Lemon Layer Cake

You would never think this cake recipe is over a hundred years old! Absolutely delicious! From the old Modern Cookery book of 1917. While, of course, it can be eaten at any time, it is quite rich and we ate it as a dessert.

Butter and line a 6” loose bottom or spring form tin.

5 oz SR flour

4 oz softened butter

3 oz caster sugar

a lemon

2 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

Beat the fat and sugar to a soft cream with the grated rind of the lemon. Add the beaten eggs and beat until smooth. Now stir in the flour and milk and gradually add about half the lemon juice. [save the rest]  Turn into your prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour. Cool, wrap when cold then leave for 24 hours.

The filling:

a lemon

1 egg

4 oz caster sugar

1 oz softened butter

Beat the egg and add the sugar, then the grated rind and juice of half the lemon and the butter. Stir them in a basin over boiling hot water until the mixture is smooth and thick. I needed to add a heaped tablespoon of icing sugar too.  Leave until cold then cut the cake into three and spread with the filling.

The Icing:

8 oz icing sugar

lemon juice - you have saved!

flaked toasted almonds [dry fry them in a pan - but keep a watch and stir]

Sieve the sugar and add enough lemon juice to form a thick, but just runny, paste. Cover the whole of the cake with this then decorate the top and/or edges with the toasted almonds. 

Note:

Orange may be substituted for the lemon.

Just lovely as a dessert and even better with a little added clotted cream [not in the pic!!].  The filling soaks through making the cake so lush. Mmmmm.