We love nothing better than having a homemade cake lurking in the kitchen.

This recipe I make for when I have a bit of a crowd and want a light, spongey lemony cake to have with a good flat white.

You will need;

• 3 eggs 
• 150g white sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• 45g butter
• grated zest of 1 orange and 1 tablespoon of the orange’s juice 

 

Pre heat oven to 180 fan.

 

Grease and line 2 x 23cm cake tins. 

 

1. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder and fold them into the egg mix.
3. In a small saucepan place the milk and butter and heat until butter has melted but do not boil.  Add orange zest and juice and fold through the batter. 

 

Divide the mix between the two tins. 

 

Bake for 20 minutes (tip – try and get the cake tins in the middle of the oven for even cooking).  

 

When the cakes have cooled completely cut in half on the horizontal.   The best way to do this is to use dental floss to cut the cake.  Take dental floss and wrap it equally around the cake. Hold it tight with both hands and pull in opposite directions so it cuts through the middle of the cake and leaves you with two perfectly even layers.

 

Put a generous amount of lemon curd (use shop bought or even better make your own – see recipe below) on the top of each slice and sandwich the whole cake together. 

 

Drizzle each slice of the cake with cream cheese icing on top of the lemon curd. 

 

 

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing 

 

200g cream cheese

400g icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

 

Mix together and blend with a blender

 

 

 

Homemade Lemon Curd (it’s seriously good)

100g Butter

200g Sugar

grated zest and juice of 3 lemons (you need roughly 120g of juice)

3 eggs and 2 egg yolks beaten.

 

Heat the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice over a low heat until the butter and sugar have dissolved.

Strain the eggs through a sieve then add to the sauce

Stir the mix constantly until the mix thickens (about 5 minutes).

Be careful not to let the curd boil or it will curdle.

Pour into clean sterilised jars.

 

Use within 1-2 weeks.