Easy Filled Lemon Cake

Of course, you probably know me very well for invading Vocal with my film studies stuff and articles entitled ‘a filmmaker’s guide’. I have often explained that I love to bake as well. Since I was young, I have loved the idea, the creativity and the relaxation of baking different things. I love to make macarons, layer cakes and gingerbread in particular and the activity of it really gets me away from my laptop (where I’m sure you know that I spend most of my life). So, I hope you enjoy me talking about what I bake and why I bake it complete with pictures (if not very good) of me actually baking, my baked goods in the process of being created and when they’re finished. I’m really happy to share this with you. And if you like, you can show me your baking (yes, I spend a lot of time writing, but I also spend a lot of time reading other people’s articles!), I would love to see it. Since I was in school, I was always interested in creating things, whether that be pieces of writing, welding things to make small statues or baking foods and making sweets (candy, if you’re American). I hope you enjoy looking at some of the stuff that has honestly kept me sane, because I seem to be going slightly mad.

Easy Filled Lemon Cake

Lemon cake is my absolute favourite and is one of the only cakes that I can think of that tastes better with a slightly heavier texture. I find making a lemon cake too light in texture would mean that you end up compromising a lot of flavour. I'm not saying make it really heavy, I'm saying make it like the texture of a sticky toffee pudding. That sort of heaviness. No, I do not like sticky toffee pudding. When I'm making this cake, I like to hollow it out halfway and fill the hole with jam. Why? It makes the cake nicer to eat. If someone wants a big slice, they're going to get some jam with it and if someone wants a small slice, they can either have jam or no jam. Personally, I'm not a fan of jam between layers even though I make them often. This is mainly because I think the cake is sweet enough already and adding jam just makes it sickly. Let's take a look at this recipe then...

You Will Need

• 200g Softened Butter
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Lemons - Zest
• 1tbsp Cornflour

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200C and oil up a baking tin of your choice. Remember, it is going to rise quite a bit so you want to consider having ample depth for it to do this.
2. Put the butter into your bowl and whisk it on its own until it is white, then add the sugar and whisk again until fully blended.
3. Add in the eggs and lemon and whisk once more until fully combined.
4. Finally, add in the self-raising flour and cornflour and whisk once more.
5. Put the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the oven for about 33 minutes so that that cake comes away from the sides of the tin and go slightly more brown than the rest of the cake
6. Allow to cool for fifteen to twenty minutes in the fridge

Whilst your cake is cooling, have a think about what kind of jam you would like to flavour it with. I can suggest some flavours:

Black Cherry - this jam offers a nice sweet flavour to balance the tartness of the lemon

Orange Marmalade - for a citrus-based cake you could use an orangey flavour alongside the lemon

Strawberry - strawberry lemonade is a very popular flavour and so this jam is a good idea to imitate it in your cake

Blackcurrant - this is the jam I used and I like it because it offers a tiny but of darkness and decadence to what is a nice, slightly bitter cake

Instructions II

1. Get your cake out of the fridge and grab a glass.
2. Use the rim of the glass and push it into the middle of the cake, hitting about halfway.
3. Scoop this out with a spoon and you will have a hole.
4. Fill the hole with your chosen jam
5. Top the jam with desiccated coconut and an optional sprinkling of flaked nuts - I used almonds
6. Enjoy your cake!