Torta Sabbiosa

Torta sabbiosa means "sand cake" in Italian.  It's quite dry, like sand, but it's light and airy like angel food cake and melts in the mouth.  It's made with potato flour and I think that's what makes it dry.  The last time I made an Italian cake, I used almond meal and it was also dry.  Wonder if there's something to that?

Since I had two layers, I had to come up with a filling, and what's better than Nutella?  It still needed something for the dryness; in TSOB, Ms. Yard suggests serving it with sweetened mascarpone.  I decided to buy coffee gelato.  It was good, but the gelato almost overpowered the cake.  Next time, I think I'll try the suggestion of the queen of Italian-American cooking, Lidia Bastianich, and douse the cake with amaretto or limoncello and a topping of cream and/or fruit and berries! 

Lemon Cake

This cake is the second thing I've made for friends and gotten paid for!  This person wanted cake with a lemon curd filling and lemon italian meringue buttercream frosting.  I've done the lemon curd before, but have never made the italian meringue frosting.  And, like all things lately, I had to take a second shot at the frosting.  Meringue is very temperamental, and when I added the butter the first time around, it broke the perfect peaks I had going on the meringue.  I'm told that if I would have kept the mixer going, it would have come back together, but I wanted to start over and get it right the first time.