Looking for a special lemon cake recipe!

[Pongi]

Hi everyone!
I need your help to find the recipe of a wonderful lemon cake I had during a dinner party few days ago. I asked it to our host but she didn't know it since the cake was a present from someone else (or, at least, this was what she told me ).
Basically, the cake was a custard pie-I mean, it was made of a shortcrust pastry bottom with a layer of lemon custard on- but it had a really yummy topping which looked like a sort of meringue...but was something else. It was creamier and tastier, like a soufflè or a bavarois, but at the same time had a more solid texture and the surface was slightly crunchy and golden (as I can judge, as it was sprinkled with icing sugar). All the layers had probably been baked together, and the cake was pretty thin, less than 1 1/2 inch.
Have you ever heard about something like that, and if so could give me the recipe?
TIA!

Pongi

[mudbug]

Pongi,

Sounds like a lemon tart. While I'm not sure about the topping, I can steer you in the right direction...

Browse the recipes here and see if any catch your eye out of the 138. Let us know and we can go from there.

[Mezzaluna]

Is that like a lemon chess pie?? Take a look at RecipeSource...
http://www.recipesource.com/cgi-bin/...emon+chess+pie

[Pongi]

Thanks cchiu and Mezzaluna! After a preliminary view to the links you mentioned, "my" cake sounds like a lemon tart...but I need an additional, hard work on the 138 recipes to find the right topping.....
If I'll survive, I'll keep you updated!

Pongi

[W.DeBord]

A chiboust topping that was brulee'd fit's your description. But it's not baked on...?

[Pongi]

Wendy, I must say that honestly I had never heard about chiboust, so did an Internet search and now I know that it's a créme patissiere mixed with Italian meringue (BTW: I noticed that some recipes also call for gelatine in the custard while some else don't, which option do you suggest?)
In any case, chiboust seems too soft to be "my" topping, so I'm not sure about that. Out of the recipes I have found, the most promising seems to be a "Torta di Limone all'Amalfitana" which, curiously, is reported in an American site . The filling is made of egg yolks, sugar, flour and ricotta, mixed with a meringue. The base is obviously made of shortcrust pastry.
I'll give it a try and let you know how it ends up!

Thanks again everyone,

Pongi

[W.DeBord]

It handles both freezing and warming nicely with gelatin. I haven't ever made it with-out.

[bumblecook]

Hi Pongi

Did you ever make the "Torta di Limone all'Amalfitana" ? How did it come out?

[Plum]

Pongi,
What you remember sounds to me like Lemon Meringue Pie, which is delicious and a real home cooking recipe here in England. The bottom half is tart, smooth lemon pie filling and the top is light-as-a-cloud soft meringue, baked so that it has a golden brown top.

I've found a recipe here, http://www.pierecipe.com/AZ/Grandmas...ringuePie.asp, but if you would rather have an English version that I have from the Good Housekeeping cookbook with weight measures, just let me know and I'll type it out for you.

There's a good picture here: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...UTF-8%26sa%3DG

Hope these links work for you. Let us know what you find out!

Plum.

[charlotte baker]

I think what you may have had is a lemon sponge pie. During baking the filling forms a lemon custard with a light cake-like top.

Here is a link to one of the many recipes for the pie.

http://teriskitchen.com/padutch/sponge.html

[Pongi]

Thanks everybody for the new inputs!
I haven't had time enough to try the "Torta di Limone all'Amalfitana" so can't say if it's just what I was looking for.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that "my" pie isn't a traditional lemon meringue pie since I know it and this is something else.
I also gave a look to the sponge pie recipe and it sounds promising!
BTW, that Torta Amalfitana looks just like a sort of lemon sponge pie where ricotta is added to the filling.
Hope I'll have soon time enough to make both recipes!

Pongi