I recently saw this famous dessert from the Amalfi Coast featured on the first episode of Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy. I am a fan of pretty much any type of lemon dessert and knew I needed to recreate this at home.
After doing some research I found that it is simply a lemon sponge cake, filled with 2 types of lemon creams, whipped cream, then soaked in Limoncello, and glazed with the remaining lemon cream. While these are all fairly easy recipes to make, when you are making all of them for just one dessert it is quite a process. Luckily all of the components can be made ahead of time.
I would recommend filling, soaking, and glazing the day you plan on serving. I filled and assembled in the morning and found that after sitting for a few hours in the refrigerator the flavors had some time to really soak in. Is this recipe time consuming? Yes. Delicious and worth it? 100%. These little pastries are like a burst of custard filled lemon sunshine!
Lemon Sponge Cake
3 eggs divided
90 grams sugar
65 grams cake flour
25 grams almond flour
Zest of 1 medium size lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a silicone half sphere mold.
In the bowl of your mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar until a stiff meringue forms. Fold in egg yolks by hand being careful not to deflate the meringue. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients and the lemon zest until fully incorporated. Pipe into prepared mold up to the top, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and cake springs back to the touch. Unmold cakes onto a cooling rack immediately. Let cool completely before filling.
Lemon Pastry Cream
237 grams whole milk
62 grams granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
25 grams cornstarch
Zest of 1 medium lemon
In a medium size saucepan heat milk and lemon zest. Infuse milk 10 minutes and strain back into saucepan.
Bring milk to a simmer with half the sugar. Whisk remaining sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks together. Once milk is hot, pour about half into yolk mixture, whisking until smooth. Pour back into pot with remaining milk and whisking constantly cook cream for 2 minutes. Pour cream into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Cool in refrigerator until ready to use.
Lemon Curd
80 grams fresh squeezed lemon juice
95 grams granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
75 grams unsalted butter
Over a double boiler, in a bowl whisk together all of the ingredients and cook until thickened. The hot lemon curd should be the consistency of pancake batter, once cooled it will thicken. After cooking the curd, strain through a fine sieve and place plastic wrap directly on top to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until ready to use
Limoncello Syrup
100 grams granulated sugar
75 grams fresh squeezed lemon juice
100 grams Limoncello
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and lemon juice. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in Limoncello.
Whipped Cream
200 grams heavy whipping cream
Whip cream until medium peaks form. Set aside in refrigerator until you are ready to prepare the filling.
Once all components are made, take the cooled pastry cream and in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat until smooth. Beat in lemon curd, and with a spatula fold in prepared whipped cream. Prepare a pastry bag with a piping tip and fill with the lemon cream. Pipe the cream into the bottoms of the sponge cakes until the cake feels slightly heavier.
With a pastry brush soak the cakes in the Limoncello syrup.
Place the remaining filling into a bowl, add a 2-3 tablespoons of Limoncello syrup to make the glaze. The glaze should be a fluid pourable consistency. Pour over the filled sponge cakes. Chill until ready to serve.
Filled and glazed cakes will hold in the refrigerator for up to two days
