Old reliables!

August is a crazy busy time at my work and we have to work some very long hours. Therefore, cake is a necessity to see us through! However, working long hours means that I haven’t had the time or energy to be creative or try anything new – definitely time to stick to making old reliables! 

One of my most reliable and best-loved recipes is my sticky ginger cake with lemon icing. I made three of these a couple of weekends ago and they all turned out beautifully. The fabulous thing about this cake is that it lasts at least two weeks, and even improves for being left to mature. The cake has a deep rich flavour and moist, sticky texture that is beautifully balanced by the sharp tanginess of the lemon icing.

Another of my favourite recipes is my Primrose Bakery lemon layer cake (made also here). This week, I decided to keep it really simple and just make a two layer cake (225g golden castor sugar, s-r flour and butter, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 25g cornflour, 4 large eggs, zest and juice of 2-3 lemons). I sandwiched the two layers with lemon curd, smothered the sides with lemon buttercream, filled the top with curd and then topped with buttercream piped stars around the top edge. Apologies – it was all a bit of a rush and I forgot to take a photo! This cake always tastes deliciously moist and zingy! 

Finally this week, I decided to make my Apple Amazing Cake – a cake that I have made loads of times but not for ages. It’s a fairly simple cake to make – as long as you remember that it will take about 3 hours to bake! It’s a mammoth of a cake, so great if you are baking for lots of people. I was a little disappointed with this cake this week – it just didn’t have the flavour that I remembered. It is quite a savoury cake – more like a light fruit cake. I’m not quite sure why it wasn’t right this time – could have been the apples – I’ve always made it with huge Bramley apples, but this time the shop only had fairly small measly apples and I wonder if they were lacking flavour. I also over-cooked the apples slightly, so that they were fully reduced to a mush, rather than having a few nice juicy lumps remaining. Think that I may need to give this another go in a few months when apples are at their best, to see if this recipe really is as good as I remember it to be!   

Lemon layer cake with lemon buttercream roses

Birthday cake time! Not for me but for a very good friend. As I know she loves lemon cake, I decided to stick with a safe and well-trusted recipe that I have done before – Primrose Bakery’s Lemon Layer Cake. I won’t type out the recipe again, as it is the one I wrote a blog on in November for my Halloween Lemon Layer Cake.  We were going out for dinner on Friday so the cake had to be made on Thursday after work. Thankfully, it’s a fairly simple cake to make and bake – as long as you get the timings right.

This time, rather than buttering the sandwich tins and lining the bases, I used my trusty Dr Oetker Cake Release spray – it is so easy to use and does the job really well.  I think I mentioned it last time, but do make sure you keep an eye on these cakes – you do not want them to over-bake. This time, the cakes still looked slightly anaemic, but were bouncy when touched – this is what you are looking for.

As I was baking this after work, it was quite late by the time the cakes had baked and cooled, therefore, I decided to just do a crumb layer of buttercream icing on the Thursday night. A crumb layer is basically just a simple thin covering of icing all over the cake. This seals the cake and creates a good base for then icing the roses.  Leaving it overnight meant that this layer of buttercream had firmed really well and made it much easier to pipe the roses.

The buttercream is best left in the fridge overnight but needs to be taken out of the fridge for at least an hour before using, and then given a really good beat!  People are always amazed by rose swirls on cakes and cupcakes but they are really not that difficult to do. This is a good photo tutorial and there are lots of film clips on YouTube. To be honest, the main things are getting the consistency of the buttercream right, a Wilton 2D piping nozzle, steady pressure on the icing bag and lots of practice! I do them quite a bit and I still have days when they just don’t seem to go right!   

I’ve attempted this design of icing before and found the sides to be very tricky. This time, I used my tilting turntable (placed on top of a cake tin to bring it up to a good height) and this made piping the swirls onto the cake much easier!  

For full cake recipe, visit this blog post.

