There is so much I want to blurt out all at once!
I think I am going to have to make a list!
1) I have officially finished university forever. I handed in my 21 thousand word honours dissertation in last Friday. What a relief!
2) Yesterday I hit the 100k view mark on this blog! (Flip people actually look at this?)
Ok now that I think about it, those two things were the only list worthy items. The rest is more reasoning behind this cake. Such reasoning which would then go on to be applied to justify wine bottle number five being opened amongst three friends.
I love the idea of decorating cakes with fresh flowers. The vibrant purple pansies are all out in abundance over at work at the moment.
What colour goes brilliantly with purple? Let us consult the colour wheel (one must consult the wheel for all important life decisions such as these). Yellow.
Yellow clashes with purple. What is yellow? Lemons are yellow. Lets make a lemon cake.
So that was part one of the reasoning.
Lemons are a fruit, therefore this cake will be healthy. Therefore two grown men and myself can eat half of this cake and be guilt free!
This was part two.
Part three involved Homeland. The fact that is was a Monday. And that gatherings of two or more people require cake.
All sound reasons for cake baking.
So within two and a half hours, two cake layers were baked, lemon curd made and cream cheese icing whipped up and this baby was born.
The lemon curd recipe below will make a nice jarful. This is more than enough for this cake so you can keep the left overs in your fridge for another cake or you can slather it atop hot pieces of toast in the morning.
Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Icing
Makes a double layer 20cm cake
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
3 medium sized lemons, zest and juice
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 cup plain, unsweetened yoghurt
2 cups self raising flour
For the lemon curd:
Zest and juice of two large lemons
1 cup white sugar
50g butter, cubed
2 eggs, beaten
For the cream cheese icing:
50g butter, softened
50g cream cheese
4 cups icing sugar
splash of milk to loosen
couple of teaspoons of lemon curd
Lemon zest and pansies to decorate
To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake and grease and line two 20cm sandwich cake tins.
Beat together the sugar and eggs until thick and pale. Beat in the yoghurt, lemon juice and zest then the oil. Sieve in the flour and salt then stir until just combined.
Evenly spread between the two sandwich tins then bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven then leave to cool completely.
To make the curd:
In a double boiler (metal bowl over a saucepan with 4cm of boiling water), dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice and zest. Once mostly dissolved add in the butter and stir until butter has melted and sugar dissolved. Whilst whisking briskly, slowly pour the beaten eggs into the mix. Keep whisking and do not stop or else you will end up with lumps of scrambled egg.
Continue to whisk the curd until it has thickened and thickly coats the back of a spoon. This may take around ten minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool completely before using in this cake.
To make the cream cheese icing:
Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Slowly add the icing sugar, beating between each addition until incorporated. If the icing starts looking a little crumbly, add a splash of milk to loosen it. Mix in the lemon curd for a bit of extra lemony flavour. Beat the icing until fluffy.
To assemble:
Take one of the cake layers and place it on a plate or turn table. Spread about a third of the icing onto the top of this cake layer. Then spread a few tablespoons of lemon curd over the top. Place the second cake on top of this. Spread the rest of the icing over the top of this cake followed by decorative dollops of curd. Sprinkle with long threads of zest and place your flowers in the centre.
Enjoy!