Lemon Meringue Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 250: Lemon Meringue Cake

While reading the recipe, i noticed that the photo of the cake part is very thin, ie it looked rather flat to me with loads of meringue topping.  I decided then that i would prefer slightly more cake than that thin flat looking cake in the photo.  Hence i baked my sponge in 2 x 8" instead of what the recipe called for, ie 2 x 9".  

However, to my alarm, my 8" sponge cake turned out really high!! Each layer is about 2.5 - 3 inches high.  I had enough height to layer the sponge into 2 quite comfortably.  So in the end i had plenty of cake ..lol..a bit too much..hahaha.  Some photos can be so deceiving!  

I made a few mistakes in this recipe..while making the syrup, i poured all the lemon juice into the sugar syrup instead..then the meringue part, too.. i didn't save the part of the sugar or part of the lemon juice  for the second half of the recipe..:p  This cake reminded me of the other lemon cake, i think was 'Woody's Lemon Cake" where i also made some mistakes..lol!..and both cakes have lemon curd!

I had a hard time frosting the meringue onto the cake cos it feels different from buttercream, so sticky..like all lump together. Not sure if it is because i over-beat the meringue..but it was so sticky. My first time frosting with meringue.  And i realised that since my cake is so tall, i can't frost too high either, cos i can't place it in the fridge after. My fridge doesn't have that height to accommodate it. I piped out some shapes etc..cos i can't get it level it nicely..cos it kept sticking to the spatula. 

Verdict:  I find this cake tasted similar to the other lemon cake we made a while back because of the presence of lemon curd.  And i do find it a bit too sweet and i've already half the syrup. But maybe it's also my doing, since i layered it so high...i should have gone with my initial instinct to just make 2 individual 8" cakes instead.   My husband likes the sour taste of the lemon curd and think has great flavor.  My daughter didn't like it cos she finds the lemon curd too sour.  I find overall the cake is a little bit sweet and so is the meringue..(I think there's something wrong with my sweet tastebuds)! Strange..one cake but everyone of us has different opinions!