When I sent my brother a photo of this dessert, he told me the fried egg looked delicious on top of the cake.  Okay, yes, with the runny, not quite chilled lemon curd it does look like this if you're too impatient to wait for it to chill - but it was delicious! A lovely light sponge topped with whipped cream and homemade lemon curd. And served with strawberries. Enjoy!

A yummy serving of Lemon Sponge cake!

Light Lemon Sponge with Lemon Curd

I recommend making the lemon curd filling first, since it seems to take the longest time to chill.  However, you can speed up the chilling of the curd.  I'll explain how after the recipe.  You also can serve the lemon curd warm, which is tasty, too! 

Lemon Curd:

In a medium saucepan, whisk together:
zest from 2 lemons
juice from 2 lemons (~1/2 cup, make sure to strain for seeds)
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch

Heat over medium heat, stirring regularly with a whisk.  Once mixture comes to a boil and has thickened a bit, let boil 1 minute.  Then add and boil 1 additional minute:
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 Tbsp salted butter

Pour the curd into a large bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap.  You can chill in the refrigerator OR, place your bowl into a bowl of ice.  You can fill a freezer ziploc with ice to place on top of the plastic wrap, too, to speed up the chilling.  I use this method when I'm short on time.

Lemon Sponge Cake

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 quarter size baking pans (these are ~9" x 13" metal baking pans) with parchment paper.  If you don't have this size baking pan, you can use one large baking pan. I just find that if they aren't perfectly flat, they will result in uneven baking. 

Divide 6 eggs. 

Beat until stiff peaks: 

6 egg whites

3 Tbsp sugar

Egg whites & sugar, whisked until stiff peaks. 

In a large bowl, whisk together: 

3 egg yolks

1 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or bean paste

zest 2 lemons

10 drops lemon essential oil

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup white rice flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Lemon batter mixture, ready to fold in the egg whites from above.

The next part needs to be done gently, so you don't lost the height from your egg whites. Fold 1/3 of your egg white mixture into the lemon batter.  Then fold the remaining egg white mixture, trying not to loose much height. 

Gently divide into your prepared pans.  Bake at 350 F for 15 - 18 minutes, until a light golden brown.  Rest a few minutes then flip onto cooling rack.  

Lemon sponges, ready for baking!

Fresh from the oven.

Since these get topped, I didn't worry about just flipping them facedown on the cooling rack. 

Whipping Cream

Whisk together until thick: 

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 - 3 Tbsp powdered sugar

To serve, you can cut squares of cake and top with a dollop of whipped cream, a spoonful of lemon curd, and repeat - if you'd like a second layer.  Lovely served with sliced strawberries alongside. 

Enjoy! 

My youngest loves assembling and plating food. She was so excited to put these together. 

My girls loved serving these up. 

Yum!

Light Lemon Sponge with Lemon Curd Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 I actually have never been a huge fan of egg salad, but the combination of the egg with just a touch of dill relish on a homemade onion bagel - toss on some micro greens or lettuce - and it's so delicious. These homemade gluten-free onion bagels have quickly become a favorite. They're so versatile - perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Also, it's a great meal to make with the leftover dyed Easter eggs. Enjoy! 

Delicious egg salad on bagel sandwich, assembled with freshly made GF onion bagels. 

Egg Salad on Homemade Onion Bagels

Prepare hard-boiled eggs. This recipe is for 6 hard-boiled eggs, but it can easily be adjusted. Once they've been boiled and then rinsed in cold water, transfer them to cool complete in the refrigerator. 

Prepare a batch of delicious homemade onion bagels. This recipe can be piped to make two pans of 12 mini bagels, if you like a smaller bagel. Or, you can pipe them larger. I find it's a very forgiving recipe in terms of bagel size, just cook them to a nice golden brown. Also, please use rapid-rise/quick yeast! 

Fresh from the oven - 24 small-sized onion bagels. Yum!

To prepare the egg salad, chop together using a pastry cutter: 

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled & rinsed (to remove any excess shell)

2-3 Tbsp mayonnaise (or more, to taste)

2-3 tsp dill relish (if you don't have any pickle relish, you can finely mince dill pickle and add 1 Tbsp)

salt & pepper, to taste

Rinse and dry:

micro-greens (like arugula) OR greens of your choice

Assemble your onion bagel sandwich by slicing the bagel in half and topping with egg salad and fresh greens. You can toast the bagel, if desired. I usually don't toast freshly made bagels, but do toast the leftover bagels that have been sliced and frozen.  Enjoy!  

Egg salad with greens on a homemade GF onion bagel with mini baked smashed potatoes on the side. (boiled mini potatoes, smashed each with the bottom of a glass, drizzled with olive oil, topped with salt & pepper and roasted at 425 F until golden)

Egg Salad on Homemade Onion Bagels Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 I don't usually dye eggs most years - unless my kids really beg. But this year, we tried the easy baking soda with food coloring method we had heard about. It was so fun, like an art project and science project all rolled together.  I used my favorite hard boiled egg method to prep and cool the eggs before we colored them. It's so fun to see how they look after being creatively painted! Enjoy! 

Baking Soda-Vinegar Dyed Easter Eggs!

They were very serious about their egg painting. 

Baking Soda-Vinegar Dyed Easter Eggs

Note: You can make as many colors as you like. Make the following mixture for each color. 

In a small bowl, mix together: 

1 Tbsp baking soda

1-2 tsp water, to desired consistency

food coloring paste, as desired (I recommend the food coloring paste vs liquid food dyes)

Repeat, as desired, until you have a selection of colors.  We aimed for bright colors, but you can use less food coloring paste for softer, more pastel colors. Your final colored eggs will be much lighter than your dye mixes. 

Mixing together 6 bowls of baking soda and food coloring paste (with a bit of water) to paint the eggs!

Place each hard-boiled egg in a metal muffin tin.  Use the q-tips (or brushes) to paint the eggs, as desired. (You can use proper paint brushes, but we used q-tips for easy clean-up.)  Avoid overlapped colors too much so you don't end up with a muddy brown look.  

The food coloring mixtures and hard-boiled eggs, ready for painting with Q-tips (or brushes).

The very serious egg painters at work.

The final eggs, ready for the vinegar to be added!  We had stripes, polka dots, tie-dye style, swirls. 

Reaction time! (Baking soda - painted on your eggs - and vinegar when poured on top will react in an acid-base reaction and bubble.) Once you've painted your eggs, spoon or gently pour overtop each egg to create the mini volcano science experiment reaction (fun!):

~2-3 Tbsp white vinegar

Rotate gently, as needed, to make sure all the vinegar and baking soda has finished reacting/bubbling.  

The reaction after gently spooning the vinegar over the eggs. You can just add the vinegar quickly, but we think it's more fun to do one egg at a time. 

Gently pat dry the eggs.  I like to give them a little rinse under cold water and pat dry again just in case anything didn't fully neutralize during the reaction (aka, remove any excess vinegar or baking soda).  Store leftover eggs in the refrigerator before peeling and eating. Enjoy! 

Pretty dyed eggs! Yay!

Baking Soda-Vinegar Dyed Easter Eggs by Successfully Gluten Free!