Lemon & Raspberry Easter Cake

I cannot get enough Mini Eggs. I love them so much I decided to make a Mini Eggs inspired pastel Easter cake. Maybe green wasn't the best of choice, but it's all the colouring I had in my supplies.

Lemon and raspberry layer cake with lemon buttercream

A light citrus sponge with layers of Mackays raspberry jam give this cake an impressive slice. I like to make my layer cakes with 3-4 sponge layers to give that deep slice. 

Lemon sponge

(recipe adapted from Delia Online, makes two deep 18cm sponges)

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g golden caster sugar

175g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

3 large eggs

zest of 1 large lemon

1tbsp lemon juice

a few tablespoons of Mackays raspberry jam

Heat the oven to 170 degrees. Lightly grease and line the bases of the two cake tins. 

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the zest and lemon juice. Gently fold in the baking powder and flour until smooth.

Divide between the prepared tins and bake until golden on the centre shelf, about 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, sandwich the layers together with a tablespoon of raspberry jam for each. I used a cake wire to half each of the layers for this one to give it 4 layers.

Lemon buttercream

125g unsalted butter, softened

250g icing sugar, sifted

juice of 1 small lemon

food colouring of choice (optional)

Beat the butter for a few minutes to soften. Add half the icing sugar and continue to beat in until evenly combined. Add the lemon juice, food colouring and the remaining icing sugar and beat again until light and fluffy.

To cover the cake, do a crumb coat first with a third of the buttercream. Chill for 30 minutes - 1 hour in the fridge to firm up. Then use a palette knife to smooth the rest of the buttercream over the cake.