy. While continuing to wisk the yolks, slowly add the hot lemon juice to avoid scrambling the eggs. After all the lemon juice has been added, pour the entire mixture back into the pot and continue wisking over low heat. As the eggs cook, the mixture will thicken. When it seems to no longer thicken (according to the book this is when the mixture reaches 167F), remove the curd from the heat and strain it into a heatproof container. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.

Whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Put a medium bowl and hand held mixer in he freezer for at least 1 hour. Add all the ingredients in the bowl after the bowl has been thorougly chilled and mix on slow speed to combine the ingredients. Slowly increase the speed of the mixer until the whip cream is the consistency of whipping egg whites to the soft peak stage.

Toffee:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Melt the butter over medium heat in a pot. Stir in the sugar and salt. Continue mixing to avoid burning the bottom of the pan. In 10-15 minutes, the mixture will begin to brown. When it turns a medium caramel brown, remove from heat and pour on the cookie sheet (place parchment paper on a cookie sheet for easy cleanup). When the toffee has completely cooled, crush the toffee with a food processor or, if you don't have one, put the toffee in a freezer bag and crush with a rolling pin.

The assembled cake:



 

 

(A few) Lessons Learned:  

1. In my cake holder which is 6" high, the cake will just fit with the top slightly squishing against the cover. It's a bad idea to make a cake without calculating the end result.
2. The recipe for lemon curd was barely enough to cover three layers. Next time, I'll double the recipe.
3. Finely crush the toffee - nobody enjoys getting large chunks of toffee unexpectly in their mouth.
4. There is no elegant way to stick toffee to a cake without getting your hands sticky.
5. Box cake mix will never taste quite like homemade cake, no matter how much love and frosting you put into it.