Shelly's Recipe

LEMON CURD BLUEBERRY PECAN LAYER CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Category: Cakes

For the cake:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (16 oz) box confectioners sugar
1 tsp almond extract
Lemon Curd (for filling)
Blueberries (for filling)
About 1 cup finely chopped pecans (for garnish)

CAKE: Preheat oven to 375. Cut three 9-inch rounds of parchment paper for the pans. Grease the bottom of the pans, place parchment paper on bottom and grease top of parchment round. Set them aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the baking powder, salt and 1 cup of flour. Blend in 1/3 cup of milk. Alternate adding the remaining flour and milk ending with flour. Add the 2 extracts and blend well. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter until no white streaks show.

Divide the batter between the three pans and bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of cake comes out clean. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

FROSTING: Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add confectioner's sugar and almond extract. Beat until smooth and shiny.

Place the first cake layer onto a serving platter, take half of the Lemon Curd and spread onto cake layer, take a spatula -full of frosting and carefully spread on top of curd, layer entire top with blueberries. Stack the next layer and repeat procedure. Stack the last layer and place on top, press down gently and use remaining frosting to frost top and sides of cake. Sprinkle chopped pecans over top and sides.