Summer Lovin' Cake

I know it's not summer but there have been a few hints that it is on its way - "Really?" I hear my fellow Brits say, "was it not snowing in April this year?!" - and the tiny ray of sun I saw peeking out of the clouds the other day made me feel all summery, not to mention this cake is yummy yummy yummy and so in an attempt to coax the reluctant sun from its hide out behind the clouds and raise everyone's rather wintry spirits I want to share my Summer Lovin' Cake with you all!

This cake looks so much more difficult to make than it is so it is perfect for impressing friends and family at picnics and BBQs. It is made using two different flavoured (and coloured) sponges and provided you have a heart cutter and a loaf tin you are good to go!

Ingredients

For the berry sponge:

4oz all purpose flour

2oz sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2oz berries (I used frozen, mixed)

2 oz sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

For the lemon sponge:

4oz self raising flour (I find self raising flour works best to ensure the lemon cake rises over the hearts but if you are confident all purpose flour and baking powder will do the trick then go for it!)

4oz sugar

2oz butter

2 eggs

juice from 1 lemon (plus more to taste - I added about 3 tbsp of bottled lemon juice as well)

2 tsp baking powder

For the icing:

juice of 1/2 lemon

4 oz icing sugar

tiny bit of pink (or red) food colouring

2 tsp lemon curd (optional)

Directions

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C, line or grease a 9" round cake pan and first make the berry coulis for the berry sponge. Add 2 oz berries and 2 oz sugar to a pan on medium heat (if you are using frozen berries add them to the pan before the sugar to let them soften a bit first).

Make sure you give them a good stir as you want a fairly smooth coulis. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice and keep stirring the mixture until you have a seedy but smooth paste like in the picture below -  i.e. no whole fruits should be left!

When you have achieved the desired consistency take the pan off the heat and transfer the coulis into a ramekin or something similar to cool. I was feeling particularly impatient when I made this - I am back in North Yorkshire and have not had a single good nights sleep for two weeks, I thought last night might be the winner but I was rudely awoken by a gas man at 8am bohoohoo! - so I put my ramekin in the freezer, just make sure you don't forget you've put it there!

Now cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, whisk in the eggs and gradually add the flour and baking powder. If the mixture becomes too stiff add a little bit of sunflower oil (about 1 tbsp) but remember you will be putting the berry coulis in when it has cooled down.

Adding the coulis will turn your mixture a lovely pinky purpley colour.

I had some blackcurrant and sloe gin jam in the fridge so I also added a tbsp of this to the mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared 9" cake pan and bake for about 15 minutes so that the top has set but the cake is not fully cooked. Leave this cake to cool to room temperature.

Once the berry sponge has cooled set about making the lemon sponge. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C and cream the butter and sugar together in a clean mixing bowl then once light and fluffy whisk in the eggs and add self raising flour and baking powder gradually. When well mixed juice one lemon and add to the mix, I also added about 3 tbsp of bottled lemon juice but I LOVE lemon! If you have a spare half a lemon knocking about in the fridge juice that and add to the mixture for good measure.

Now that the berry sponge is completely cool remove from the cake pan to a surface suitable for the use of cookie cutters. Take a heart shaped cookie cutter about 1.5" from top to bottom and 1.5" from left to right and cut out as many hearts as you can get from the berry cake. 

Pour enough lemon sponge into a lined loaf tin so that it thinly covers the bottom. Line the hearts up front to back in the loaf tin so they are as close together as possible (choose the best hearts for this!)

Once you have gone from front to back with the hearts pour in the rest of the lemon sponge mixture taking care to not let it go in between the hearts, I recommend pouring in one side and then the other. Encourage the mixture to go in front of the front heart and behind the back heart so you get golden brown edges to your loaf cake that don't give away the surprise inside!

Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown. Mine actually took longer than this but to avoid burning when you get close to the 30 minute mark watch the cake like a hawk to obtain the best result. I also wanted my cake to be a little more golden but I am in the family home at the moment and there was a bizarre queue for the oven so to avoid dispute I took it out pronto! 

I popped the remaining hearts on a baking tray and put them in the oven with the loaf cake, taking them out after 15 minutes. I had intended to sandwich them together but I got carried away taking photos of them in a rinky dinky teacup I found in my mum's cupboard!

Leave the cake in the loaf tin for about 30 minutes then lift out using the grease proof paper and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. 

To make the glaze icing pinkyness that is on the top juice half a lemon and add to about 4 oz icing sugar. I cannot be sure that these measurements are exact because I didn't have icing sugar so faffed about crushing caster sugar with a rolling pin to make icing sugar and by this time I had got myself in such a tiz that I wasn't sure what cake I was making any more never mind how much sugar I'd put in! Half a lemon may be a bit too generous so don't add it all at once. If you add too much it is more effort than it is worth to try and rectify it if by this point you have run out of sugar! But yes anyway, combine the ingredients so you have a smooth paste that is runny but not so runny you can't do anything BUT drizzle it! Make sure it is thick enough so that you can hide any ridges if your lemon sponge doesn't rise quite as far as you had wished.... If you look close enough at the picture below you can see my baby pink icing is hiding a multitude of sins! OK not a multitude, the cake was still delightful regardless of the humpback appearance it had pre-icing!

Slice the cake, surprise your friends, family, kids, neighbours and ENJOY!! :)