Lemon Curd Victoria Sponge Cake

This sponge cake came about because I had a 3/4 jar of lemon curd in my fridge that I needed to use up and it was coming up to a Friday and we always take the builders cake.

I went for a square cake because they are the only tins that I have two of at the moment as everything else isin storage. I do have one large round tin, but I couldn't be bothered to wait for the first cake to cook and then bake a second one. It also occurred to me that a square cake would be much easier to cut into decent builder sized portions.

I doubled my normal ingredients, so if you want to make a normal sized, round cake, then half this recipe and use two 20cm/8inch tins. I always grease the whole tin with butter and then line the bottom of the tin with baking paper even though my tins are meant to be non stick.

You will need:

✻ 2 x 24cm/9.5inch cake tins, buttered and the botton lined with baking paper.

✻ Pre-heat your oven to 180c/160c Fan/Gas 4

Ingredients for the sponge:

✻ 450g butter at room tempreture

✻ 450g caster sugar

✻ 450g self raising flour

✻ 8 large eggs

✻ 4 tspn baking powder

✻ 2 tspn vanilla extract

Ingredients for the filling:

✻ Lemon curd (I used 3/4 of a jar, which is about 12 tablespoons)

✻ 150g butter

✻ 80g icing sugar

Method:

• Put all the sponge ingredients in to a large bowl and mix together until is is completely combined. I use my Kitchen Aid to do this, but you can use a hand mixer and/or a wooden spoon.

• Divide the mixture equally between the two tins and using a spatula or back of the spoon make sure the mixture is in all the corners, evenly distributed, with a smooth flat top.

• Cook them in the centre of the oven for approximately 25 minutes. Depending on your oven it could be five minutes less or five minutes more, so keep and eye on them. They are cooked when they are a lovely golden brown and springy to touch. You can insert a tooth pick or sharp knife through the centre and if it comes out clean then it is cooked.

• Leave them in the tins for 10/15 minutes to cool, then carefully remove them from the tins and let them cool completely before you add the filling.

• While you are waiting for the sponges to cool you can make your filling. Put the butter, icing sugar and 1/3rd of the jar (about 4 tbsps) of Lemon curd into a bowl and mix until smooth and spreadable.

• I always keep the best looking sponge for the top and put the filling on the top side of the other one.

• Gently spread the lemon butter icing evenly over the top of the bottom sponge. Now put little blobs of the remaining lemon curd evenly over the butter icing and then using the back of a spoon gently swirl the curd through the top of the butter icing. It doesn't have to be blended completely because the idea is that you get little bursts of lemon when you eat it.

• Put the second sponge on top and sprinkle with caster sugar.

• I cut it evenly into 16 square pieces, but you can cut and and divide as you see fit.

Not that eating cake is ever about calories, but divided by 16, this works out at approximately 575kal per slice.

Best served while sitting on the sofa with a lovely cup of tea or coffee......

Enjoy x