This is a recipe adapted from one I found in a magazine. The original was a chocolate and hazelnut cake, and I didn't realise at first, but it was egg free. It came out really nicely, and tasted delicious. I have kept the main elements but changed the flavour and the result is a beautifully pale and fluffy cake that could be adapted further for any flavour you like. Orange? Lime? Coconut?
Ingredients. Makes one, 2-layer 8" cake
300ml Whole Milk
2 Lemons, zest and juice
150g Butter
300g Self raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
200g Caster Sugar
To decorate
250ml Double / Whipping Cream
250g Mascarpone Cheese
50g Icing Sugar
3-4tbsp Lemon Curd
Handful of Blueberries
A few Mint Leaves
Method
1. Prepare two 8" baking tins, and preheat the oven to 160ºC
2. Zest both lemons. Squeeze the juice of half of one into a small jug with the milk and set aside, while you gently melt the butter in a pan and leave to cool slightly
3. Put the rest if the dry cake ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. Add in the juice from the other one and a half lemons, the lemon zest, keeping a few strands for decorations, the cooled butter and the milk mixture, (which should appear a little lumpy) and give it a good mix. You should start to see big air bubbles forming and the batter with puff up, thats all good
4. Pour the mixture equally into the two tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully before assembly. Handle gently at this stage, the cake is delicate
5. To make the mascarpone cream, simply whip the cream into soft peaks then add the icing sugar and mascarpone slowly as you whip into stiff peaks, ready for piping and spreading
6. To assemble your cooled cake, pop one sponge upside down on the plate and pipe a ring of mascarpone cream about 2cm in from the outside of the cake. Fill the middle with lemon curd and decoratively pipe around the outside edge - this could be dots, or swirls, or whatever takes your fancy. Put the second sponge, right side up, on top and pipe or spread a layer of cream on top. Decorate with blueberry halves, a few mint leaves, the left over lemon zest and maybe the odd edible flower or two?
7. Happy Summer!
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