Lemon Curd Sponge

I made lemon curd the other day. It had to be done, and it was delicious. I ended up with quite a lot of curd, and despite lovingly and liberally slathering it on pancakes most of last week, I still have a lot left.

Delicious, delicious lemon curd.

So, the obvious solution was to incorporate it into cake.

I decided to make a lemon Victoria Sponge. Instead of jam, I used the curd, and instead of cream, I used lemon buttercream. This was a stonking success. It's the perfect springtime cake, sweet and zesty, and the homemade curd makes a really standout filling.

Ingredients

• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 10g poppyseeds
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp milk

For the filling/frosting

• 75g butter
• 325g icing sugar
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 3 tbsp lemon curd

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line 2 sponge tins.

Cream the butter and sugar with a handheld whisk. Place the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of flour (to prevent curdling) and mix well with the whisk.

Add the rest of the flour mixture along with the poppyseeds and mix by hand.

Finally, throw in the zest and milk and give it all one last good mix.

Spread between the 2 cake tins and bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

When completely cool, make a start on the filling. Cream the butter, add half of the icing sugar and mix well. Throw in the lemon juice, cream together, and then add in the rest of the icing sugar. Place in a piping bag.

Pipe a circle around the edge of the bottom sponge. Spoon the lemon curd into the centre, the buttercream will help keep it in place and prevent the cake from slipping around.

Place the second sponge on top and then pipe some pretty rosettes on top. Finish by scattering over the zest, some poppyseeds and glitter (optional).