You all know by now that I am a sucker for lemon cake. It is my favourite and I would always choose it over anything else in a tea room. I was watching Mary Berry last week and she made a lemon cake which just looked amazing. The recipe is here if you fancy trying it out.
These lemons have been boiled for 30 mins. While that was going on I sliced off the skin of the third lemon and sliced it finely ready for the decoration.
The cake batter nearly filled the biggest bowl of my food processor! Shows that the cake was going to be mammoth! You save some of the lemon pulp for the filling (that is the pale stuff in the bowl). I used the quick tip of putting the zest in the oven.
The lemony smell was just so lovely and fresh too. Now the challenge after this was to cut the cakes in half. Not something I am good at- I can’t even slice evenly!
Then I made the cheesecake filling- marscapone, butter, icing sugar and the rest of the lemon pulp. This smelled amazing.
The slicing was not too even, which meant I had to stack them carefully to avoid a Pisa-esque cake.
Then I made the final part (this was truly a long project)- lemon and icing sugar to drizzle over- it was meant to drip down the sides a bit but I ended up with a cascade.
We took it around to Andy’s parents for Sunday tea- there were 6 of us but there was loads left- this was a mammoth cake!
If I made this again I would not slice the cakes in half, and just have 2 layers. I think I would also just have the cheesecake filling and use some as a topping instead of having the extra lemon icing on the top. The lemon taste was so strong, which I loved, so it would be something I would try again at some point.
Do you like kitchen projects like this? I love them once in a while- it is great to keep revisiting something and try a new recipe for a change.
Mary Berry is such a legend. I love lemon cake to, definitely one of my go to bakes. Your cake looks divine.
Wow this looks good! I agree that I’d go with the cheesecake filling on top – I prefer that sort of icing to anything made from just icing sugar as the texture is nicer. Now I want to make lemon cake too!
I don’t like butter icing but a cream cheese icing is always lovely 🙂
Looks AMAZING! I bought some lemons this week so may have a play with this at the weekend!
Enjoy if you make it 🙂
Just the fact that you struggled a little (in the nicest possible way!) with this cake tells me to never attempt it 😉 I am a sucker for lemon cake though too… lemon drizzle cake with that sharp but sweet icing all soaked in is heavenly!! I think I will need a bit of practice before I attempt any recipes from the legend that is Mary Berry.
Oh no don’t let me put you off! I just can’t slice cakes! Yes the sharp and tangy lemon drizzle is always so good 🙂
That looks incredible! I like to do something fiddly as a bit of a showstopper every now and then…but tend to stick to simple things. Half the time I don’t even ice my cakes 😉 and lemon cake is awesome. Better than chocolate…almost! x
I think lemon cake is way better than chocolate cake! 🙂
Lemon cake is my absolute favourite! I made a lemon loaf recently and it was so fresh, makes you think of Spring!
I agree those citrus cakes are perfect for spring, and summer, and really most times when you need cheering up and thinking of sunshine.
This looks delicious but tricky! Good old Mary Berry 🙂
I am rubbish at cutting cakes in half and whenever I buy a cake tin, but two identical ones so that I never have that worry!
Well I baked it in two, but it needed 4 layers! But next time I think I will stick to the two layers!
Gosh I bet that tasted delicious, lemon is definitely my favourite flavour of cake : )
I’m drooling just reading this post … YUM 🙂