
Yesterday I asked my eldest son what kind of cake he would like me to bake. I always hold my breath sightly when I ask this as my kids often come up with some pretty inventive cake ideas.
After a little thought he asked for a lemon cake. Specifically a round lemon cake with a crunchy lemon drizzle topping with lemon curd in the middle.
With a smile of relief I thought I had all the ingredients at home but it turned out I only had a drop of lemon curd left. It was pouring with rain and frankly I couldn’t be bothered going to the shops so I also added a layer of clotted cream, which turned out to be absolutely delicious and the perfect match to the cake’s citrus burst.
This is a wonderfully zingy crunchy lemon cake the like of which I’ve never had before. I’ll definitely be making this again and again…

Luscious Lemon Layer Cake
Recipe
Ingredients
- 210g self raising flour
- 25g cornflour
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g room temp butter
- 4 medium eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 3 tablespoons of milk
For the lemon drizzle
- The juice of 1 lemon
- 80g granulated sugar
For the filling
- 3 tablespoons of lemon curd
- If you like add cream or butter cream too
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 C / gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm round cake tins and line the bases.
- Put the flour, sugar and cornflour into a food processor and blitz to combine.
- Now just chuck in the rest of the ingredients and whiz until combined.
- Pour and scrape the cake mixture into the prepared tins and smooth over the tops.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the cake is golden and a skewer comes out of the cakes clean.
- Leave the cakes in their tins to cool a little (about 10 minutes) and then turn one cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Leave the other cake in its tin.
For the drizzle:
- Just mix together the sugar and lemon juice. Take the cake that is still in its tin and prick it all over with a fork. Gently pour over the drizzle mixture and leave to cool in the tin on the wire rack.
- Once both cakes are cool take the bottom cake layer (the one without the drizzle) and place on a plate or cake stand. Spread with the curd and, if you’re using it, the cream and pop the crusty topped cake on top.
