Week 35: Holiday weekend bake

Week 35 brought Labor day weekend and this year, in addition to the long weekend, I had two extra days off. We used one of those weekdays to visit the Minnesota State Fair during the day, in a quest to solidify our status as Fair veterans. Alas, it turns out that we are merely Fair competent. 

I used another one of those weekdays to make another one of the cakes that I had wanted to enter at the fair, but decided not to. The other one was the cardamom and pistachio bundt - the rules called for no glazes and I do think that the espresso glaze really is what takes it to the next level. At any rate, I had also hemmed and hawed between the green tea genoise for the layer cake entry or a lemon blueberry cake. The original (and best) version calls for a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting, and cream cheese frosting is another verboten item on the state fair entry rules. So I made it instead for our family that was visiting from out of town!

The lemon-blueberry layer cake is one of the first layer cakes that I ever tried my hand at, and was made at least a couple times for a good friend for his birthdays. I hadn't made it in at least a decade and was excited to re-visit this long-lost gem. It's a perfect recipe for the late summer, too, with it's cake layers bursting with juicy blueberries and the fresh zip of lemon all hanging out with some tangy cream cheese frosting to tie it all together. Rather than melt more white chocolate for the frosting, I went ahead and just whipped the rest of the white chocolate ganache that I had leftover into the cream cheese filling. Who doesn't like a whipped ganache?! The cake held up to memory and will definitely remain as a top option for layer cakes. 

Lemon-blueberry with white chocolate and cream cheese frosting.