Lemon Cake

 Lemon Cake with lemon curd and fresh cream
 
I've been promising customers that I'll post Cake of the Week recipes on the blog for ages, and I'm finally getting round to it. I thought I'd start with a recent cake, which I was inspired to make after seeing it on the BBC's Great British Bake Off last month. This recipe is by Ruth Clemens who ended up finishing a creditable second in the competition. Her blog The Pink Whisk is full of her recipes, including the original three-tier version of this one, with instructions for making the lemon curd filling. I'm not going to include that here, as when I tried to make it, it didn't thicken properly (my fault, not hers) so subsequently I've chickened out and used a jar. Also, I've missed out Candied lemon peel from the original, as I'm not a fan. and it's certainly lemony enough without it. Anyway, here it is in slightly wider two-tier form.
Ingredients:
350g/12oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
350g/12oz caster sugar
4 lemons, zest only, plus juice of 2 lemons
6 free-range eggs
300g/10½oz self-raising flour
50g/2oz cornflour
1 Jar lemon curd (if cheating like me)
300ml double cream
A little icing sugar

Grease and line two 24cm springform cake tins, preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the lemon zest and juice and mix.
Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is well combined.
Sift the baking powder, self raising flour and cornflour together in a bowl and fold into the cake mixture.
Divide the cake batter among the sandwich tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until risen and golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the tins and set aside to cool completely on a rack.
When they're totally cool, spread your lemon curd (very) liberally onto the bottom layer.
Whip the double cream until soft peaks form, whipping in a little icing sugar if you want. I tend not to, just because the lemon curd is pretty sweet anyway.
Spread thickly (mmm!) on top of the lemon curd, then place the top layer on, pressing it down a little so that the filling bulges perilously out of the middle!
Sieve some icing sugar over the top.

Now EAT IT! 

Anthony

1 comment:

  1. This is a delicious really easy to make lemon cake. I've made it twice now (using half the ingredients) and it's been YUMMY each time.

    I reckon its better than a shop bought lemon cake because it tastes SOOOO good and there's no hidden ingredients as you would find in a shop bought cake.

    ENJOY :-)

    ReplyDelete