Magen's Lemon Poppy Seed with Zingy Lemon Frosting & Exotic Orange Curd Filling Cake

This cake is DEEEEELISH! I was hosting a shower for a good friend named Magen Roberson & was trying to think of a cake for it, and then I remembered at a Bible Study we were in that she loved Lemon Poppyseed muffins... So... my creative juices started flowing and I thought hmmm I bet I could make a Lemon Poppyseed cake, & I DID! Here it is, I don't claim to be the creator of Lemons or Poppyseeds together, just this cake... Thus it is called Magen's Cake forevermore... You can make this cake just be sure you call it Magen's deal? ok DEAL!



A couple of baking tips before we get started:
1. ALWAYS preheat your oven & wait for it to be thoroughly heated until you pop something yummy in it.

2. Spray your cake pan with NON-stick cooking spray and lightly shake around some flour to coat the pan evenly.

3. Bring your eggs to room temperature, they cook better, this also goes for beating egg whites, you should always bring them to room temperature, not hot, just not cold from the fridge. We don't want to add scrambled eggs to our batter now... just a lukewarm temperature is FINE.



4. Don't use fake juice, squeeze it yourself, it adds an extra ZING that the other stuff won't give you. Cheat in other areas but juice is NOT one of them.

5. Add 1/4 cup of sour cream or cream cheese to cake OR brownies... both of them add moisture to the cake that doesn't cook out and helps keep your cake or brownies tasting YUMMY!

So.... now that we know a couple of tips from Angelique's Baking Bible let's get started!

EXOTIC ORANGE CURD FILLING

*Make the night before or the morning of so that it is completely cooled for you to spread on the cake.

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 cup cornstarch

1 cups fresh orange juice (*2 lbs of oranges)

2 medium eggs

1/8 cup butter

2 Tbsp. grated orange rind

Directions: On stovetop in a pan (med high heat)

1. Mix sugar, cornstarch & juice
2. Whisk in eggs
3. Bring to a boil over medium heat *Keep whisking, it will burn EASILY! For about 3 minutes it will thicken up...
4. Remove from heat, immediately whisk in Butter & Orange Zest (YUM!)
5. Cover with plastic wrap on Curd in another cooled dish & chill


This is also a cheat recipe by cheat I mean semi-homemade... the trick to a great cake is a box cake that you buy and put homemade frosting on it... So much easier but I also make the cake from scratch sometimes too, BUT not this recipe.



Cake Ingredients:

Purchase a box of LEMON cake mix from the grocery store, I bought Betty Crocker, but Duncan Hines will do too...

3 tablespoons of Poppy Seeds

4 Lemons, zested for the peel ( 2 lemons worth for the cake & 2 lemons worth for the frosting)
The same 4 lemons after being zested, cut in half...juiced & strained, we don't want seeds in our cake! Sort of ruins the moment...

***2 lemons juiced for the cake= (1/4cup) and 1 juiced for the frosting =(1/8 cup) & the other 1 =(1/8 cup) add to your drinking water as you bake...

1/4 cup of cream cheese

Oil (not olive oil!), water & eggs as per the cake box/mix calls for

Exotic Orange Curd Filling (Recipe above), or purchase some lemon, or orange curd at the store, or just use frosting for filling.



Directions:

1. Follow the recipe on the cake box (mix, oil, eggs & water) except omit 1/4 cup of the water for the fresh squeezed lemon juice you will be adding to it. So if the cake mix calls for 1 1/2 cups of water subtract 1/4 cup so now only add 1 1/4 cups of water and the other 1/4 cup of liquid will be your lemon juice.

2. After you have made the mix add 3 tablespoons of Poppy Seeds & Cream Cheese or Sour Cream & Lemon Zest from 2 lemons to your batter & mix for another 25 seconds on a high speed to get everything disbursed throughout the batter.

3. Pour into GREASED cake pans & bake according to what the cake box states. I made mine into two 8x8 square baking pans, but you can also use round.

4. You know that your cake is done baking by noticing that it has pulled away from the sides and is no longer touching the pan, it has "sucked in" if you want to call it that. Also by inserting a knife, fork, or toothpick through the middle and it comes out clean.



5. When your cakes are finished baking set them in the pans somewhere to cool, after 20 minutes or so, remove from the pans CAREFULLY! Then let sit until after you are done with the frosting.

ZINGY LEMON FROSTING



Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
6 oz or 1 8oz regular package of cream cheese (but only use 3/4 of it) * use the other 1/4 in cake batter...
2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 cup lemon juice or juice of 1 lemon
Lemon Zest of 2 lemons



1. Soften butter and cream cheese- microwave (without the wrappers on!) the butter for 20 seconds & cream cheese for 30 seconds. Beat together in mixer until smooth, turn off, use rubber spatula to clean off the sides.

2. Then add Vanilla, Lemon Juice & Zest, turn mixer to LOW

3. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at time with mixer on LOW speed, you don't want powder flying everywhere!

3. Then after all the sugar is in beat well (35 seconds on high speed, but start low then add medium then high or frosting bits will spit out every where).

4. At first it won't seem like this is making frosting but the mixer will soon "mix" everything & then it turns into white heaven creaminess...

5. If for some reason your frosting looks too thin add a little more powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency but remember you need it to move on the cake, not run off the cake like an icing, this is FROSTING!

5. Get ready to frost that cake!



FROSTING CAKE

1. Make sure it is COMPLETELY cooled off, if you don't frosting will run down the sides... (some of you are thinking lightbulb moment, that is WHY that happens to me!)

2. Look at your cakes and see which one has the most even top. Use that one to be the BOTTOM of your cake. Use the lop sided one on top.

3. Don't go overboard on frosting the bottom layer, if you put too much it will squeeze out when you put the next layer on. My suggestion is frost the botton with 1/2 inch thickness high and keep a 1/4 inch distance away from the edges so when you add the next layer it pushes the rest out to the sides, but does not spill over.

4. Place 3/ 4 if not ALL the frosting on the very top of the cake and all of it if you go with a fruit center filling. Use your spatula to push frosting from top of cake down to the sides. Use your spatula to spread evenly and don't go back and forth, spread in ONE direction so you don't get cake bits in the frosting. Turn the pedestal of the cake as you run the spatula down and around.

5. Then make it pretty by adding candied lemon drops or mint sprigs, or cut fresh lemon like I did into round circles and then cut the circle in half and then half again making triangle pieces to go around the cake. Make fun designs with it. You could also boil another lemon's rind in sugar and water and make a candied edible rind. Go crazy and make it yummy! A little bit goes a LONG way.

6. Your cake is ready to enjoy with a nice cup of coffee.