My First Year Wedding Anniversary Cake

 

Wedding photos courtesy of James Rubio Photography

I seriously can't believe it has been one year since I got married on the beautiful island of Maui.  I had the time of my life, and as I type this, it hasn't quite registered that time has flown by so fast.

Last year in front of 60 family members, friends and my grandfather that married us, we had such a memorable ceremony overlooking the Pacific ocean that I will never forget. 

A couple of weeks ago, my husband Fred and I realized that we would not be able to celebrate our anniversary with our top tier of our wedding cake.  It's customary that you freeze the top tier of the cake and eat it on your first year anniversary.  Well having a wedding in Maui didn't make it easy to keep that top tier.  We ended up eating it on our honeymoon.

Because I simply ran out of time (what else is new?), I decided I would make a mini cake in the flavors of our top tier so we could at least attempt to honor the tradition as best we could.  Our top tier was a lovely lemon cake with raspberry mousse.  So I created a cute lemon cake with a simple whipped raspberry mousse topping and berry sauce.  It may not have looked the same as our beautiful cake from Maui Wedding Cakes but boy oh boy did it bring back the memories of that day.  

And lastly, to the sweet man I call my husband and best friend, I thank you everyday for supporting my dreams and eating more desserts than you should in the name of love for me!  I look forward to many more sweet years of marriage with you.

Anniversary Lemon Cake with Raspberry Mousse

Ingredients

For the mini lemon cakes
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon limoncello
1/4 cup buttermilk or coconut milk (I used coconut milk) 

For the raspberry mousse
4 ounces cream cheese- room temperature 
1/2 container of cool whip
1/2 cup of fresh raspberries

For the mascerated berries
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 teaspoon limoncello 
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

Directions
For the cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium sized bowl.  In a large bowl, cream room temperature butter, sugar and lemon zest until nice and fluffy which takes at least 6 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time and fully incorporate into mixture.  Add half of flour mixture to large bowl and mix until incorporated.  Then add half of buttermilk or coconut milk to mixture and mix.  Add the rest of the flour and mix and then add the rest of the buttermilk and mix until just combined.  DO NOT OVERMIX.  Gently stir in vanilla extract, lemon juice and limoncello until combined.  

Pour cake batter into individual sprayed or greased and floured 4-6 ounce ramekins.  Bake in oven for 23-27 minutes or until they spring back.  Let cool in ramekins for 10 minutes before removing. 

For the raspberry mousse
Whip room temperature cream cheese and cool whip.  Add in fresh raspberries and whip until smooth.  Chill.

For the mascerated berries 
Combine berries, limoncello and sugar together and gently stir.  Allow to sit for at least an hour. Serve over cake and mousse.