Lemon Meringue Pie

With the long summer evenings and warmer weather finally arrived here on Skye my hens are laying well. So what to make when you have a glut of freshly laid eggs. Having never made it before Lemon Meringue Pie was high on my list. I love baking with citrus fruits so Lemon Meringue Pie ticks all the boxes.

Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie

My recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie uses the pastry recipe I have used in previous tarts which is fairly foolproof. Which only leaves two more stages to make. So here goes…my recipe is below! Continue reading “Lemon Meringue Pie”

Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake

I haven’t baked for a couple of weeks as we are busy refitting the kitchen.

Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake
Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake

However the new oven is all connected and our new hens have just started laying eggs so a cake was in order. I find that a lot of recipes for Lemon and Poppyseed Cakes turn out to be uninspiring loaf cakes. This recipe turns a run of the mill Lemon and Poppyseed Cake into an indulgent Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake!

But first a giggle – the recipe calls for 4 large eggs! Five of my girls lay medium eggs and one seems to lay enormous eggs. I picked two of the huge eggs and two medium ones thinking that would balance out to about 4 eggs. The first two huge eggs I cracked into the mixture were double yolkers! A fab surprise but not quite what I was looking for in my cake. I had enough yolk but probably not enough egg white, so I threw in one egg white and crossed my fingers. As you can see the cake worked out well, and is very yellow. My ladies are fairly free range and love a bit of corn every day so in turn we get very golden eggs!

Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake

Ingredients

Cake:
225g Stork
225g Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g Golden Caster Sugar
100g Light brown sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 2 lemons – finely grated
20g poppyseeds

Filling:
Half a jar of Lemon curd
75g softened butter
250g sifted icing sugar
splash of milk

Method

Heat the oven to 160c fan.
Grease an line 2 x 18cm cake tins.
Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix until smooth and creamy.
Divide the mix evenly between the two tins and cake for 20-25 minutes.
Remove from the oven when baked and left in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the buttercream filling. Put the butter and icing sugar in a bowl and mix together, slowly add a splash of milk until the butter cream is soft and creamy.

When the cakes are completely cooled cut each one in half with a sharp knife. A very sharp bread knife is good and cut lengthways through from edge to edge. You should now have four circular thin sponge cakes.
Pick one to be the bottom and place onto a plate. Cover the top of this one generously with lemon curd.
Next sandwich the next sponge slice on top of the lemon curd. Smother the top of this one with a generous helping of buttercream.
Nestle the next sponge slice on top of the buttercream and cover this slice generously with lemon curd as you did earlier.
Finally add the top layer and cover it with the rest of the buttercream.

 

There you have it Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake.

Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake
Lemon and Poppyseed Layer Cake

Blueberry and Lemon Cake

I chose to create this Blueberry and Lemon Cake after a cake guessing game

Blueberry and Lemon Cake
Blueberry and Lemon Cake

with a friend on Twitter. Blueberry Cake was mentioned and it got my juices flowing. I have used frozen blueberries as they are readily available in the freezer aisle in most supermarkets. For the cream cheese frosting I used Philadelphia but any full fat soft cheese would be fine. Reduced fat soft cheeses are available but don’t give the same creamy texture. Below is the recipe for my Blueberry and Lemon Cake complete with a cream cheese frosting.

Continue reading “Blueberry and Lemon Cake”