Lemon Celebration Cake

Ingredients

For the sponge:

• 340g butter
• 340g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 340g self-raising flour
• zest of 3 lemons

For the lemon syrup:

• 85g caster sugar
• juice from 1 1/2 lemons

For the buttercream:

• 3 tbsps lemon curd
• swiss meringue buttercream or Italian meringue buttercream (basic recipe link here, you will need 2 or 3x this recipe:)

https://bitchesthatbake.home.blog/2020/01/31/italian-meringue-buttercream/

For the splashes:

• 4tbsps icing sugar
• 1-3tsps water – add until very drippy

Decor:

• Isomalt splash – tutorial coming soon don’t panic
• cake board covered with fondant (optional)

Method

• preheat oven to 180C and line 3 6inch round cake tins with baking paper
• beat your butter and sugar
• add in the eggos one at a time – don’t worry if it looks curdled at this point
• fold in flour, vanilla extract and zesty stuff
• plop even amounts into your cake tins
• bake for 20-30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean
• start making your syrup – mix together the sugar and lemon juice
• poke a few holes all over the cakes with a skewer or whatever pointy item you can lay your hands on
• drizzle the syrup all over the sponges – this will keep them super *MOIST*
• let cool completely in the tin
• make your buttercream and add in the lemon curd to flavour
• level cakes using a knife or a cake leveller to be extra poncey
• place one cake layer on turntable or plate
• add a thin layer of lemon curd, followed by a blob of buttercream
• sandwich with the next cake layer and repeat the lemon curd and buttercream blob
• put the final cake layer on top
• smooth a thin layer of buttercream all around the outside of the cake – this is called a crumb coat
• pop in the fridge for an hour (or longer) to set
• once set, smooth over a thicker layer of buttercream – use a palette knife and cake scraper (or anything with a straight edge) to work the buttercream into nice sharp lines
• set in the fridge for at least one hour
• mix small amounts of buttercream with food colouring of your choice
• bring your chilled cake out of the fridge
• get small amounts of coloured buttercream on a palette knife (or just a normal knife) and swipe onto the cake
• keep going until you’re happy
• mix up your splash mixture – stir together icing sugar and water until very drippy consistency
• add whatever colour floats your boat at this point – I went for gold but sort of just looks brown 😦
• dip in a paintbrush and shake it like mad at your cake
• To finish off I added an isomalt splash – TUTORIAL COMING SOON – and put onto a basic silver cake board which I iced with fondant to make it look less rubbish
• cut and enjoy x