Belgian Lemon Tea Cake

 I made this recipe for my last tea party and it was so good! So much lemon flavor in the curd filling with the cake on the bottom. Really good. This was a gluten free recipe or you can use regular flour. Recipe originally from itsnotcomplicatedrecipes.com

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup (150 g) self-raising flour I used Orgran Gluten Free SR Flour
• 1/2 cup (115 g) caster sugar super fine
• 1/4 cup (60 g) butter
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• icing sugar/confectioners' sugar optional, for dusting

Filling

• 1/2 cup (120 ml) lemon juice strained
• 1/2 cup (115 g) caster sugar super fine
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup (60 g) butter chopped

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 180 Degrees C (350 F)

  Grease and line the base and sides of a 17cm/6.5” spring-form tin* with non-stick baking paper.
• Add flour, sugar, butter and lightly beaten egg to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.

  Pulse until the mixture just starts to come together.

  Don’t process until the mixture forms a ball of dough, you want it to still be a little crumbly.

  Tip the mixture onto some cling wrap.
• Divide the mixture and gently press 2/3 into the base of the prepared tin, reserving the remaining 1/3.
• Make the lemon curd as per the instructions below. Pour the hot lemon curd onto the cake base.

  As evenly as possible, crumble the remaining mixture over the top of the curd.
• Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

  Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan.
• Gently remove the side of the spring-form tin.

  Remove the baking paper, place the cake on a serving platter and dust the tea cake with icing/confectioners’ sugar.

  Lovely served on its own, or with a dollop of cream.

Lemon Curd Filling

• Place all filling ingredients in a saucepan.*
• Over a low heat, stir until the butter has melted and the curd thickens, just below boiling point.

  Don’t be tempted to use high heat to make the process quicker; you will end up with scrambled egg.

Vanilla Butter Cake

This is my go to fancy, vanilla cake recipe. It is very easy, but has amazing flavor. I usually serve it with a raspberry layer and a buttercream frosting. I usually spread it over a whole sheet pan, then cut it in half for my layers. Then you don't have to do surgery to split a cake. I'm not entirely sure where the original recipe came from, except her name was Rose. 

2 3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup salted butter, softened

3/4 cup shortening

2 tsp. vanilla extract

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1tsp. salt

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. Cream together the sugar, butter and shortening until smooth; then beat in vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, until fluffy. 

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). Add this flour mixture and the evaporated milk to the original mixture alternately; ending with milk. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed, then fold in the sour cream. 

4. Spread onto a parchment lined half sheet pan. Bake for 25-35 minute, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (check at 25 minutes).