REVIEW: Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake [deliaonline.com]

When you have parents in their fifties, it becomes increasingly difficult to know just what to give to them on their birthdays. Now, this year wasn't an issue with my father, as I was off living in Italy and being the sort he is, he didn't notice the lack of a gift because whenever he wants something he simply goes out and buys it himself. This makes it impossible to find anything for the man who believes an object unnecessary unless it fulfils a particular purpose.

So, to make up for this awful daughterly behaviour, I decided to try harder with my mother's birthday. (And after all, I was back in the UK...!) When I was very small, we're talking about five here, I would simply pick out a pair of earrings for her using my father's money. As I got a little older, and gifts started to come out of my own pocket money, I would choose different scented candles and cute candle holders. Now, though, that seems a little wanting, and as she has always been the kind that appreciates the home-made much more than the shop-bought, I decided to bake her a cake.

That, however, presented a slight problem. My mother is notoriously fussy when it comes to sweet things so I decided to ask her to help me out with ideas of cakes she might actually like, rather than just bake her the huge chocolate extravaganza I would do for myself. She first came up with a Victoria sponge, which we deemed very un-birthday-like, but eventually settled on a lemon cake. 

I found a recipe on deliaonline.com for an Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake. Bingo! It just so happens my mother is a sucker for lemon curd. So after a quick trip to Morrison's to source the ingredients, I began. Mostly, as I am much more familiar with vegan baking than traditional baking, I did follow the recipe as instructed by Delia and resisted the temptation to make alterations, which paid off! (And taught me a valuable lesson: to avoid kitchen disasters, always listen to those who know more than you do. Actually...this really could be applied to more things than simply baking, but I digress.) The only thing I didn't do as per instructions was using the right size sandwich tins, so instead of slicing each sponge layer in half I left them intact, and we simply used up the extra lemon curd on toast the next day.

And, as for how the cake tasted...well, despite the fact that we were all very full, we had second helpings. The recipe calls for three lemons, so the flavour comes through with every bite. The combination of lemon curd as a filling with a lemon icing glaze on top of the cake adds a nice change in texture and jazzes up the moist-yet-springy sponge cake nicely. Definitely one to bake again.