Lemon and Almond Cake

I came across this recipe on a Tesco Real Food leaflet, and thought it sounded so good that I tried it out myself. Ive never thought of using lemon and almond together but it works really well and tasted great!

Heres the recipe:

Ingredients-
For the cake:

• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 1/2 lemons, zested
• 75g plain flour
• 150g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the mascarpone cream:

• 200g light mascarpone
• 100ml double/whipping cream
• 2 tbsp icing sugar

Extra:

• 4 tbsp lemon curd
• handful of toasted flaked almonds

First preheat your oven to 180c, and grease and line two 8 inch sandwich tins.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, gradually add in the egg and beat together until light and fluffy. Beat in the almond extract and lemon zest.

Next sift in all of the dry ingredients and gently fold in with a metal spoon. Split the batter into your two tins and place into the oven for 20-25 minutes. If you want to test it, stick a knife in the middle, if it comes out clean, its done.

Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the mascarpone cream, in a medium bowl, beat together the cream, mascarpone and icing sugar until smooth.

Once the cakes are cool put one sponge on a serving plate and spread 2 tbsp of the lemon curd onto it. Then on top of that spread half the mascarpone cream. Place the other sponge on top and spread over the rest of the cream.

So you can drizzle it over the cake, mix the leftover lemon curd with some hot water. Then careful drizzle it on the cake. Sprinkle on the flaked almonds.

A slice of this goes lovely with a cup of tea!