Lemon Cheer

Well the country is in mourning and while I have no interest in sport, it really is disappointing! So I will resist gently pulling the legs of my online friends, (who are feeling this keenly) and instead I will post about this yummy cake.

Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake
Delia Smith's Winter Collection, (1995), London: BBC Books, pg. 229

175g self-raising flour, sifted
1 level teaspoon baking powder
175g butter at room temperature
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
grated rind of a lemon
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

For the Lemon Curd
75g caster sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
2 eggs
50g unsalted butter

For the Icing
50g sifted icing sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C (325 F). Prepare 2 x 18cm sandwich tins, 4 cm deep by greasing them, & lining with baking paper.

Measure all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat - ideally with an electric hand whisk - till you have a creamy consistency. (I used my cake mixer). Divide the mixture between 2 tins and bake them on the centre shelf in the oven about 35 mins or until the centres feel springy with lightly touched with a little finger.

While the cakes cook, make the lemon curd. Place sugar and grated rind in a bowl, whisk the lemon juice with the eggs and then pour this over the sugar. Add the butter cut into little peices, and place bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir frequently until thickened. The recipe says you don't have to stay with it but to come back from time to time. I personally couldn't do that because I'm paranoid.

When cakes are cooked, remove them from the oven and after about 30 seconds, turn them out onto a rack. When they are absolutely cold, cute each one horizontally into 2 using a serrated knife. Spread the curd thickly to sandwich the sponges together. You will notice I didn't bother cutting the layers... my tins were slightly too large and thus the layers were too thin for me to cut into two. Heh heh - more lemon curd for me!

To make the icing, remove the zest from the lemon using a zester to get long curly strips. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually stir in the lemon juice until you have a soft runny consistency. Allow to stand for 5 mins and then spread on the cake. Scatter lemon zest on top.

DH discovered a cool technique to do in Lightroom. It's a kind of grungy, surreal, painty effect.
This is one DH did of DS and his kite. I did the one of DD. Before


and after..