Here’s a lovely light sponge cake with a tasty combination of flavours. Ideal for a tea time treat.

Makes: 1 medium/large cake (12 – 15 slices)

Time: Prep 35 minutes; baking 25 – 30 minutes

Level: Easy

Need: 2 x 20cm/8” round tins

Ingredients

125g/4½oz plain white flour
75g/2½oz wholemeal flour
½ tsp salt
(8g) A heaped tsp baking powder
225g/8oz butter softened
225g/8oz caster sugar
50g/1¾oz – 75g/2½oz lemon curd
4 eggs
75g/2½oz desiccated coconut
30ml/1fl oz milk
15ml/½fl oz lemon juice

Filling/topping

100g/3½oz Butter, softened
250g/9oz Mascarpone (at room temperature)
400g/14oz – 500g/16oz Icing sugar
A little lemon juice if needed
50g/1¾oz – 75g/2½oz Lemon curd
Some desiccated coconut

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C / fan 170°C / 375°F / gas 5. Grease and line the tins. Weigh and sift the flours, salt and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar together. Beat in the lemon curd. Beat in the eggs one at a time with a tsp of the flour mixture. Then stir in the remaining flour mixture and desiccated coconut.

3. Mix together the milk and lemon juice and stir in.

4. Divide the mixture equally between the two tins. Bake for about 25 minutes. Leave in the tins for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

5. To make the filling/topping, beat the butter and mascarpone until light and fluffy then sift in the icing sugar. Stir to mix then beat or whisk more vigorously.

6. Spread a layer of lemon curd on one of the cakes, followed by about 2/3 of the filling cream with some desiccated coconut mixed in. Put the other cake on top and cover with the remaining 1/3 of the cream. Sprinkle over some desiccated coconut. (I actually put the topping on first, then added the coconut into the remaining mixture – just a slight difference, because I planned to add coconut to the topping and didn’t want to overdo the coconut.)

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I hope you enjoy this lovely cake. If you want more cake recipes click this link, or have a look at my site for lots of other great recipes, both sweet and savoury. Below are some cakes that I’d love you to try:

Golden Chocolate Cake