Lemon Jelly Cake

Momma was a cake and pie maker. There were no fancy embellishments or decorations except for candles on birthdays. Most of her cakes would never have made the cover of McCall’s or Ladies Home Journal but to our family and friends, they were a very welcome sight. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so they say.

Making desserts was just part of Momma’s daily meal planning. She didn’t bake every day but we certainly had a dessert for every Sunday meal, special occasions and sometimes, just because. The just because may have been that we had been blackberry picking so she would make a cobbler or someone would drop off some pecans they had picked up and the outcome was a pecan pie.

Momma had one set of three round cake pans and a sheet cake pan. Her cake pans were aluminum and were marked with heavy use. Dents and stains almost covered the pans. You could barely tell that they were aluminum. That leads me to believe that someone in the family probably gave her those cake pans. Many years later, she acquired a Bundt pan probably from saving her S&H green stamps, another practice that has long since disappeared from our lifetime.

Years ago, some retailers such as grocery stores and gas stations would dispense S&H green stamps to the customers according to the dollar amount purchased. Stamp books were provided to the customer to organize their collection of the stamps. It reminded me of our current grocery store that gives out monopoly cards. It advertises that you can win thousands of dollars if you get the right combination of monopoly cards but I’ve yet to meet a winner. I’ve long given up trying to keep up with grocery store games and gimmicks. Back then, it seemed that one needed a countless number of S&H green stamps books to obtain a worthy item in the catalog.

Momma coveted her green stamps, and saved them. Then when there was sufficient time, we would sit around our pink dinette set licking those gummed stamps and carefully placing them in the allotted spots of our stamp book. Each filled book was worth so many stamps.

There was a catalog to choose your items from but it seemed we never had enough stamps for the things Momma really wanted or needed. It brings to mind taking my grands to an arcade where they spend $100 to play games which then rewards them with 1000 tickets. When the tickets are redeemed, they end up with what resembles a ping pong ball and a sucker..not even a good sucker! I am only guessing that is how Momma got her Bundt pan and I have no recollection of her redeeming anything but I know we sure did lick a lot of stamps.

Momma had a few special cakes that our family loved. Her chocolate cake and icing recipe came from the back of the Hershey cocoa powder can. It was called the Chocolatetown Special Cake. I believe my deep affection for chocolate was born with this cake.

Her Lemon Jelly cake was a big favorite. The cake is a basic white layer cake. The filling and icing is the consistency of jelly made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Momma used to double the recipe and split each layer. It resembled the doberge (we call it dobash) cakes of today. So I guess you could consider her a trailblazer.

It gives me such satisfaction to share Momma’s stories and recipes. I hope you try this cake if you are a lemon lover or just because..

Yield: 15 slices

Lemon Jelly Cake

Print

white layer cake with cooked lemon filling and icing

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 sticks butter unsalted, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon flavoring

Filling and Icing

• 4 egg yolks room temperature and well beaten
• 1 1/2  cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 /2 stick butter, cut into cubes

Instructions

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 8 inch round cake pans by greasing and flouring or spraying with nonstick baking spray.

Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk with a fork.

Cream butter until smooth with a mixer. Add sugar in a stream until all added. Stop to scrape down the side of the bowl and beat 4-5 minutes until white and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time and beat until the yellow just disappears. Scrape down bowl again.

Alternate adding the flour and milk, Add flavorings while beating.

Pour evenly in the three prepared pans and bake about 35 minutes.

Cool in pans about 10 minutes, then flip onto a cooling rack where the layers will completely cool before adding the filling.

Filling

In a saucepan, add the sugar and lemon juice and bring to boil. Dip out about 1/4 cup of the warm sugar mixture and egg to the beaten yolks.

Pour this warmed egg mixture into the saucepan with the butter. Cook over medium heat about 8-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken.

Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. Spread between the layers and on top of the cake.

Notes

Adding the warm sugar mixture to the eggs will temper the eggs and prevent curdling. If you do see any curdling, you can strain the mixture through a handheld mesh strainer.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

15

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 532Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 165mgSodium: 229mgCarbohydrates: 68gFiber: 1gSugar: 47gProtein: 6g

Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.