There's little I love more in life than lemon flavours and white chocolate. And custard creams. And Henry Cavill. I'm already veering off track, sorry.
When I saw Kate's Easter white chocolate and lemon curd cake I instantly knew I had to make a similar cake as soon as possible. I couldn't understand why I had never combined two of my favourite flavours in a cake.
And what a light and fluffy, zingy yet sweet cake it produced! The only minor disappointment was the icing and I think it was due to the choice of white chocolate. I used Lindt Lindor which I'm positive I've used before and had excellent results with, but when I melted this particular block it seemed really runny and almost water-y, making a very soft icing which never firmed up. It just didn't behave the way I expected it to. Perhaps I picked up a different type of Lindt chocolate without really noticing?
Flavour wise it was very sweet which was to be expected (it was white chocolate after all!) and contrasted well with the zingy lemon curd and sponge, but I felt the white chocolate flavour itself didn't come through particularly strong.
Ooh look at that layer of lemon curd peeking through in the filling! I thought I was pretty generous with it at the time but I could have easily put in more. The tang of the curd against the sweet icing was so good!
Despite my (only very slight) disappointment with the icing this was a popular cake and I think it tasted even better on the second day. I can't comment how well it would taste on a third day as it didn't last that long. If you do have cakes lying around your house that long you must have serious willpower!
white chocolate and lemon cake
225g caster sugar
225g Stork margarine (or butter)
4 eggs
225g plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
filling and icing:
1 jar lemon curd (I used Tesco's finest which was lovely but obviously home made is even better)
100g white chocolate, melted
175g butter, softened (I used slightly salted)
175g icing sugar
Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190C and grease and line two 20cm round tins. Beat together the butter and sugar for roughly 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs individually, mixing well after each addition. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl then add to the cake mixture. Add the lemon zest, 1 tbsp of juice and two 2tbsp of milk and mix until everything is fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes until risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.
For the icing, put the white chocolate into a bowl and melt in short bursts in the microwave (or melt it in a bowl sitting above a small pan of simmering water, whichever method you prefer). Leave to cool and then add to the icing sugar and butter. Mix everything together for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Fill the cake with a few dollops of the icing and a good spread of lemon curd. Use the remaining icing to coat the top and sides.