A sweet, moist cake with zingy lemon buttercream and a slick of raspberry jam. I added the lion's face with red and yellow royal icing but this cake looks lovely simply frosted or with a handful of crystallized flower petals.
Ingredients
For the cake
180g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
200g white chocolate, roughly chopped
200ml whole milk 280g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp strawberry jam
For the icing
250g unsalted butter, softened
300g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of one large lemon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 C/160 C fan. Grease two 20cm round cake tins with butter and line the bases with parchment paper.
In a bain marie, melt the butter, white chocolate and milk until smooth then remove from the heat. Meanwhile, sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Beat in the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract, followed by the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of each cake comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then run a knife round the edges and remove from the tins to cool completely.
To make the icing, beat the butter until pale and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add the icing sugar and beat again until completely incorporated. Finally add the lemon zest and juice, beating until combined.
Sandwich together the two cakes with a few dollops of buttercream and the strawberry jam, then spread over the remaining buttercream. Cake will keep in an airtight container for 2 - 3 days.
Recipe by thelittleloaf at http://www.thelittleloaf.com/2017/02/09/white-chocolate-lemon-birthday-cake/