About a cake

Right next to my local produce market and my subscriptions to Bon Appetit and Cook's Illustrated, bloggers often provide me with what I occasionally run out of in the kitchen . . . inspiration. My book group was meeting at the home of someone who particularly likes cake. I needed help.

I've made hundreds of cakes in my day and have shelves of cookbooks, but sometimes I'm reduced to total stupidity by a simple situation: "I dunno. A cake. I need to make a cake." The last cake I made was chocolate. I wanted to make something different. Summery. Maybe lemon.

Thank you, Jen at userealbutter.com for this: Triple Layer Lemon Cake. Because she is so fancy, she made individual cakes in little plastic tubes, but the recipe was easily converted to a regular-sized triple layer cake. What I love is that she takes parts of the recipe—cake, lemon curd, and frosting—from three sources to give you the best of each. She has a super smart recipe index, with pictures of each dish. She never fails to remind me that food can be delicious, beautiful, and fun.

Someone in my house had eaten too many eggs, and I did not have enough to make my own lemon curd. I used store-bought, and it was fine. However, I'm now stocked with eggs and lemons, so I'll be trying the curd soon.

But I did have lots of blueberries, which I piled on top of the frosting before it dried (so they stick on) and topped with some lemon zest.

And then before I left the house, I remembered that it was the birthday of an old friend I've caught up with on Facebook. I stuck in a candle, lit it, sang Happy Birthday, took a snap and posted it on his wall. Much better than sending a cartoon bouquet of flowers or drink, don't you think?