From: Olive Magazine
A showstopping, lemony sponge cake with a delicious lemon curd icing and beautiful edible crystallized violets and primroses on top.
Total Time: 1 hour + cooling
Yield: serves 12
Ingredients
- butter 250g, plus a little for the tin
- golden caster sugar 250g
- self-raising flour 250g
- baking powder 1 tsp
- eggs 4 large
- lemons 2, zested
- milk 1-2 tsp
LEMON ICING AND DECORATION
- butter 250g, very soft
- icing sugar 500g
- lemons 3, zested and juiced
- lemon curd 1 jar
- crystallized flowers to decorate
Method
Step 1
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the bases of 3 x 20cm sandwich tins. Beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, and lemon zest together with beaters until you have a smooth batter. Add enough milk so the mix just drops off a spoon.
Step 2
Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, swapping the tins around halfway through so that they brown evenly. When they’re ready, a skewer poked in should come out clean. Cool on wire racks, cooked-side up.
Step 3
Make the icing by beating the soft butter with the icing sugar, lemon zest, and juice until light and fluffy. Use 2/3 to fill the cake and top each layer with some lemon curd. Frost the top with the rest of the buttercream and finish with sugar flowers.
