Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch baking dish and line the bottom with parchment paper. Spray again.
2. Zest both the lemons. Reserve one of them to juice for later.
3. Toss the zest, nuts, sugar, and salt into a food processor and grind until everything looks mealy. It's okay if there are a few chunks of nuts left - it's a rustic dish!
4. Put the nut mixture into a large bowl that you can easily stir everything by hand in. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the yolks and vanilla extract and add into the nut mixture, stirring with a spatula until just combined.
5. In a clean bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until medium-stiff peaks form.
6. Using a spatula, fold the whites into the nut mixture, being careful not to deflate the whites.
7. Pour into prepared pan until it is half a centimeter lower than the top of the pan. You may have extra batter leftover, which is normal. You don\'t want to overfill it or it won\'t be flat for you to lay your stencil on.
8. Bake for 50-55 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The top may look dark, but that\'s okay.
9. Cool completely on a wire rack. It HAS to be at room temperature or the powdered sugar will melt into the cake.
10. While the cake is baking, you can make your stencil. Draw out your favorite emoji on a large enough sheet of paper and cut it out.
11. Once the cake is ready to go, carefully lay your stencil over the top of the cake and pour powdered sugar over it using a strainer so it creates an even design. Carefully lift off the stencil and there you have it!