Hosting a gathering or celebrating a special occasion? This lemon syrup cake is sure to impress. Filled with Swiss meringue buttercream, it boasts a delightful combination of citrus and sweet flavours. It is the perfect cake for any time of the year.
Glaze
Juice of 2 lemons
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup water
Cake
250g butter
2 cups caster sugar
6 free-range eggs
4 tsp lemon zest
1 cup Sabato gluten-free flour
1 cup ground almonds
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 cup cream fraîche
Swiss meringue buttercream
3 egg whites
300g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 Tbsp Fresh As passionfruit powder
To make the glaze, add the lemon juice, sugar and water to a pot and bring to the boil. As soon as the sugar is fully dissolved, remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool.
To make the cake, preheat oven to 160ºC. Generously grease two 22cm cake tins with butter. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar using an electric beater on medium speed setting. Once the mixture becomes light and creamy, add the eggs and lemon zest and continue to beat until the mixture is well combined. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Fold through cream fraîche and mix until smooth. Pour half of the mixture into each of the prepared cake tins. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.
Once removed from the oven, leave the cakes in the tins for 10 minutes to cool. After 10 minutes pour half the glaze over each cake and leave the cakes in the tins for a further 10 minutes, before removing them to cool completely.
Once cold, pipe or spread Swiss meringue buttercream between the two layers of the cake.
To make the buttercream, combine the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, ensuring that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Whisk by hand until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric beater (or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment) until stiff peaks form and the mixture is glossy and cool to touch. Turn the beater down to low add the butter to the mix, one tablespoon at a time, ensuring the butter is fully mixed in before the next tablespoon is added. Once all the butter has been added, fold through the Fresh As powder.
Recipe courtesy of Kate Fay
