Cake!

Today I trotted off to the shops and came back armed with butter and lemons... and so commenced the lemon-layer-cake challenge!

I scoured the Internet looking for lemon sponge recipes and I found loads.  Most of them were for lemon drizzle, or lemon syrup, which wasn't what I wanted this time.  So in the end I stuck with my old faithful, and took a recipe from The Caked Crusader's blog of joy.

My cake is slightly different to hers because I topped it with lemon buttercream icing, rather than the kind of icing she shows in the recipe.  Her's looked perfectly nice but I just can't beart to pass on the buttercream!



layered and curded, before icing

This was the hardest cake I've made so far... it involved slicing the two baked sides in half, so I had 4 layers, and then adding the home made lemon curd between each layer and stacking them.  Once again, my layers aren't totally straight and even, but I think once the icing's on you don't really notice.  And it doesn't affect the taste!  I really had no idea what I was doing with the lemon curd, or what the outcome should be, but I gave it a whirl and it turned out fine.  It seems to have a good zing! to it anyway, which is all you really need.

Unfortunately, I was making this cake to take to a surprise party I'd organised for someone, but it's all gone belly up and now I don't even know if I'll be able to give it to him.  I know it'll go down well with Familia Smeaton, but it does feel like a bit of an anti-climax going through all that effort and that not being able to give it to it's intended eater!  Never mind, party of the fun is in the making, I guess.  And my mum will be delighted!

Final thought of the day: 

you're never so glad to have a dishwasher, as when you've just baked a cake: