Lemon Berry Cream Cake

The perfect summer dessert. Make ahead, no bake and it feeds a ton of people.

Made with the easiest lemon curd made completely in the microwave.

Oh! My! Gosh! It is so good!

Start by making the lemon curd. The easiest lemon curd there is. Make it completely in the microwave. Zest four teaspoons of lemon zest.

Then,  squeeze enough lemons to make 1 cup of freshly squeezed juice. Should be about three or four lemons.

Lightly beat  four eggs.

Combine one cup of sugar with the eggs.

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice.

Lastly,  add the melted butter. Let the butter cool a bit before adding it so you don't cook your eggs.

Microwave on high, in one minute intervals until thickened. Stir well after each minute. It should take 6-8 minutes.

The lemon curd is cooked enough when it coats a spoon. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cooled.

While the lemon curd is cooling, combine one liter of cream with brown sugar, vanilla and pudding powder. Stir to dissolve sugar. Whip on high with electric mixer until cream is whipped firmly. I always add a bit of instant vanilla pudding powder to my whipped cream. The thickening agents in the pudding powder will prevent the cream from deflating and becoming watery.

In another bowl combine 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese and one cup of icing sugar. Mix with electric mixer until well combined.

Divide the whipped cream in half.

Add half of the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture. Fold, gently until combined.

Add the cooled lemon curd to the other half of the whipped cream. Fold gently to combine.

Place graham wafers onto the bottom of a 9x13x2 inch baking pan.

Use a serrated knife to trim the cookies to fit the entire surface.

Spread half of the lemon mixture onto the graham wafers.

spread the mixture right to the edge.

Put another layer of wafers on top of the lemon layer.

spread all of the cream cheese onto the wafers.

Add another layer of graham crackers.

Spread the remaining lemon layer on top.

Cover the entire surface with berries. Raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries.

Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. You could easily make this cake two or three days in advance. The graham crackers need time to soften.

I put blueberries and raspberries on this cake.

This one is all raspberries. I think that you could make a pretty nice American flag with blueberries and raspberries. Try it for July fourth.

Watch me make it on You Tube

Lemon Berry Cream Cake

Easy Microwave Lemon curd
1 cup sugar
4eggs
1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled a bit

1liter whipping cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2teaspoons instant vanilla pudding powder(optional but recommended)

8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar

About 50 Graham wafers

4 cups berries washed and dried(raspberries, blueberries, blackberries)

First make the lemon curd
Combine the eggs and sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Add the lemon juice and melted butter. Mix well. Microwave on high in one minute intervals, stirring after each minute, for six to eight minutes. Cook until the mixture has thickened and it coats the back of a spoon. Cover and refrigerate until
cool.

Meanwhile
Make the cream. Combine whipping cream and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Add vanilla and pudding powder(optional). The pudding powder helps to stabilize the whipping cream. The cream will stay whipped and will not separate. Whip with electric mixer until stiff. Set aside.

Then
Mix the cream cheese and icing sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Fold half of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Mix gently as to not deflate the cream.

Next
Combine the other half of the whipped cream into the lemon curd. Fold to mix well.

Assemble the cake
Place Graham crackers onto the bottom of a 9x13x2 inch baking dish. Cut crackers to fit the entire surface. Put half of the lemon cream mixture on top of the Graham crackers. Spread the cream with a spatula to cover the entire surface of crackers. Put a layer of crackers on top of the lemon cream. Put the cream cheese layer on top of the crackers. Place the other half of lemon cream on next. Cover entire surface with berries (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry etc). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.
The cake needs time for the graham wafers to become softened. Overnight is sufficient. This cake could easily be made a couple of days in advance.

The cake will be assembled as follows from the bottom to the top
Graham crackers
Lemon cream
Graham crackers
Cream cheese
Graham crackers
Lemon cream
Berries