Summer Sponge Celebration Cake
Serves 8
INGREDIENTS
6 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup plain flour, sifted twice
60 g butter, melted and cooled
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
CREAM
200 ml crème Fraiche
330 ml thickened cream
2 tablespoon icing sugar
¼ cup lemon curd, store-bought or homemade (see my homemade lemon curd recipe)
TOPPINGS
A mixture of fresh currants, fresh apricots, boysenberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries (or your favourite seasonal fruit)
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180C. Line two 20cm cake tins with baking paper and set them aside.
Beat sugars, eggs, and vanilla for 10 minutes to get some real volume into it. Don’t skip this step! Set a timer and beat for the full 10 minutes. Run your finger down the back of a spoon, and it should leave a trail.
Gently fold the sifted flour into the egg mixture, then add the cooled melted butter and fold again.
Divide the cake batter between the two prepared cake tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until it springs back when lightly pressed (the brown sugar gives it a dark amber colour so don’t panic!)
Once your sponges have cooked, turn them out onto a wire rack, peel off the baking paper and leave until completely cooled.
Meanwhile, beat crème Fraiche and cream with icing sugar until it’s thick and pillowy. Ripple through 1 tablespoon of lemon curd and add in another if you prefer more lemon curd.
Now let’s assemble this bad boy!! Grab a serving board or plate and place down one of the sponges. Topple on half the cream mixture, making sure to keep it high. We want this sponge to be dramatic, so the higher, the better! Gently place the remaining sponge on top and add big dollops of the cream mixture. You can smooth this out to an even layer, or keep it more rustic. It’s totally up to you.
Time to make it pretty! Always starting with the larger fruit, so in my case, it’s the apricots. Halve them, remove the stone and place them on top of the sponge. Grab the berries and scatter them around. Follow this with fresh cherries, and lastly finish it off with little pops of red from the fresh currants.
