The Lemon Canadian Crown -

After deciding not to bake the ladyfingers myself, and finding only the crunchy Italian ones in the store, I was fortunate to recall our wonderful little Bistro Bakery up the street, where Madame was happy to bake divine ladyfingers for me.

I cut the bottoms off the ladyfingers and lined them around the sides of the sprayed 9" spring-form pan, using the balance to line the bottom of the pan. Then the pan was placed into the fridge.


 Next to make the curd - I used turbinado sugar with the eggs and lemon juice. This sugar leant a beautiful  amber, caramel color and flavor to the curd. The curd was then            cooled.

Next a cup of soft-peaked whipped cream was used to lighten the curd, and then the rest folded in, and placed into the frozen crown shell. This was frozen again, over night. This lemon, turbinado sugar, whipped cream mixture was so addictive that by the time I had licked it from everything in sight, there was barely enough to use for it's real purpose! Yum!

The next day, the meringue was prepared and put atop the crowned pan. Then placed under a broiler for less than a minute. A band of foil around the perimeter to protect the meringue, and back into the freezer after wrapping tightly after an hour. Then with heavy-duty plastic wrap for as much time as one needs it frozen up to 3 weeks. This do-ahead option is nice.

I really enjoy this torte. Even though there are periods of start-stop-wait, this was not bothersome because the overnight ones worked out well and the other cooling times were just time to do other things [lol that usually needed to be done anyway].

Everyone was captivated by the torte's appearance, and the frozen surprise inside!! My husband has fairly swooned.


For me, this is not a difficult torte; even with it's little starts and stops of cooling and freezing, it is definitely a keeper.