For Maureen, here’s a photo of the birdbath we have. We set it out yesterday after I saw the birds trying to drink water from the ant trap on top of the hummingbird feeder. It’s a blue ceramic birdbath that I think we bought at the local garden center. The lilly pad dripper is from Wild Birds Unlimited. We do have a heater for winter that I used with the old metal birdbath but that was blown over one too many times and eventually broke. This one can’t stay out over the winter as the ceramic will crack.
Last fall I planted some tulips for Jason. He doesn’t remember but he was asking for tulips. I love them but they usually only bloom the first year and after that they don’t seem to like me and each year fewer and fewer of them will bloom. We have two batches of pink ones and yellow in between. As you can see the first bunch of daffodils are about finished and I need to get outside and deadhead them. It will be a nice afternoon to work out in the yard except for all the pollen. If I can stand the sneezing I’ll get out and do the deadheading and perhaps even a little weeding. The front herb garden is already overrun with nasty weeds.

Yesterday I baked the cake for today. These sorts of cakes always seem much better after a night in the fridge so I also made the lemon curd and the lemony frosting and put it all together. I think if you click the photo to make it bigger you can probably see the lemon zest in the frosting. This is one of those butter and confectioner’s sugar frostings but it was fairly tame on the butter compared to the last cake I tried.

Lemon Cake

For the curd:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
zest of a lemon
1 pinch salt
6 large egg yolks

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and all the sugar, juice, zest and salt. Whisk to combine and then whisk in the egg yolks. Cook over medium heat while constantly whisking about 5 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Cool to room temperature and then chill completely.

For the cake:
2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
zest of a lemon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour two 8-inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and the lemon zest. In the bowl of a mixer, blend together the butter and lemon sugar until light and fluffy. Add remaining sugar and beat another minute or two until smooth. Add the milk alternately with the flour mixture a little at a time until it is all incorporated.  Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar in a separate mixing bowl with the whisk until stiff peaks just form. Whisk 1/4 of the egg white mixture into the cake batter to lighten it. Gently fold in the remainder of the egg white mixture. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth with a spatula. Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 F. Loosen the edge with a butter knife and cool in the pans ten minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
zest of a lemon
3 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lemon juice and zest and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. This can sit at room temperature up to two hours.

Assembly:
With a long serrated knife, divide each layer in two horizontally. Place the first layer on your cake stand and if you’d like to keep the stand clean then tuck bits of waxed paper under the edges and remove these just before serving. Smooth 1/3 of the lemon curd across the first layer. Repeat twice more and top with remaining layer. Spread a thin crumb coat of frosting on the cake and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Spread remaining frosting on the cake and chill overnight.