I made this Lemon Layer Cake a few weeks ago. I had a day of cooking and photographing food to give my blog a bit of a new look. I wanted to keep a lemon-y theme, so this was the obvious choice!

Lemon Curd Layer Cake

Cake:
8oz unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1½ cups self-raising flour
1¼ cups plain flour
¾ cup milk
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

To Layer:
Lemon Curd/Honey (home-made or store-bought)
Lemon Buttercream (see below)

Preheat the oven to 180°. Grease and line three round cake tins (I lined the base and lightly floured the sides).

Cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually, and beat until fluffy (about 3 minutes in an electric mixer). Add the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, combine the (sifted) flours, and add to the cake mixture in four parts, alternating with the milk, lemon juice and zest, and beating well after each addition.

Divide the batter among the cake tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their tins for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

When completely cooled, spread the first cake with lemon curd, then lemon buttercream, place the second cake on top and repeat. Ice the top cake (and you could do the sides too) with lemon buttercream, and finish with a swirl of lemon curd to decorate. Coconut would be yummy too.

Lemon Buttercream

8oz unsalted butter, softened
about 6 cups icing sugar
½ cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the icing sugar, and then the lemon juice and zest. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar until the icing is thick enough to spread nicely.