Michelle Darmody: How to show them you care with my lemon curd cake

This sweet and tangy cake is the ideal recipe to bake when you want to show that you care. The addition of lemon curd makes it particularly tasty.

Throughout the world people use cakes and sweet treats to mark days that are special to them, like birthdays or festive holidays. 

We associate a cake with happy traditions, celebrations and parties. We use cakes to help us make a wish, by blowing out candles and imagining bright and happy times ahead. 

As far back as ancient Egyptian times sweet breads, and versions of cakes, were used as expressions of togetherness, love and friendship.

This sweet and tangy cake is the ideal recipe to bake when you want to show that you care. The addition of lemon curd makes it particularly tasty. 

You can make your own curd using egg yolks and a little patience. If you are making a meringue and have left over yolks a curd is an ideal way to use them up. 

There are also very good quality lemon curds available to buy, which will speed up the assembly of the cake.

The cake’s density allows it to be layered and stacked quite high. To make a cake of a height similar to the picture, double the recipe below. 

This will give six discs to stack on top of each other and make a cake worthy of any celebration.

Lemon Curd Cake

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

This sweet and tangy cake is the ideal recipe to bake when you want to show that you care.

Servings

10

Preparation Time

 40 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 50 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 290g golden caster sugar

• 50g butter

• 3 eggs, separated

• 225g natural yoghurt

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• Zest 3 lemons

• 175g self raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• to decorate:

• 330mls lemon curd

• 150g soft butter

• 300g icing sugar

• zest 3 lemons

• milk

Method

1. Line an 8-inch round spring-form cake tin with parchment

2. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

3. Mix the butter, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl

4. Add the yoghurt, lemon juice and zest and stir until smooth.

5. Sieve the flour and baking powder together and gently stir them into the cake mix.

6. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and carefully fold them into the mixture.

7. Scoop the mixture into your prepared tin.

8. Bake in the centre of your oven for about 70 minutes until baked through and a skewer comes out clean.

9. Once cool enough to handle, place onto a wire rack to cool completely.

10. To make the buttercream icing whisk the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

11. Add the zest and curd and combine.

12. Add enough milk to loosen the icing and make it spreadable.

13. Cut the cake into three discs and spread lemon curd on the top of each one.

14. Spread a layer of buttercream once the curd has started to soak into the cake.

15. Stack the discs on top of each other.

16. Ice the outside of the cake with the rest of the buttercream.

Baker's tips

• Before cutting your cake into three even discs, first cut the dome off the top of the cooled cake with a long serrated knife. You can then make two shallow indents on the side the cake to mark where to cut, before slicing into it. Use a gently sawing motion when cutting into three discs.
• It is worth ensuring that the cakes are level so they are sitting perfectly straight on top of each other.
• If you have room in your fridge you can chill the cake once the discs are stacked on top of each other. The buttercream between each layer will set and hold the layers in place so that they sit tight while you ice the outside. It is also easier to ice a cold cake because it will be firmer and less crumbly than when it is at room temperature.
• When icing a cake it is advisable to do what is called a crumb coat first. This is simply a very thin layer of buttercream icing which traps the crumbs that come off the cake, so that they do not get into the final coat. Once this has hardened you can do another clean layer on top.
• You can stack two cakes on top of each other by placing a support through the centre and then ice them as one. Push the support right through so it hits either the cake board or plate below. Use a cake board the same size as the next cake and place this on top of the bottom cake. The support will hold the weight of the cake. You can buy supports and thin cake boards in baking shops or online. Most supports can be cut so that they are exactly the same height as the bottom cake.
• To hide the join between two stacked cakes, fill it with butter cream. You can use a piping bag if you wish. Then use a spatula or icing smoother to get the sides as straight as you can and also to get a nice sharp edge at the top of the cake.

3 delicious variations

Orange & orange blossom water

Replace the lemon juice and zest in the main cake with the same measurements of orange juice and zest. 

Add a drop or two of orange blossom water to the icing. Orange blossom water has quite a floral taste and can be a little overpowering, if you are unsure if you like it, it may be best to use a little at a time.

Lime & chocolate

Replace the lemon juice and zest in the main cake with lime juice and zest. 

A chocolate ganache can then be used in place of the buttercream icing and lemon curd both between the layers and on the exterior. 

To make a ganache, melt 200g of chocolate pieces in 200g of hot cream and leave it to cool until it is the consistency of butter.

Lemon & raspberry

A raspberry buttercream works very well with this cake and you can also add a handful of raspberries to the batter. 

To make a raspberry buttercream whisk together 300g of icing sugar, 90g of soft butter and 4 tablespoons of raspberry coulis.