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Delicious Lemon Sponge Cake

Lemon Cake, Recipe, Cake, Lemon Sponge Cake, Lemon Buttercream, Birthday Cake

When it comes to baking I love making cakes for the season, like in autumn I love spiced apple cake or plum tart, in winter, I can’t resist OTT chocolate fudge cake for added comfort, and in spring, it is all about light and fluffy, like my vanilla cupcakes and with all this glorious summery weather it has been making me crave citrus flavours for that sweet kick, so I decided a delicious lemon sponge cake was needed.

You see, with everyone making lemon drizzle I got a little jealous, and then I realised I didn’t have a loaf tin, seriously, what kind of baker doesn’t have a loaf tin, well me apparently. So, I decided the only thing to do, was to adapt my victoria sponge cake recipe that I love and make it a moist lemon sponge cake.

Lemon Cake, Recipe, Cake, Lemon Sponge Cake, Lemon Buttercream, Birthday Cake

I was going to keep this lemon sponge cake simple, and do just a lemon drizzle syrup icing on the top, but then with all this extra lockdown time on my hands, I thought why not add some lemon and lime marmalade, lemon buttercream and added confetti, just for the fun of it. So, now it is kind of a celebration cake and I’m not even a little sorry about it.

To get started you will need two 20cm round cake tins, I prefer doing two tins rather than one deep tin, as my cutting skills are not very good, plus I find that my Aga bakes through better – but if you want to use one deep one, would just add on a little more baking time.

Time to Bake – Lemon Sponge Cake

Servings: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 35-40 minutes

For the lemon cake mixture

  • 200g butter, softened
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • Zest of 2 lemons
  • 2 tsp milk

For the filling and frosting

  • 200g butter, softened
  • 400g icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon extract
  • Half a jar of Roses Lemon & Lime Marmalade
  • Confetti sprinkles to decorate (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas mark 3 and line your baking tins, I like to use 20cm round baking liners
  2. In a large bowl, beat the caster sugar, softened butter, eggs, sifted self-raising flour, baking powder and milk together until you have a smooth, soft batter.
  3. Once combined with no lumps, add the grated lemon zest, and beat for a little longer until the mixture is smooth.
  4. Divide the cake mixture between the two tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon to ensure the mixture is level.
  5. Bake for 35 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. To check if the cake is cooked insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean the cake is ready.
  6. Leave the cake to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. It is important to ensure your cake has cooled completely before decorating.
Lemon Cake, Recipe, Cake, Lemon Sponge Cake, Lemon Buttercream, Birthday Cake

To Make The Filling and Lemon Buttercream

  1. Slowly beat the butter until very soft.
  2. Add the icing sugar, a little at a time, and beat until combined.
  3. Slowly add the lemon extract, a tsp at a time, and beat in each before adding more.
  4. I generally beat the buttercream for around 5 minutes until fluffy.
Lemon Cake, Recipe, Cake, Lemon Sponge Cake, Lemon Buttercream, Birthday Cake

Decorating your lemon sponge cake

  1. Place the bottom layer of cake onto your serving dish.
  2. Spread a quarter of the buttercream over the bottom one of the sponges.
  3. On the other sponge, spread the lemon and lime marmalade and then sandwich the second sponge on top.
  4. Then I used around a quarter of the buttercream to do a crumb coat of the cake, a thin layer of buttercream on the top and sides of your cake. I like to do this with a small palette knife, but you can pipe it as well. This helps to keep your frosting free of crumbs from your sponge for a cleaner finish.
  5. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
  6. When the first layer is set, I then add the rest of the buttercream. I like to a rustic finish, but you could easily neaten this up with a cake scraper.
  7. To finish I sprinkled with confetti decorations and added some fresh lemon. You could use a piping bag to place swirls around the edge, which I think would be perfect if using this recipe to make a birthday cake.

The only thing left to do is put on a new pot of tea and settle down for a relaxing tea break with a slice of cake.

Are you a fan of lemon sponge cake?

Lemon Cake, Recipe, Cake, Lemon Sponge Cake, Lemon Buttercream, Birthday Cake

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