Easter cake bake

I've always rather liked Easter, well what's not to like it's a festival that involves a lot of chocolate, similar to Christmas but more chocolatey and lets face it with much better weather.

My favourite memories of Easter are of trips to Wales with mum and dad. Escaping school and off down to our little holiday chalet in Wales. It was just a little wooden holiday chalet but it had the best view ever because perched on the hill it overlooked Llandulas bay and I'd sit there watching the waves and chomping on my chocolate eggs. Chocolate button eggs were always my favourite of course, (they still are) and I liked to break off a bit of egg and dunk it in my tea (I still do). It was even better eating eggs on the beach, especially if they were for pudding after chips with mushy peas and bread and butter and a bottle of fizzy Panda Pops. There's something wonderful about chips on the beach I think, even if its a bit cold and the wind is blowing or there's spots of rain nothing can ruin a lovely bag of chips with lots and lots of salt and vinegar. I can still remember sucking sticky chip fingers clean much to the horror of my mum, who had a constant supply of wet wipes on tap which she thought were far more appropriate for finger cleansing.

As ever I have wandered slightly off track so back to the present day and the purpose of this entry. As an Easter lover and a newly obsessed cake baker I decided to make an Easter cake. My initial thought were of course of chocolate, but having already recently cooked a chocolate birthday cake and the chilli chocolate cupcakes and the chocolate and banana loaf I was in danger of looking like a distinctly one trick pony. So I pondered and considered and pondered some more and decided to go with a lemon and raspberry Easter cake. As you can see from the picture, there had to be chocolate somewhere but I think the bunny looks quite happy there amongst a sprinkling of mini eggs.

This cake was baked to the tunes of the Arctic Monkeys followed by some Faithless followed by some Biffy Clyro. My favourite bit was juicing the lemons because suddenly I was in a happy haze of lemony loveliness transported to a Sicilian lemon grove smiling in the sun. I suppose you could use Cif if you absolutely have to but I doubt it would taste as nice, so go on, use the real lemons all six of them and maybe even a couple more just for the joy of juicing.

What does it taste like I hear you ask. Well, it's a lovely moist lemony sweetness with undertones of almond and creamy centre with a raspberry zing. The almondy taste reminds me of Battenburg cake, which was always my favourite and which I always liked to have with lemonade (yes I was a strange child) so again for me its a taste of childhood on a plate. Hopefully it will be enjoyed by all after Easter lunch tomorrow. Though will have to explain why there is a couple of slices missing (I think he may actually be on slice 4 now) but well guess he can't be blamed for tucking in.

I hope if you try it and like it you'll drop me a message to let me know, I'd like that. Happy Easter to everyone x

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
• 300g caster sugar
• 350g butter, softened
• 2 tsp almond essence
• 6 medium eggs, beaten
• 150g ground almonds
• 300g self-raising flour
• grated zest of 4 lemons
• 6 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Mini eggs to decorate
•
• For the drizzle
• 150g icing sugar
• 3-4 tbsp lemon juice
•
• For the filling
• 300ml double cream
• 150g lemon curd
• 200g raspberries
•
• For the icing
• 300g royal icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• yellow food colour
Method
1.Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Grease and flour 2 x 20cm (8in) cake tins.

2.Beat the sugar, butter and almond extract together until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, then fold in the ground almonds, flour, lemon zest and juice.

3.Spoon into the tins, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

4.Make the drizzle by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice together. When the cake comes out of the oven, turn out onto a cooling rack set over a plate. Prick all over with the skewer and drizzle with the syrup. Set aside to cool.

5.Whip the cream and fold in the lemon curd. Set one cake on a plate, level the top if necessary and spoon over the cream. Sprinkle with the raspberries and set the other cake half on top. Set aside. I liked doing this bit, but be careful not to add too much cream and raspberries as it can get very squelchy when you pop on the top

This would be too much raspberries and cream by the way!

6.To make the icing, mix the lemon juice and icing sugar until it’s a spoonable consistency, but still quite paste-like. Use a few drops of the yellow colour to make a pastel-yellow shade and spoon the icing evenly over the cake, allowing it to drip down and coat the sides. Run a spoon or pallet knife around the sides to neaten and evenly distribute the icing.

7. Decorate with anything lovely you want to. I went for a rather lovely chocolate bunny and some mini eggs.