Cooking with Kids - Lemon Curd Recipe | What's Cooking With Kids

Quality Time with My Son: Layered Cake with Lemon Curd

My son has always been really good at playing by himself. He gets absorbed with his toys and imagination – and can play for hours. So it caught my attention when he asked if I would do a cooking project with him over the weekend. He pulled out a cheesy cookbook that he received as a birthday gift last year and opened it to a marked page. He said, “I want to make this layered cake.” I took a peek and was impressed.

I should start by admitting that I have never made a layered cake before. I know, it’s crazy – but I usually prefer to make smaller sized treats. And I am a true sucker for mini-muffins. But he was persuasive and before I knew it, we were gathering our ingredients. I had to improvise a bit, because I refused to follow the exact recipe in the book. Margarine isn’t an ingredient that will ever find its way into our house – I am a real butter kind of girl. So, thanks to Ina Garten’s sheet cake recipe, we were in business. And the best part? I had all of the ingredients already!

Luscious Lemon Curd

2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 lemon

Directions:

Crack eggs, one at a time over a small glass bowl.
Pick out any stray shells.
Wash your hands.
Beat the eggs with a fork or a small whisk.
Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves.
Juice the lemon into the bowl with the eggs and sugar.
Be sure to fish out any stray seeds that may fall in!
Cut up the butter into tiny chunks.
Add the butter to the other ingredients.
Add about 2-3 inches of water to a large skillet.
Turn on the heat. Once the water in the pan starts to simmer, set the glass bowl filled with ingredients into the water. It will be like you are giving it a bath!
Stir the mixture often and you will notice that after about 15 minutes, it will begin to thicken and coat the back of the spoon.
Once this happens, you can remove the glass bowl from the heat and turn off the stove.
Let the mixture cool. If you are not using it all, you should store it in the refrigerator.

Would you be willing to make something new with your kids, if they were charming and asked you nicely?

p.s. Notice the bright yellow color of the cake and lemon curd – it’s all natural, baby! Our backyard chickens eat better than some families I know – and produce eggs with uber-yellow yolks!