Seeing as you all asked so nicely for the recipe of this lemon cake that I made for my Mum's Birthday this week I thought I'd share a few cake baking secrets before the long weekend in case you're in a baking mood... 

If you read this post back in January then you'll probably be able to guess what's coming next. 

The reason that these sponges are so even, well risen and perfectly soft without splitting or going all crumby or domed on one side? Betty Crocker of course!

I kind of feel embarrassed, again, to share that this is from a packet mix. But actually, when you're short on time, and don't want any uncertainty or stress of a cake not performing well then why not? It just saves you the measuring out of all the dry ingredients and makes life 10 million times easier. I used 2 x Betty Crocker lemon cake mixes and put one into each cake tin. I think you should always double up cake mixes so that they're more impressive. To this mix you just add oil, water and 3 eggs to each. You don't even need an electric mixer, just mix by hand with a wooden spoon {which I love}. 

I then filled the sponges with lemon curd {again, you could make this if you're feeling saintly/have a spare hour but frankly why bother. It's not like we live on the Amalfi Coast and have an abundance of lemons to use up}. Then it was at this point I decided I should have frosted the sides first. 

So I frosted the top {using Betty Crocker's lemon buttercream which FYI is really delicious and not too sweet or synthetic in flavour at all} and then carefully ghost frosted the sides being careful not to smear too much of the curd around. To ghost frost you just lightly go around the edge, scraping off any excess so it gives a just there finish. 

Smooth off your edges with a palette knife. Then decorate. That's it! And it will keep super fresh for a good couple of days longer than Mary Berry/Delia's recipe {or pop what you can't eat in the freezer, that's my new life hack}.

I decorated this with some fresh fruit and cut some forget me knot flowers from the garden.

Super easy, yet everybody will still be impressed that you made a cake {and who's telling that Betty helped you out?!}. 

I actually think the lemon flavour is a lot better than the vanilla in terms of real flavour. It was a really delicious cake and so much got demolished at my Mum's BBQ the other night. 

And my gorgeous Mumma loved it! 

Are you an old school baker or a happy cheater?!

R <3 xx