White Chocolate Cake with Lemon Cream

Easter this year we were in charge of bringing dessert as well as the sacred Prime Rib.  We are in charge of this because when leaving Publix the other day Byrd saw the cover of Women's Day Magazine.  On the cover was a beautiful three layered cake.  A white chocolate cake with lemon cream to be exact.  Although we didn't buy the magazine she found the recipe as soon as we got home, then called her mom, and just like that we are in charge of dessert.  Until recently we never baked, but we were up to the challenge.  There were only going to be  6 of us at Easter so we didn't really need a three layer cake, we decided to just make a 2 layer cake and eat the 3rd layer for a Saturday snack.  Other than that we followed the recipe.  We made the cakes on Saturday to get them done, our oven was going to be taken Sunday morning.  The cake came together beautifully. We couldn't find candied lemon peel, so we opted to cover the top with lemon zest and wheels.

Beautiful cake.

So pretty.

With the cake finished we put it in the fridge to set while the prime rib was finishing.  At this point all was good.  Then we got in the car.  Now we had discussed the short drive, and had a plan.  Byrd would drive and I would hold the cake so there would be no unnecessary jolts.  As we pulled out of our driveway and headed down the street the top layer of the cake started to slowly slide off the bottom layer.  The next 10 minutes were a constant struggle to keep the top layer on, while all of the insides slowly melted on to the cake stand.

Nothing left in the middle.

Lesson learned, when bringing dessert it should only be one layer. or just decorate it there.  That is what Duff does, we watch the show, why didn't we think of that. Not that this is anything comparable to anything on that show, but for us a masterpiece.   Everyone was polite and still said it looked great, but I know what it looks like.  All in all it was a delicious cake and I guess that is what matters in the end.

Prime Rib

Everybody has family traditions. Byrd's family has the Easter Prime Rib. It is the only meat that can be served.  I love this tradition.  This year will be a little different from the years past, instead of cooking everything in one house we are cooking at home then transporting our items. This year as usual we are in charge of the protein, but since we have done some baking lately we took on dessert as well. A double layered White Chocolate cake with Lemon Cream.  It is not a far drive to Byrd's parent's house, so no problem. There were going to be 6 of us at dinner so I got an 8.5 pound Ribeye Roast.  I had the butcher at our local Publix do the prep work for me on this one.  He removed the bones then tied them back on for flavor while cooking.

Prime Rib Rub
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons of fresh cracked pepper
1/4 cup fresh minced garlic
1/4 cup liquid smoke
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup kosher salt

Give it a good rub down, and let it sit over night in the fridge.

Yesterday morning I got up and preheated the oven to 400, while letting the meat get to room temperature. After 10 minutes of searing the meat on 400, reduce the oven to 225.  This is when I insert the meat thermometer.  We reached 120 internal (rare) about 3 1/2 hours later.  I took it out of the oven and got it ready to travel.  By the time we reached the PIL's internal temp was 138, and ready to slice.

I love prime rib.

Simple and delicious. The crust from this rub is great, and the meat was tender enough to cut with a fork. Great prime rib. We served this with homemade Au Jus, and a creamy horseradish sauce, but they didn't make the picture. Not everybody wants to wait for me to take pictures.  As for traveling with the dessert, I will get to that tomorrow, but here is what it originally looked like.