Growing up, having a summertime birthday was the saddest thing in the world because while you celebrated all of your friends' birthdays during the school year, no one was around to celebrate yours! (and the sorriest part for me was that you couldn't bring cupcakes for your class to enjoy!) But, since then, I've begun to embrace having a summertime birthday, namely because you're almost always guaranteed lovely weather (well, that is, unless you have June Gloom as we do here in the Bay), childhood friends are in the area visiting for the summertime, and some of my favorite flavors, flowers, vegetables, and fruits are in season, making this one foodie particularly happy.
This year for my birthday cake, I decided to take inspiration from one of my favorite childhood treats which also happens to take advantage of the fresh berries and gorgeous citruses overflowing at the farmers' markets recently: raspberry and lemon-lime sparkling punch. This particular drink comes from my childhood piano teacher. She used to mix up and serve this punch after every recital that we gave, and it made for a extra incentive for me to play well in the recitals so that I wouldn't have to guiltily sip my punch in a corner. Then, she would let me take the leftover punch home in a large re-purposed mason jar! When I got older, I was given the important task of making the punch from the ingredients she'd left out on the counter during the last few performers of each recital, which was, to me, one of the largest honors that could be bestowed.
The punch itself is a wonderfully bubbly blend of sweet and seedy pureed raspberries with tart and citrusy lemon lime. My piano teacher used to make it with lemon lime soda, but I've re-written the recipe here to use fresh lemons, limes, and sparkling water. The crispness of the freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice better enhances the raspberry flavor of the punch, in my opinion, though don't tell my piano teacher that I said that! ;-P
I love this punch so much that I really wanted to capture and transform its essence into cake form for my birthday. This lemon and raspberry-lime layer cake features layers of raspberry-studded lemon cake with raspberry-lime Italian meringue buttercream, and two different curd fillings: lemon and raspberry-lime. The end result is a cake truly tailor-made and meant for a summertime birthday.
The raspberry-studded lemon cake layers are moist and robust, with pockets of lightly tart baked raspberries inside. The hint of lime in the raspberry-lime buttercream and raspberry-lime curd filling comes through as a crispness to the overall cake, balancing out the sweetness of the lemon curd filling. When stacking the layers, I alternated the lemon and raspberry-lime curds, so in each slice, you get both. You could combine them, too, but I wanted some separation of each of the flavors for extra definition.
Overall, I was very happy with how the translation from sparkling punch to birthday cake turned out! This cake is totally perfect for enjoying in the summer, in the warm shade away from the hot sun, under a tree or on a porch, with good company and a glass of accompanying raspberry and lemon-lime sparkling punch right next to you. I think my piano teacher might approve. As long as I go and practice afterwards, I think.
Happy birthday to all of you other summer babies out there, too! :-)
Read on for punch and cake recipes...
