Carys' Cakes

Being a cake decorating enthusiast, I jumped at the opportunity to make my boyfriend a birthday cake that had a part of him within it...not literally...I don't think people would have been quite as impressed if I'd added a tsp of his very own blood to flavour the cake. No. I wanted to capture part of his life in the cake. As a black belt in karate, and a very good one I might add, it was only natural for me to recreate this in the form of a cake.
I will post one time about how I make sugar paste figures but I won't go into detail now. I will simply tell you that all you need to make anything of the sort is fondant icing, icing sugar and food colouring.
Where the ingredients for the outside and decoration of the cake were few, what lay within brought a tad more ingredients to the table. I often find, and I'm sure that many others will agree, that fondant icing is just too sweet and sickly and I find myself peeling off most of it when enjoying a slice of cake. therefore the idea came to me to do a lemon cake. This would provide balance and acidity to the cake and make the icing a bit more bearable for those who aren't fans of the sugary topping. Using the Victoria sponge recipe that I have blogged about before, I merely added the juice and zest of some lemons for the quiet, innocent bake to come alive and vibrant with exotic flavour. If like me, you would like something that can provide acidity against the sweetness, I would urge you to opt for the lemon cake over anything else.

Recipe for the lemon cake:
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
6oz self raising flour
3 eggs
1tsp baking powder
Zest of 2 lemons
5tbsp lemon juice

Recipe for the lemon drizzle:
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
85g caster sugar

Recipe for the lemon buttercream:
50g butter
150g icing sugar
2tbsp lemon juice

Method:
Using the easy all in one method, measure out your ingredients and put them all in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mix, beat the ingredients together to form a creamy, acidic batter. Make sure you beat lots of air into it, but don't overbeat it otherwise your cakes will rise in the oven...and then sink in the middle.
Grease and line two cake tins and divide the mixture equally between them. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 15-20 mins or until the cakes start to come away from the edge of the tins and feel springy to the touch. 
Leave them to cool for a short while whilst you make the lemon drizzle. To do this simple put the lemon and sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves and you're left with an acidic syrupy drizzle. Using a tsp, drizzle the mixture all over the top of the two cakes whilst they're still warm.
Once they have cooled, turn them out of their tins and begin to make the buttercream.
Fetch yourself a large bowl and beat the butter in the bowl for a few seconds to loosen it up before adding the icing sugar. Beat the two together until pale and fluffy. This buttercream working with the balancing of sweet and acid, has a small icing sugar ratio to butter because I don't want too much sweetness. Add the lemon juice and give it one last beat before spreading generously onto one of the cakes and sandwiching the other on top.
Eat the cake just like this or decorate away. Either way, I can guarantee a great explosion of sweet and acidic in your mouth. Enjoy!