Favorite Dessert
Christopher Lucas
I actually don't, R56. There are some recipes out there in Italian and I used several to put it together.
I had a double recipe of lemon curd in the freezer which is how the whole thing started. I wanted to use it up. That came from Ina Garten.
The pan di spagna was a standard recipe - for each egg, use 30 grams of sugar and 30 grams of flour/potato starch. So my sponge cake was 5 eggs, 150 grams sugar, 150 grams 00 flour (or 75 g flour, 75 g potato starch). You have to beat the eggs for a long time and sift in the flour. Watch videos on how to do it. I used an eight-inch pan.
The syrup was water 35 g, sugar 35 g, and limoncello 70 g. I had made limoncello which is how I ended up with all the lemons to make lemon curd.
Pastry cream - I honestly don't remember the recipe I used but it was just a standard recipe with milk, eggs, sugar, flour (wheat or rice), etc. Cook it with the zest of a whole lemon.
Candied lemon peel, just google it. I did. It's a garnish and not necessary.
Whipped cream: I'm providing the link to the stabilized whipped cream. I used the gelatine variation.
It sounds complicated but I was lucky to have the limoncello and curd already. But you can make the all the pieces in advance. The lemon curd can be frozen (mine was). You can make the syrup a week ahead and keep it in the refrigerator. You can easily freeze the sponge cake too. The pastry cream should be made the day before. Candied lemon peel...months ahead.
Assembly: Mix the lemon curd with the pastry cream. Cut the pan di spagna into three. I put the limoncello syrup in a squirt bottle and used that to soak the layers (not too, too much but don't be afraid to get it wet). Top two layers with about two thirds of curd/pastry mixture, using the syrup on each layer as you go along. Whip the cream according to the directions and fold the remaining curd/cream mixture into it. Frost and pipe that onto the cake and refrigerate for about three hours before serving.
Confession: I'm a failure at pastry cream and this time was no exception. Don't be afraid to cook it long enough. Mine was too loose and I ended up using xanthan gum to get it thick enough to use.
It can probably be simplified and would still be delicious but I had rice flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, 00 flour, gelatine powder etc in the pantry. I think it ended up using 18 egg btw. Anyway, good luck.