Celebration Lemon Cake with PURE Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Spring is finally here and what better time to enjoy cake and ice cream on a sunny afternoon. This stunning lemon cake relies on tart lemons to really show it off. Serve it with a good scoop of delicious, all-natural PURE New Zealand Lemon Curd Ice Cream to heighten the flavours and textures in the cake.

Recipe serves 8-10

225g butter

1 cup caster sugar

3 free-range eggs

250g crème fraiche

2 tablespoons thin-shred marmalade (preferably lemon or lime marmalade)

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 ¾ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Lemon syrup

¼ cup caster sugar

¼ cup water

finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Lemon filling

300ml Double Cream

1 cup store bought lemon curd, such as Taste of the Alps Lemon Curd (or for a homemade version, see below for recipe)

200g ricotta

Method

Heat the oven to 170°C. Line the base of a 22cm round springform cake tin with baking paper. Lightly grease the sides and dust with flour, tapping to remove excess.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce electric mixer to low speed, add the crème fraiche and marmalade and beat until just combined. Remove bowl from the beater.

Add the lemon zest then sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Carefully fold in until combined as you are trying to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

After removing from the oven leave for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to a wire rack, to cool.

Meanwhile, make the lemon syrup. Put the sugar and water in a small pot. Add the lemon zest and juice and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for a minute to make a light syrup. Leave to cool.

Make the filling, whip the cream until thick. In a separate bowl, mix together half of the lemon curd and the ricotta. Add half of the whipped cream and gently fold in.

To assemble the cake, cut the cake in half horizontally and put the bottom half on a cake plate. Spoon over half of the lemon syrup. Spoon the remaining syrup over the top of the cake.

Spread the lemon ricotta mixture over the bottom half of the cake and carefully put on the top half. Swirl the remaining lemon curd through the remaining whipped cream and spread evenly over the top of the cake. Decorate with nasturtium flowers and a few leaves or pick their petals and scatter over.

To decorate and serve

Nasturtium flowers and small leaves or use other edible flowers or shredded and blanched lemon rind.

Serve with PURE New Zealand Lemon Curd or Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Homemade Lemon Curd

Makes 1 medium jar plus 1 small jar

1 cup caster sugar (170g cup)

115g butter

finely grated zest and juice of 2 large lemons (about ½ cup juice)

3 free-range eggs (use larger eggs)

Put the sugar, butter, lemon zest and juice in a heavy-based pot. Put over medium-low heat to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter.

Remove from the heat and sieve the eggs into the pot, stirring quickly using a wooden spoon at the same time. Return to the heat and cook, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens without boiling, as it will curdle. (If it does curdle a little, remove from the heat and give the mixture a good whisk). Leave to cool before putting into clean jars with tight-fitting lids. The lemon curd will thicken as it cools too.

This recipe has been created by Kathy Paterson in conjunction with Outstanding Food Producers NZ.