Dairy-Free Whole Lemon Cake with Coconut Lemon Curd

One of my closest friends passed her PhD this week and she just loves lemons. Therefore for the celebrations, I made the lemon-iest cake I could. Two layers of whole lemon cake, sandwiched with a homemade lemon curd and frosted with lemon buttercream. Everything is dairy-free, and the coconut lemon curd turned out fantastic! It took around 4 hours from start to finish, but I was happy with the result. If you like lemons, you're going to love this cake ;)

Makes one 20cm cake (easily serves 15-20)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 275g (1 & 1/3 cups) dairy-free butter/shortening - softened
• 275g (1 & 2/5 cups) caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 275g (2 & 1/5 cups) self-raising flour

For the coconut lemon curd:

• 3 lemons, zest and juice
• 150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 75g (2/5 cup) coconut oil
• 3 eggs, beaten

For the lemon buttercream:

• 150g (2/3 cup) dairy-free butter/shortening, softened
• 300g (3 cups) icing sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Yellow food colouring (I used a concentrated gel)

For the candied lemon:

• 2 unwaxed lemons
• 45g (3 tbsp) granulated sugar (and around 30g extra for dusting)
• 100ml (2/5 cup) water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/350f/gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of two 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins and dust with flour.

2. Place the lemons in a pan of simmering water and cook for around 20 minutes, until a knife can easily be pressed into the lemon.

3. Remove the lemon from the pan, leave to cool for a few minutes, and then cut in half. Remove any pips. Place the remainder of the cooked lemon (including any peel) into a food processor/high power blender and blitz until a fairly fine puree. Set aside whilst you prepare the cake batter.

4. Cream the butter with the caster sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and no sugar crystals can be seen.

5. Add the eggs and two tablespoons of the flour. Beat in until all of the egg has been incorporated.

6. Sift over the remaining flour and add the pureed lemon. Fold in until evenly distributed then split between the two cake tins.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the sides of the cake are coming away from the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

8. To make the coconut lemon curd, put the lemon zest, juice, coconut oil and sugar in a heatproof bowl, and place this over a pan of simmering water (make sure the base of the bowl does NOT touch the water). Stir occasionally until all of the coconut oil has melted.

9. Slowly pour in the eggs, whisking constantly. Keep whisking for around 10 minutes until the curd has thickened to a point where it coats the back of a wooden spoon. At this point remove from the heat, pour into a bowl/jar and set aside to cool completely.

10. To make the candied lemon, cut 2-3mm slices of lemon (using a serrated knife is best). Place in a pan with the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the pith (the white section under the yellow zest), has become see-through. Drain and dust each lemon slice in granulated sugar. Set aside to dry.

11. To make the lemon buttercream, beat the dairy-free butter (or a shortening such as Trex) until it is very soft. Add the icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and beat. If the mixture is too dry to pick up all of the icing sugar, add more lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time. Beat until smooth and thick enough to pipe. Split into three bowls. Leave two natural, and colour the other a strong yellow.

12. To assemble the cake, level the top of each cake with a serrated knife. Place a tablespoon of buttercream on the cake board/serving plate, and top with the first sponge. Press down lightly. Top the sponge with half of the coconut lemon curd and smooth evenly over the sponge.

13. Top with the second sponge, again pressing down lightly. Use one of the no-food-colouring bowls of buttercream to spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top and sides of the cake. This acts as a crumb coat and helps to give a smarter finish. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.

14. Use a palette knife to spread the remaining white buttercream over the top and sides of the cake. Place a 1M (large flower) nozzle into a piping bag and fill with the yellow buttercream. Pipe half of the buttercream on the sides of the cake, piping small lines of yellow at different heights around the cake. Use a palette knife to smooth over these piped lines. This gives my attempt at an ombre/watercolour look.

15. Pipe the remaining buttercream around the rim on the top of the cake. Hold the piping bag vertically, and then pipe up and across to make a ribbon-like effect.

16. Place the candied lemon on the cake. I used some of mine to spell out Dr. and her name, and I placed the remaining slices on the sides of the cake :)

17. Enjoy!