Lemon-y Goat Cheese Cake
All I wanted to do on my birthday was to get myself cleaned up, throw on my new birthday dress & favorite apron, & spend a few hours in the kitchen making a cake. Dig out all my cutest baking gear, & get caking! The real gift being the time in the kitchen to do nothing other than a little baking, which is usually hard to justify. & if I can’t carve out the time on my birthday, when can I? My most dreamy afternoons are ones when I can have some uninterrupted time to myself - just me, my pups, and my KitchenAid - to whip up something sweet & pretty. So while Jordan finished up some work before my night-time dinner in the yard, I made a moderate mess in the kitchen & did my best birthday baking.
It’s finally hot as balls in Washington (like it actually feels like summer), so something fruity & refreshing sounded perfect for a birthday treat. Plus with all the chocolate cake that has been gifted to me this birthday, a light, fruity, & citrusy cake sounded perfect for a change of pace. So I dusted off one of my favorite recipes inspired by my girl Martha - Lemon-y Goat Cheese Cake topped with fruit and a sugary glazed. A single layer cake that is so simple, always tasty, and so easy to make beautiful every time. It’s one of my favorites to have as a centerpiece when we’ve got people over, & for my birthday I whipped it up just for me.
This cake has one critical step - GREASE THE PAN! The only way to screw this thing up is by mangling it upon removing it from the pan post bake. Martha taught me one very fun baking lesson with this one - grease the pan & dust it with sugar for extra protection. I totally thought that greasing & sugar dusitineg the pan only to pour in raw would make the cake stick - like somehow it would caramelize during baking and cause the whole thing to essentially glue to the cake pan. But no…it totally works like a gem! The cake bakes and slips out NO PROBLEMO, and has a little extra sweetness around the edges from the crusted sugar granules. It’s the best little trick for cakes, like this one, that are made with hardly any flour.
It’s a pretty neutral cake, and the only reason that’s important to know is because it means it’s great with any fruit. Summer stone fruits & berries preferred. The main ingredient here is the goat cheese. It’s so tart, so yummy, and proves that goat is not just for cheeseboard. You end up with a cake that’s not super sweet since not much sugar is added, which is what I love the most about it. It’s got that goat cheese bite plus a really good lemony punch. You can go heavy on the lemon zest & lemon juice - it tastes perfect with goat cheese. & you can taste so much lemon in each bite, it’s honesty a citrus cake.
The only time consuming task is whipping those egg whites. To get the texture just right, I needed to be sure whip those egg whites until they were nice and stiff. Electric mixer required! I tried to do it once by hand, and though it was a good arm workout, it was also kind of torturous. Lesson learned: digging the KitchenAid out from the cabinet is always worth it when whipping egg whites.
At the end of the day, this recipe didn’t fail me on my birthday. Instead, it concreted its standing as a fool-proof, light and bright summer dessert that always looks irresistible.
For the Goat Cheese Cake
3/4 c. sugar, plus an extra 2-3 tbsp for sprinkling
6 eggs separated
1 tsp vanilla
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp. lemon zest
5 ounces of goat cheese, room temperature
3 tbsp flour
1 peach, thinly sliced
1/2 c. fresh blue berries
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp water
Start by greasing a round cake pan with a stick of butter. Sprinkle in 2-3 tbsp of sugar, gently swirling the granules around so they stick to the edge of the pan, and no sugar is pooling at the bottom. Set your prepped cake pan aside.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Pour all of your egg whites in the base of your electric mixer. Turn the mixer onto medium speed for 3-4 minutes, then turn the speed to high. Whip until egg whites are firm and the consistency supports stiff peaks.
In a separate bowl, cream the goat cheese and 3/4 c. sugar by hand. Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla, lemon juice, & zest. Stir in the flour. Mix in 1/4 of the egg whites, mixing until evenly incorporated. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites with a spatula until the batter is all one color and not streaky. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan, and bake for 35 minutes (up to 40 if the center looks liquidy).
Remove the pan and from the oven and let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes. Then flip is upside down onto a cutting board, placing it then in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
When your ready to eat, place the prepared fruit right on top. Keep it organic vs any complex styling. In a small dish, whisk together the powdered sugar water. Drizzle right over the top for the finishing touch, & eat up.
*you can also whisk the powdered sugar with lemon juice for an extra lemony hit.