Lovely Layered Lemon Cake

Its been a few weeks of no baking, so it was time to come back with a bang! This was a fusion of a Delia lemon cake, but super charged with lashings of lemony cream! It vanished embarrassingly fast between 4 adults! I took mere scraps for my cake fiend friend at work! I have been also told I am most welcome to make again anytime soon...though as it is I've had to borrow a larger sized dress to attend a work summerball shortly, maybe I shouldn't make it quite so soon perhaps!

I followed a lemon cake I found online from Delia initially - though I misread slightly and added all the lemon's juice to the sponge - a happy accident really as I would do exactly the same second time around!  Also I cheated and bought a jar of lemon curd, no less than a classy jar of value lemon curd - it worked perfectly! Weirdly Delia's recipe on her site and the BBC one vary - after much puzzling it seems I used the bbc one! I have written it out to save confusion!

Serves 8:

Ingredients

175g self raising flour
175g soft butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 lemon, juiced and zested


Line two sandwich pans and grease the sides. (I love cake release!) Pre-heat oven to 180o

Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a mixing bowl of a mixer (or use electric hand whisk), add the butter, lemon juice and zest, then the eggs, then beat until creamy, and light.

Spoon even amounts into prepared trays and bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked through. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin then transfer to a cooling rack until cold.

Slice both cakes horizontally (don't worry, icing holds a multitude of sins!)

Spread three of the layers with a generous lashing of lemon curd.

Filling:

300ml whipping cream

1/3 jar lemon curd

Whip the cream till starting to thicken, then beat in 3 heaped tbsp lemon curd until thickened and stands in fairly firm peaks. 

Spread over a third of the prepared lemon cream mixture for the three prepared layers, topping with the final sponge. 

Lastly make up the glace with:

4 heaped tbsp sifted icing sugar

one lemon, juiced and zested
Sprinkles optional of choice - I used these super cute mini lemon meringues!

Sift the icing sugar into  a bowl, stir in enough lemon juice to form a smooth consistency. Spoon over the top of the sponge, scatter over the zest and decorate as desired.

Allow to set before slicing.

Trust me - you want to bake this cake - you will win friends! Though this is bad as it also means you don't get to eat as much of it...! Its so light, and lemony, and oh oh oh, and can I really fit one more slice in?

Meal Planning Monday

Where did this week go?! After a few up and down weeks last week we stuck pretty much on plan with only minor changes - Wednesday's Chinese took place on Thursday instead, as we went to see the new Jurassic World movie - so dinner mostly involved twiglets and iced fanta! Very healthy!! Fortunately the rest of our meals, well apart from the Chinese were all very lean and less sinful! A new dish for us was Nigella's Meatzza - it reminded me a little of meatloaf, in effect its seasoned beef, topped with mozzarella and tomato - it was tasty and super easy to make!

Finally a bit of fog has lifted and I feel like cooking, and eating again! The new probiotics seem to be worth their hype and price tag, and I am enjoying being back in the kitchen scheming up the next meal! We also made Kedgeree for the first time on Saturday morning using a Jamie Oliver recipe - it was delicious! I used more eggs as we were a little short on the fish part, plus we were all egg fiends so 2 between 3 of us was not an option!! Delicious!

This week is a little flexible - my boyfriend has started a new job and doing battle with the M3 all this week so its all things that can keep warm without going icky! Tonights quorn melts look quite tasty, I bought them yellow stickered, so crossed fingers they taste good too!

Quorn melts, courgettes, potato waffles

Tuna pasta bake, broccoli and peas

Chicken fajitas, red rice

Ham and cabbage melt

Curry n Rice

What are you all having this week? Anything new or interesting?

Monday Meal Plan

I'm back! Well sort of, mentally at least and that's a start! The last few months to be honest have been hideous with family, friend and work woes weighing us down, finally we can see the wood for the trees and I am starting to get my appetite back! My IBS has been rearing its stressy head too but I am hoping to tame it with a new course of pre and pro-biotics I spent a small fortune on recently! Lets hope it works!

We sat down and did the meal plan last night - lets see if we can still to it this week!! Last weeks plans all ended up changing to work circumstances but at least it was a try! What are you planning this week? Anything new or an old favourite perhaps?

Meal Plan:

Tuna, avocado and cheesy melts with sesame, honey and soy roasted broccoli:

Nigella's Meatzza with roasted courgettes and new potatoes

Chinese OR pasta bake

Venison burgers with potato wedges and peas

Chicken wraps

Monday Meal Plan

Sorry I have been awol... I was away on holiday then picked up some bug that left me not wanting to eat anything yet alone think about it! Very unlike me! Fortunately my appetite is starting to pick up again and white the meal plan is not finalised but I was determined to create something as we have been so disorganised! 

Monday - jambalaya with chorizo or salami in taco bowls (Though it became a spinach tortellini salami surprise as the chorizo was furry!)

Tuesday - pork in mustard sauce and new potatoes (forgot the cream, did pork katsu curry and rice!

Wednesday - sweet chilli salmon, peas and udon noodles

Thursday - possibly at a friends.. Or pizza! 

Friday - chicken curry n rice

I hope to bring you some recipes soon! My phone is also away for repair so I can't Instagram anything I feel so lost! The photo below was our Friday night dinner - huge pork chops stuffed with cheese then panko breadcrumbed and then briefly fried before transferred to the oven to cook through - delicious!