If I get asked for one recipe (other than Madeira cake) over and over again it’s lemon cake. You guys seem to really love it. I haven’t made a ton of lemon cakes so I needed to find an opportunity to make one just so I could share it with you. Now, my ever-expanding hips don’t want me to just make a cake and have it sitting looking at me every time I walk into the kitchen so I needed to have an opportunity to take it out of our house. I can’t for the life of me remember where I took this Lemon Victoria Sponge cake. I know there were kids involved and I know I had to apologize for having cut a slice to take photos and I then put it back again to take it with us. I don’t think any of my friends mind that one little bit!
Tools of the trade
The opportunity to make this Lemon Victoria Sponge Cake was also well-timed as I needing to find a recipe that I could use the brand spanking new baking tools from JosephJoseph on – you know the ones I was talking about last week in the lemon curd recipe? Well, the two newest products are the Fin bowl scraper and the Glaze – fillable pastry brush. That is why this regular lemon Victoria Sponge cake became a whopper of a beast. Cake +lemon curd + creme fraiche + lemon syrup glaze!
The Fin is very easy to hold and manoeuvre around the inside of a bowl. As you can see from the photos above it leaves next to no cake mix once it’s been scraped around. This is one of those really handy bits of baking kit and in true JosephJoseph style it’s ergonomic and has a wide base so it will stand up on it’s own and not leave smears of cake mix all over your kitchen.
The Glaze is going to be a very handy piece of kit for me. I add sugar syrup to all my Madeira cakes so this will make it a much cleaner and easier job. Glaze comes with two lids – one with lots of holes which is perfect for adding glazes and the other with one central hole which will make light work of egg washing pastry. The pastry brush simply fits over whichever lid you choose. The bottle is soft silicone so you can squeeze it to allow the contents to flow out to your desired speed. The bottle is really tactile as it’s so soft. You just want to squidge it.
As you can see from the shots above I used it to glaze the top of the cake and then not content with the amount of sugar already in this cake I proceeded to dribble even more lemon glaze over the sides! To say this was a sweet and tangy cake would be an understatement.
I’ve been using this fab tool to glaze my cakes and I simply pour the warm glaze into the bottle and then leave it to cool down before adding the lid and brush. It’s so much easier than using a pastry brush and bowl as you don’t get those sticky, sugary drips all over the place. The last point to make about the Fin is that the whole unit is dishwasher safe. No brainer really.
Ingredients
- 225g unsalted butter
- 225g self raising flour
- 225g caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 medium eggs
- Zest of two lemons
- 3 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 300ml creme fraise
- lemon curd
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C (160c fan oven) and line three 8" baking tins.
- Ensure all the ingredients are at room temperature then whisk up the sugar and butter.
- Add the eggs and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Fold in the dry ingredients then lastly add the lemon zest.
- Spoon the cake mix into the cake tins and level with the back of a spoon. Bake for 1820 minutes or until the cake bounces back quickly when pressed in the centre.
- Leave the cakes to cool completely on a rack.
- To make the glaze place the water and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat until completely dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes then add the lemon juice. Set aside to cool.
- To dress the cake smear each inside layer with lemon curd then top with a thick dollop of creme fraiche. Stack the cakes then brush the top with the lemon glaze.
So, I hope you enjoy this zesty, lemony, tangy cake of deliciousness. I know we did!
EmmaMT x
Disclaimer: Thanks to JosephJoseph for providing me with the fab baking products in this post. They’re great. All thoughts, opinions and ramblings in this post are entirely my own