Well, first I'll tell you what was great. The cake itself was moist and had a wonderful hint of lemon from the zest, and did not 'dome' in the oven. The cakes came out pretty much flat-topped straight out of the pan so no piece of cake went wasted. It's definitely a great go-to cake batter recipe. Also, instead of the blackberry jam it called for I used blueberry instead as you can probably infer from the photo.
What wasn't so great was that the meringue buttercream completely hardened. I expected this to happen somewhat as I put the cake in the fridge for a day, but I had no idea that the buttercream would remain hardened, even after being restored to room temperature -- it sat on the countertop for a good 3 hours. The frosting was so hard that when I cut the cake, I could feel the knife hit each of the buttercream layers. I was a bit perturbed by this... and then went on to confirm my perturbation when I came to eat it. Actually, it wasn't even the refrigeration that ruined the buttercream texture. It was doomed even before the assembled cake went into the fridge. Let me explain: I froze cake layers. Upon reading various tips online, I decided to freeze the cake layers because it helps to keep the cake stiff on assembly, but no one online had mentioned that this would completely harden a buttercream frosting! When I took out the layers from the freezer and started frosting away, I saw that the buttercream went on nicely and hardened. It was like water solidifying on a sheet of ice. At the time I thought this was a good thing - a sign that freezing the cake was a great tip that was working. I had no idea that the frosting would stay this way no matter how long it sat out before serving.
I'll give this cake another go but I will either switch up the frosting to somethine other than buttercream or try the buttercream assembly with everything at room temperature. If you're interested in making this, you can find the recipe over at mix, mix... stir, stir!
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