I always found it a bit quirky in Germany when it's someone's birthday, the birthday is on them. They pay for the celebrations and typically bring the cake. So this year, I did a bit of a German on it and brought cake in for my work colleagues to enjoy.
This is an adaptation of my mum's recipe. She normally does this wonderful lemon drizzle cake without the buttercream. I had the passionfruit in stock and I love the flavour, so that went in too.
The general consensus was that the consistency was more like a mud cake rather than a typical sponge. I was happy with that, there wasn't a crumb left. As good a compliment as any.
Serves 10
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
175g caster sugar
160g butter (unsalted)
175g self raising flour
Grated rind of lemon
2 eggs
120ml. milk
Drizzle Ingredients
60ml lemon juice
Pulp of 1 passionfruit
150g caster sugar
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
400g cream cheese, brought to room temperature
100g cup butter, softened
400g cups icing sugar
4 tbsp. maple syrup
50ml plain yoghurt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
You will need two 9 inch (22-23 cm) cake tins for this recipe.
Method
Rub some butter around your cake tins and line with baking paper.
Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 170 degrees for fan assisted.
Beat the butter and the caster sugar together until a light cream colour.
Whisk the eggs and the milk together in a bowl or jug and slowly add to the butter /sugar, beating as you go.
Slowly beat in the flour.
Fold in the lemon zest.
Pour half the mixture into each of the tins.
Bake the cakes for 30 minutes. Checking after 25 minutes to make sure they are not overbrowning. If they are but there's still a wiggle in the mixture, cover with tin foil and bake for slightly longer.
To test, stick a metal skewer into the middle of the cake. The skewer should come away clean when removed. Leave to cool for 15 minutes or so and remove the cakes from the tins and place on a wire rack.
Mix all the drizzle ingredients together and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Drizzle over the top of the two cakes. I didn't have a cool, dry place to store them so I put them in the fridge overnight. I think this is what changed the consistency from a sponge to a mud cake.
Gently remove the baking paper from the bottom of the cakes.
To make the cream cheese frosting, beat the butter and the cream cheese and slowly add the maple syrup and beat a little longer. Then slowly add in the icing sugar, beating each time. Stir in the lemon juice and then fold in the yoghurt.
Get your first cake on your serving plate. Keeping the drizzle side up; knife on a layer of the frosting with a palette knife. Place the second cake on top with the drizzle side up again. Put the remaining frosting on the middle of the cake and start maneuvering the cream over the top and don't the sides with your knife. Taking cake not to go too deep or it will mix the crumb in with the frosting.
You can decorate with a slice of lemon or some edible flowers.
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