This year for Christmas I was looking for new light and summery cake to serve (I don't like pudding so I am always looking for a different Christmas day dessert!) I came across a version of this in a magazine made by a local farmer, modified it and loveeeed it! The beautiful mix of zingy lemon, creamy butter cream and sweet elderflower is the essence of summer.
Ingredients
Lemon cake:
240g butter
240g caster sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
6 eggs
240g self-raising flour
Jar of lemon curd
Butter cream:
500g softened butter
1200g icing sugar
Elderflower Drizzle:
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups elderflower cordial
Method
Lemon Cake:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Butter 2 cake tins
Cream the butter and when soft add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy
Add lemon zest
Beat in one egg at a time, each time with one teaspoon of the four
Beat very well and fold in the remaining flour
Add some water until mixture becomes a dripping consistency
Divid mixture between the two pans and smooth the tops
Bake for 25min or until well risen, golden and feel spongy to the touch
Allow cakes to cool for a couple of minutes then turn out to cake racks
Cut both cakes in half through the depth using wire and cut tops to be flat
Butter cream:
Beat butter with icing sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy
Spread a layer of lemon curd then a layer of butter cream to the first cut of cake then stack the next layer of cake, repeating the process between layers.
Ice the assembled cake with remaining butter cream
Decorate to your liking, I added some yellow food colouring to some of the butter cream and piped it on the top of the cake and added some flowers from my garden.
Elderflower Drizzle:
Whisk the elderflower cordial into the icing sugar, slowly adding until it is a dripping consistency
Pour over cake before serving, keep remaining amount in a bottle to add extra to a slice when serving.
Enjoy! AK xx