St clement's cake

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 25 mins

300g pack full-fat cream cheese

125g icing sugar, sifted

175g unsalted butter or margarine, softened

175g caster sugar

4 tsp finely grated ginger or English Provender very lazy ginger paste

2 lemons, juice and zest only

3 medium eggs, beaten

175g self-raising flour

4 tbsp lemon curd, such as English Provender luxury lemon curd

To decorate

crystallised flowers

chocolate mini eggs

Making the frosting: Whisk together the cream cheese and icing sugar until the mixture becomes smooth. Add about 2 tbsps of lemon juice to obtain a more liquid consistency. Refrigerate.

Making the cake: Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and base line two 18cm sandwich tins.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, ginger paste and lemon zest until the mixture turns lighter and everything is thoroughly blended.

Whisk in the eggs, one by one. Sieve the flour and stir it in gradually with a large metal spoon.

Pour the dough equally into the two sandwich tins, smoothing the surface with the back of a spoon. Put in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cakes are firm and well risen with a nice golden colour. Leave them to cool in their tins then turn them out onto a wire cooling rack.

Peel the paper off the cakes. Cover the top of each cake with half of the cream cheese mixture, spreading it all the way to the edges. Randomly drop several spoonfuls of lemon curd on top of the frosting. Drag a skewer or a teaspoon through the lemon curd to create swirls. Place the cakes one on top of the other and move them onto a serving plate.

Decorate with the candied flowers and chocolate eggs.

Serves
8

Preparation Time
20 minutes

Cooking Time
25 minutes

Main ingredients
Dairy, Flour, Fruit, Eggs

Recipe Type
Cakes & Baking, Dessert

Level of Difficulty
Easy

You can easily make crystallised flowers yourself. Place the flowers on a baking paper and simply brush them with a slightly beaten egg white. Sprinkle with caster sugar and leave them to dry for at least 1 hour.