When Lemon Met Almond

Here is one of the many reasons knives are one of the best things around:

With a knife, you can cut a cake open.

An open cake means a world of possibilities.

The equation is quite simple: take a cake you really enjoy. It's got the perfect flavor, you've got the recipe down, and just imagining it makes you happy. You know you've got that cake in your repertoire. Hey, even if you don't even step foot in a kitchen, you've got that cake somewhere in your taste memory.

Now, use the power of your mind (or simply get the cake and grab a knife). Imagine sawing off the top half of the cake. If you've arranged things right, the cake won't fall apart into a million pieces. If it does, rejoice: you've got a reason to eat all the crumbs up before anyone notices and you can bake a new cake. Hoorah! "Free cake!" I like that reasoning.

Now take a look at those cake halves, and open up the valve of ideas. What would you like to slather on today?

Some would say peanut butter. Others go for Nutella. The really cool people go for PB and Nutella. You've also got the ones who say they need a little fraîcheur, so fruit compote is the way to go.

What if you want it all? The fresh fruit and the richness? Look no further than lemon curd. Especially if the cake is a lemon-almond visitandine, I repeat: look no further than lemon curd.

This association is like Summer in a mouthful, if Summer were to decide she got a little tired of eating salad and drinking water all day long. This is the part when Summer gets fun.

When Lemon Met Almond

serves 8 to 10

1 visitandine (recipe here)
1/2 batch lemon curd (recipe follows)

Piece of cake: slice visitandine in half horizontally.

Spread lemon curd on bottom half, close up the cake by placing the top half back on.

Tah-dah!

Lemon Curd

makes 2 1/2 cups

4 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
3/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. fresh lemon juice
8g lemon zest (approx. 1 TB)
145g (10 TB) cold butter, cut into pieces

Rub zest and sugar together.

Mix lemon juice, sugar/zest, and eggs together in a heatproof bowl. Place it over a pan of simmering water.

Cook, whisking constantly, until a thermometer reads 75°C.

Remove from heat; when temperature comes back down to 60°C, incorporate butter and mix for 5 minutes.

Cover surface with plastic wrap and set aside to let cool.