After weeks of not seeing my family I finally got to see my Mum for a social distanced picnic in the park. This coronavirus life is seriously tough! It was a Saturday and the weather was amazing so I wanted to bring something tasty for Mum to enjoy that could be shared with the rest of the family later. I decided to make a Lemon Victoria sponge. I have made this cake before so I know it is seriously yummy and I needed to pick myself up from last week's lemon layer cake disaster.
Skip to the end to see the recipe
This cake was based off a Mary Berry Lemon Victoria Sponge recipe that was used for a baking challenge for the 140th GDST birthday celebration. However, I followed a recipe from Hello Hooray that switched up this more classic Lemon Victoria Sponge by also adding lemon buttercream icing.
Step by step instructions
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the 4 eggs and grated lemon zest. I added them all in at the same time but it would have been better to add 1 egg at a time.
Sieve in the flour and combine well. A whisk is useful at this point to get it all well mixed.
Divide the batter between your two cake tins. I always weigh my batter to make sure my cake layers are as even as possible.
Bake in the oven on the middle shelf. My sponges were baked for 20 mins at 180°C, until they were golden brown, and springy to touch. The cakes were left to cool completely before preparing the icing.
To make the lemon buttercream filling I combined the butter and icing sugar together until they were well mixed.
Note: I did not have the lemon for the buttercream icing so I made the icing in advance without the lemon zest, then assembled the cake the next day after I had bought a lemon. Buttercream is fine to store at room temperature for a couple of days, or in the fridge for much longer.
Turn the worst looking sponge upside down to create a flat surface to spread the filling.
Liberally spread on the lemon curd. I used some cheap curd from Tesco, nothing fancy!
Add your lemon buttercream and spread.
Top with the second sponge, then sieve some icing sugar on to create a classic Victoria sponge look.
So there you have it! A Lemon Victoria Sponge!
Verdict:
The cake was the perfect choice for a Mother Daughter picnic in these testing coronavirus times. It was tasty and light. I truly love a lemon cake! However, it did not fair too well in the blazing sun and the buttercream had seriously melted before we had a chance to dig in but it was still fantastic.
Happy baking folks!
Recipe:
Ingredients
For the cake
225 g butter, softened
225 g caster sugar
4 eggs
225 g self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
For the filling
About 4 tbsp lemon curd
250 g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)
80 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25 ml semi skimmed milk
Finely grated zest of half a lemon
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan oven/Gas 4. Lightly grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line with baking paper.
To make the cake: Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.
Beat in the eggs and add the grated lemon zest and mix well
Add in the sifted flour and baking powder and mix together.
Evenly divide the batter between the two tins and use the back of a spoon to create a flat surface.
Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is springy to touch.
Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then remove to cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
To make the filling: Cream together butter and icing sugar, then add the milk and lemon zest and mix until smooth.
To assemble the cake: Place the worst looking cake upside down on the serving plate. Spread with lemon curd and then buttercream.
Top with the other cake and dust with icing sugar.