Ingredients:

Sponge:

• 12 oz salted butter (preferably left at room temperature overnight / few hours)
• 12 oz sugar  (preferably caster sugar)
• 6 eggs (preferably left at room temperature overnight / few hours)
• 12 oz self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp lemon essence
• zest of 2 lemons

Lemon Drizzle:

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 oz sugar

Curd:

• 1 lemon juice
• zest of one lemon
• 50g sugar
• 25g butter
• 1/4 tbsp cornflour

Method

1. Recite Bismillah.
2. Preheat oven to 170 c.
3. Beat sugar & butter till light & creamy. This will take a while & is the key to a fluffy & airy cake. (We recommend taking out the stand mixer for this)
4. Meanwhile sift the self raising flour in a bowl & set aside.
5. Grease 2 x 10″ round baking tins with a generous amount of butter, including the sides. Then sprinkle some self raising flour & shake & tilt the tin around so it is thinly coated with flour. Shake off any excess flour. Set aside.
6. Add one egg at a time to the butter & cream mixture , along with 1 tbsp of flour each time & beat. Be careful not to over beat.
7. Fold in the self raising flour, zest, lemon essence & baking powder .
8. Divide mixture into two 10″ round greased pans & bake at 170c for 20-25 mins. You will know the cake is cooked when the sides have started to release from the pan & the middle is springy to touch. Do not rely on a clean toothpick!
9. Meanwhile prepare lemon drizzle by dissolving lemon juice & sugar over heat. ( This will need to be poured over cakes whilst they are still hot).
10. Once the cakes are baked, run a knife all around the sides of the pan, this will help release them from the pan.
11. Remove the cake from pan by placing a tray on top of the cake. Flip the tin over so that the top of the cake with the tray is now facing down. Pat the back of the tin all around. The cake should release from the bottom. Lift the tin gently.
12. Pour lemon drizzle on the cakes.
13. Allow to cool, preferably on a cooling rack .
14. Prepare lemon curd by mixing all the ingredients in a saucepan. Cook until thick & cool. You may also buy readymade curd. Or completely leave out the curd.
15. Allow cake to cool & then fill with curd & decorate with lemon frosting. (see frosting recipes).

Tips:

• You may substitute the lemon curd with lemon frosting or even fill the cake with both lemon curd & frosting!
• If you think your batter looks very doughy like add a few tbsps of water.
• If you do not have a stand mixer, have all the ingredients weighed out & ready so all you are focusing on is the making the cake batter!
• If you do not have caster sugar, you can make some at home yourself! Simply blitz granulated sugar in a food processor / chopper, till the grains look like caster sugar, be careful not to blitz it too much & turn it into icing sugar!