A baker has promised a perfectly “delicate and moist” lemon cake can be achieved when adding just one ingredient. Maryam, the woman behind Cakes by MK, said that her recipe makes the “most incredibly delicious and soft lemon cake”, with “delicate, moist” sponge, a “zesty” lemon curd and “super delicious” cream cheese frosting.
Her secret ingredient is yoghurt, which she uses alongside milk to thin out the cake batter and provide additional moisture. Maryam likes using yoghurt in lemon cakes as she finds the “tartness found in yoghurt helps to amplify the lemon flavour” in the cake. Another sneaky addition that the baker says will make all the difference is substituting some of the flour for cornstarch. Maryam says that, as it doesn’t have any gluten, adding cornstarch results in a wonderfully soft cake.
To make the cake, preheat your oven and prep two cake tins. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, cream together the butter, oil, sugar, and lemon zest before adding in the eggs one by one.
Then, add in the yoghurt, milk and lemon juice and fold in the dry ingredients until combined. Distribute the batter evenly between the two cake tins and bake for half an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once cooked, allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 20 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the cream cheese frosting, cream butter in a large bowl then add icing sugar in thirds. Add in the cream cheese, vanilla extract and lemon juice and mix until combined and smooth.
For the eggless lemon curd, cook lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, milk and vanilla over a medium heat until thick. Then take the pan off the heat and add cold butter, stirring until melted. Strain the mixture and leave to cool.
For the middle of the cake, Maryam pipes the cream cheese frosting around the edge and fills the gap with lemon curd. After the second layer is on, cover the whole cake with frosting and pipe a border, fill the top of the cake with lemon curd and serve!
This cake can be left at room temperature for the day; however, overnight, it will need to be refrigerated due to the cream cheese in the frosting. When storing, place it in an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.