Lemon cake for gourmets

Before anything else, let me tell you the story behind this lemon cake for foodies. A couple of years ago, I went into the kitchens of the Ritz in Paris, on Place Vendôme, to learn how to cook and treat with the respect it deserves a product I adore: marron glacé.

Ingredients · Servings 6

3 organic eggs
2 organic egg yolks
300g of regular sugar
145 g of whipping cream (without whipping)
250g of plain flour
10 g of baking powder or chemical or baking yeast
15 g of lemon peel
90g of butter
100g of regular sugar
100g of lemon juice
50g of lime juice
The zest of ½ lemon

Method · 55 min

Wash the lemon well and peel it, being careful not to remove any of the white pith, which is bitter. Put the lemon peel in the freezer.
Separate 50g of the sugar from the amount needed for the cake, place it in the bowl of your food processor along with the frozen lemon zest, and blend them together. If you don't have a food processor, use a chopper or blender. Alternatively, don't freeze the lemon zest; simply grate it and mix it with the sugar.
Place the eggs, egg yolks, the sugar mixture, the crushed lemon zest, and the remaining sugar in a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed for 5 minutes.
While continuing to beat at medium speed, gradually add the cream.
Sift the flour and yeast, add them to the dough in two batches, and mix both times.
Melt the butter at 45ºC and add it to the dough, mixing just enough to integrate it.
Leave the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
After 10 minutes in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 170ºC, top and bottom heat.
Grease the mold with melted butter and dust it with flour using a sieve. Turn it upside down while tapping the base to remove any excess flour.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and pour it into the mold.
Bake for about 40 minutes—it may need a little longer. Remove from the pan when it's lukewarm.
Put the lime and lemon juices together with the sugar in a saucepan. Let it reduce for 10-15 minutes.
Brush the cake all over with this syrup using a brush. Let it dry for 10 minutes.
Put some lemon zest on top.