My parents celebrated their 21st anniversary on June 3rd. Woohoo! While I’ve been looking at their wedding pictures for years, I had only recently learned that neither of my parents actually tasted their wedding cake in full. How could that be?! After hearing such blasphemy, I concluded on two things: 1) I will eat (and likely bake) my own wedding cake, and 2) I must recreate a dessert inspired by their wedding cake.

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My parents are not really layered-cake inclined anymore, so I decided to take their dessert to another level. First off, I did some investigating on what was their cake like, which was inspired by this Martha Stewart recipe.

Their cake consisted of:

• Almond sponge
• Raspberry filling
• Swiss buttercream frosting
• Topped with red currants, raspberries, grapes, blueberries, and strawberries

I took the basis of the flavors and attempted to transform it into its own dessert. This is my version:

• Almond lemon shortbread
• Vanilla lemon cream
• Topped with a strawberry

Allow me to walk through each component individually. The almond lemon shortbreads are just three main ingredients and naturally gluten-free and vegan; there’s very little sugar added (in the form of maple syrup), so the innate sweetness of the almond shines through. The vanilla lemon cream was inspired by a vegan cream cheese frosting recipe from one of my favorite bakeries. I took the sugar and vegan butter several notches down, opting more for a lighter, fluffier cream feeling. I then added some lemon extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest, as well as some vanilla beans for added elegance. I topped the pictured dessert with a strawberry, but other ones were with blueberries and raspberries. The cream topping has the flavor of a cheesecake, but the lightness of a creme patisserie. The overall bite is lemony, light, creamy, and slightly crumbly. It’s unique – and quite honestly, its own genre of dessert.

I hope you fall in love with this dessert as much as my parents did!