Lemon Curd Mousse Cake

Burgled from Epicurious.com, who is now owned by Bon Appetit, who are dicks and require you to subscribe. Most of the time, a 1/2 recipe of this is plenty. This is a 2 day cake with all the cooling and setting times, so plan accordingly.

Curd Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup sugar (1 dropped it to 1 3/4 or less and it's actually much better and tangier, especially if you use Meyer lemons)

4 tsp cornstarch

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 6-8 lemons)

4 large eggs

4 large egg yolks

1.5 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, chopped into lil cubes

Crust Ingredients:

2 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (7.5 oz - I use 1/2 a packet of Walker's or Lorna Doone shortbread biscuits or similar)

0.5 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Cooking spray

Mousse:

5 tbsp water

4 tsp gelatin

6 large egg whites (use 4 from the curd above)

3/4 cup sugar (again, I dropped it to about 0.5 cup sugar and it tastes great)

1.5 cups chilled heavy cream

Lemon slices (for prettiness)

Make the curd first: Toss sugar and cornstarch in a pot. Add lemon juice gradually until the cornstarch is dissolved. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir over medium heat while adding butter, until curd thickens (and starts to boil, but it'll be more like steam puffs. Just don't make scrambled eggs, so keep whisking). Transfer to desired cooling vessel (jar if you're stopping at just curd) and chill until cold and set.

While the curd is cooling, make the crust: Preheat oven to 350. Lube up the bottom of a springform (8 inches for full recipe, a real wee one for a half version). Hit the shortbread cookies with the food processor or a bum corer, or beat the shit out of them in a plastic bag till they're crumbs. Put 'em in a mixing bowl and pour in the melted butter. Stir until they're coated and press into the bottom of the lubed springform. Bake for 15 min (until golden). Let it cool down.

Finally, the mousse: Remember the part where this is a 2 day cake? Here's the part that makes it take 2 days. Put 5 tbsp water in a small pot. Sprinkle the gelatin over it and let it stand until it absorbs and goes clear does the gelatin thing (about 15 min). You'll need a large bowl and a small bowl, an old priest, and a young priest. Put 1.75 cups of that chilled lemon curd into a large bowl, 0.75 of that curd into another small pot and heat that one gently until it's "very warm". Reserve the remaining lemon curd, don't eat it just yet. Heat up the gelatin that's been chillin' in the small pot, until it's clear, then whisk it into the heated pot of lemon curd. Then take that and slop it into the larger bowl of cold lemon curd and then whisk it so you have all that gelatin mix throughout. This stabilizes the curd. Beat the egg whites and the old priest until soft peaks form. Add in the sugar gradually until you have this nice glossy meringue. Fold the whites in 3 stages into the cold stabilized curd. Don't bother cleaning the whipping setup. Whip the heavy cream, and the young priest until they both get peaky. Then fold just the cream into the mousse/curd mixture. Pour enough of the mousse/curd/cream mixture into the crusty springform to fill the pan completely, then save the rest of it in a tupperware - don't eat it just yet. Cover the pan with saran wrap, then shove everything in the fridge to chill out overnight.

In the morning, get a nice flexy thin knife and run it around the side of the springform and release the ring on the pan, so you have this nice Sheng Kee lookin thing. Alternatively, you could have used a ring of fancy cellophane inside the springform, and just released the ring. Spread the rest of the curd from the fridge on top of the set mousse cake. Put the lemon slices on in fancy little twists and whatnot. Pipe on the remaining mousse in little rosettes, pooplets, or whatever the best it is you can do. Netflix, chill 'n serve.