Strawberry and lemon curd cake

The essence of summer. This strawberry and lemon curd cake is made not with a traditional sponge, but with new vanilla cake layers that do not need soaking. Simple to make, with the flavours of lemon curd, strawberries and lightly whipped cream coming together in a wonderfully delicious combination. The cake looks beautiful and tastes fantastic.

The recipe below makes two vanilla cake layers. You will need to make 3 vanilla cake layers, 23 cm in diameter. To make three layers for this cake, multiply the ingredients by 1.5. To make things easier, I usually double the ingredients and bake 4 layers, freezing one for later use.

Ingredients for two vanilla cake layers:

• 60 g butter
• 200 g caster sugar
• 120 ml rapeseed oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 150 g soured cream
• 270 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150 ml milk

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until thoroughly combined – the mixture will resemble a crumble. Add the oil and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the soured cream and beat briefly. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda directly into the mixture. Mix with a whisk just until combined, no longer. Add the milk and mix briefly; the resulting batter will be quite runny.

Line two 23 cm round cake tins with baking paper. Divide the batter between them and smooth the surfaces.

Bake at 170°C for about 32–35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Note: If both tins do not fit in the oven at the same time, bake them one after the other. The batter can wait while the first layer bakes.

Ingredients for the lemon curd:

• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 160 g caster sugar
• 80 g butter
• finely grated zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 120 ml juice)

Wash the lemons thoroughly with a brush and scald them with boiling water. Finely grate the zest.

In a small saucepan, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until combined. Place over a low heat and cook, stirring constantly (a bain-marie is the safer method). You can add the butter and lemon juice almost immediately. Stir continuously until the mixture comes to the boil and thickens. If any unwanted lumps appear, pass the curd through a sieve. Add the lemon zest and stir. Pour into a sterilised jar, seal and refrigerate overnight.

Note: I did not use the entire batch of lemon curd in the cake; the amount used depends on personal preference.

Ingredients for the cream filling:

• 600 ml double cream, chilled
• 250 g mascarpone, chilled
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until thick and creamy.

Additionally:

• 500 g strawberries

Assembly:

Place the first cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with ⅓ of the cream, smoothing the surface. Arrange sliced strawberries over the cream and pipe lemon curd over the top using a piping bag. Cover with the second vanilla cake layer. Spread with half of the remaining cream and smooth the surface. Arrange another layer of sliced strawberries over the cream and pipe over more lemon curd. Cover with the final vanilla cake layer. Spread the remaining cream over the top and decorate with strawberries and lemon curd.

Strawberry and Lemon Curd Cake should be stored in the fridge.

Enjoy!