So it was the Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ cake sale at work the other week and I was asked if I wouldn’t mind contributing something for the occasion. I knew that I wanted to do something quite simple so I decided to go with a Lemon and Pistachio cake as anything lemon is usually a bit of a crowd pleaser.
The cake sale was a massive success and in total we managed to raise £240.80 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
It’s a super easy recipe and the bright yellow icing definitely cheered up a dull October day!
Prep Time: 2 hours
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
400g of Stork
400g of Caster Sugar
400g of Self Raising Flour
8 Eggs
The Zest of 6 Lemons
For the Icing:
500g of Icing sugar
250g of Butter
Half a jar of Lemon Curd
A handful of roughly chopped pistachios for decoration
For the Mini Macarons:
See ingredients needed for ‘Tennis Ball Macarons’ featured in my ‘Wimbledon Cake’ Recipe
Specialist Equipment:
It helps if you have an icing turntable and a small palette knife for when it comes to decorating but it’s not entirely necessary. Yellow food colouring.
Method:
1. For the Cake…Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 325 F/ Gas Mark 3.
- Cream the stork and sugar together then add the eggs, flour, and lemon zest.
- Divide the mix between two cake tins and bake in the oven for 50 minutes until they are springy, well risen and golden brown in colour.
PLEASE NOTE: I used 8 inch cake tins because I don’t have any smaller ones. However I wanted the cake to be closer to 6 inches so I actually cut the cake down to the size I wanted after it was cool. You don’t have to do this. You can leave it at 8 inches and you should still have enough icing to cover the whole cake.
To make the Mini Macarons…
- Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C and follow the recipe from my ‘Pistachio Macarons’ blog post, leaving out the pistachios and using yellow instead of green food colouring. Stop following the recipe once you get to the piping instructions.
- Instead of piping the macarons onto a silicone baking tray you should pipe them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, making them the same size as a 2 pence piece.
- Leave them out in the open for 20-30 minutes until the form a shiny top them bake them in the oven for 12 minutes. Then take them out and leave them to cool before filling.
For the Icing…
- Beat the butter and icing sugar, lemon curd and yellow food colouring together to make the buttercream. Leave it in the fridge for a bit if you want to stiffen it up a bit before icing.
To Construct…
- As I mentioned before it is your choice whether you cut your cake down to six inches or decide to leave it at 8. I chose the former.
- Ice the tops of both of your cakes and then place one on top of the other.
3. You then need to cover your whole cake in icing- this is where a turn table and palette knife can come in handy.
- Once your cake is covered in icing you can use your palette knife if you have one or a knife to achieve the effect seen in the photos below.
5. Finish the cake by filling your macarons with the buttercream and then placing them evenly around the top circumference of the cake. Then fill in the gaps between the macarons with the roughly chopped pistachios.
Crumble and Crunch 