Birthday Cake

From the Infantile School of celebration cakes comes this.
I took a basic Victoria Sponge recipe and jazzed it up a little.

250 g self raising flour
250 g butter
250 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
a good dash of vanilla extract
zest of 1 washed lemon


For the filling:
300 ml whipping cream
8 tablespoons of lemon curd. Homemade is preferable but good shop bought curd is ok. Don't though buy any basic really cheap curd as it's poor quality and will not befit a birthday cake.

In a large bowl... mix all of the above together using an electric hand whisk. Or you could use a free standing mixer. If you're that way inclined.

Pour equal amounts into two 20cm sandwich tins greased and lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.
Weigh the loaded tins to check you've not been heavy handed with either tin.
If you're content then.....

Bake in a pre-heated oven gas mark 4 for 35 minutes. Check near the end of cooking time and if the cake is still gooey/loose or liquidy on top cover with foil and continue baking for another few minutes.

When baked. Cool in the tins for an hour then remove to cooling racks.

Now you're ready to assemble.

Get a sharp knife and shave off any hard bits of sponge that might cause throat cuts or sadness. Then whip the cream to softish peaks, don't go mad with the whisk otherwise the cream will be too stiff to slather.
Mix in the lemon curd gently, I used a figure of 8 to get just the right amount of mixiness.

Now spread on the underside of one of the sponges. Top with the other sponge topside uppermost.
Lemony curdy cream will escape but don't fret it just adds to the homemadeness of it all.

you can leave it like that or.....Make a simple lemon glace icing using about 250 g icing sugar and enough fresh lemon juice to make a thickish paste.
Slather all over the roof of the cake and leave till set.
Decorate with coloured icings ( I used shop bought).

Store in a cool room or in the fridge.