This is a really easy and simple cake, with a very light sponge and delicious buttercream icing in between. I made this for a colleague’s birthday and it went down really well, even though I had a bit of a mishap with the oven when baking. Note to self… Make sure your oven is definitely on Fan and not on the Grill setting. Just in case you end up grilling your cake one day, instead of baking, test to see if it has cooked through by inserting a skewer which should come out clean. If it hasn’t bake it, covered, in a fan assisted oven for another few minutes test again… If it did cook through, like somehow mine did, scrape off the burnt bits and cover with icing as usual. No one could tell I grilled my cake instead of baking it so…. I guess it worked! 🙂 This is a myWaitrose magazine recipe.

Golden Layer Cake with Buttercup Icing

Serves 10 | Prep 30 minutes | Cook 25 minutes | Easy | Vegetarian

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You’ll need:

50g porridge oats
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 lemons, zested
175g caster sugar
25ml sunflower oil
3 eggs
150ml double cream
75g unsalted butter, melted

For the syrup:

2 tbsp lemon juice
25g caster sugar

For the icing

100g lemon curd
100g cream cheese
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Line the base of 2 x 18cm round cake tins with baking paper. Blitz the oats to a powder in a blender or food processor, then mix in a bowl with the flour and baking powder.

Put the lemon zest, sugar, oil and eggs into a seperate bowl and mix until smooth, then beat in the cream and butter. Tip the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, fold through evenly and divide between the tins. Bake for 25 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Leave the cakes in their tins on a rack to cool.

For the syrup, place the lemon juice and sugar in a small pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then set aside to cool. While the cakes are still warm, prick the top of each with a skewer and spoon over the syrup.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar and beat with the soft butter until smooth. Start adding the cream cheese, a heaped tablespoon at a time and incorporate well each time until you are done. Chill for 30 minutes. When the cakes are cool, spread a good layer of icing at the top of one of the cakes, then top with the other cake. Spread the remaining icing on top.

You can just serve the cake as it is without decorating – it is elegant and simple as it is! However, if you want to decorate it you can top with berries, freeze dried raspberries or chocolate swirls. I topped mine with fresh raspberries and freeze-dried raspberries.

Original Recipe from myWaitrose February 2012, available here.