Filling and decorating the cake

Ingredients

1. 6 tblsp lemon curd
2. 220g butter, at room temperature
3. 1kg icing sugar
4. Juice of 2-3 lemons

To make the buttercream icing:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, juice of 2 lemons and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Add extra juice, if required to get the correct consistency. Beat until smooth.

To assemble

1. Place the first cake onto your plate / stand.
2. Spread 3 tablespoons of lemon curd on top of the first cake and another 3 on a second cake.
3. Carefully place the second cake on top of the first cake.
4. Place the third cake on top of the others.
5. Use a palette knife to spread a thin layer of buttercream icing evenly all over the cake. Leave to firm.
6. Fill a piping bag (topped with a suitable nozzle) with the remaining buttercream.  
7. Start by piping a rose swirl in the centre of the cake, then work outwards and down the sides of the cake.
8. Fill any gaps with swirls of icing.

Halloween Lemon Layer Cake

So second cake for my contribution to the Friday meeting (why is it that I am seemingly incapable of keeping things simple and just making the one cake?!) was a Primrose Bakery Lemon Layer Cake. I’ve made this once before and it was absolutely beautiful and went down a storm. It is deliciously lemony and moist.

The recipe is from the “Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery” book – which is my absolute “go to” book for cupcakes – however their recipe is for a two layer sponge, I have multiplied it to make a three layer sponge. Rather than filling and topping the sponge with lemon buttercream, I fill it with lemon curd and then cover with the lemon buttercream. They do suggest that you can make it as an all-in-one recipe, but I’m more of a traditionalist and prefer to do the long version of creaming the butter and sugar, etc.

I think I slightly overcooked it on this occasion as it ended up slightly drier than last time, although still delicious. I think you need to pull it out of the oven when it is just slightly golden rather than any darker.

Lemon Layer Cake

Ingredients

1. 340g golden caster sugar
2. 340g self-raising flour
3. 2 ¼ tsp baking powder
4. 40g cornflour
5. 340g butter, at room temperature
6. 6 large eggs
7. Grated zest and juice of 3 large lemons (or 4 smaller lemons)

Lemon buttercream icing

1. 110g butter, at room temperature
2. Grated zest of 2 lemons
3. 500g icing sugar
4. Juice of 1-2 lemons

To fill and decorate

1. Approx 6 tblsp lemon curd
2. 500g ready-to-roll icing
3. 100g royal icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
2. Grease and baseline 3 20cm loose-base cake tins
3. Cream the butter and sugar using an electric hand mixer, or stand mixer, until the mixture is pale and smooth.
4. Add the eggs, 1 or 2 at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.
5. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and then add to the main bowl (best done in 2 or 3 lots). Mix gently after each addition.
6. Add the grated zest and juice and mix gently to get a smooth mixture.
7. Divide the mixture evenly between the three tins.
8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes until raised and golden. The cakes should spring back when touched lightly.
9. Remove from oven and leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes.
10. Turn cakes out onto a wire rack and peel the parchment from the bases of the cakes.
11. Leave to cool.

To make the buttercream icing:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, zest, juice of 1 lemon and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Add extra juice, if required to get the correct consistency. Beat until smooth.

To assemble

1. Place the first cake onto your plate / stand.
2. Spread 3 tablespoons of lemon curd on top of the first cake and another 3 on a second cake.
3. Carefully place the second cake on top of the first cake.
4. Place the third cake on top of the others.
5. Use a palette knife to spread the buttercream icing evenly all over the cake: start by covering the top and then smooth the icing down the sides of the cake. 
6. Roll the ready-to-roll icing out on a sheet of parchment until it is large enough to cover the cake.
7. Lift the parchment and gently lower the icing over the cake. Smooth and trim to fit.
8. Make up royal icing according to instructions on pack. It needs to be a toothpaste-like consistency.
9. Place royal icing into a piping bag and pipe as desired onto the cake.