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Easy-Peasy May Day Cake

Easy-Peasy May Day Cake

Chef Katherine Frelon shares her easy-peasy recipe for lemon drizzle cake. Perfect for your May Day celebration.

This makes such a pretty centre piece and you don’t have to be a great baker or arty to achieve it! I decorate a cake board with fondant icing or use a lovely cake stand wide enough for the round cake and the cupcakes. You can buy a two-tiered victoria sponge or lemon drizzle from the Market or for those who wish to make the cake themselves, I have included my grandmother’s recipe for lemon drizzle cake.- Chef Katherine Frelon

INGREDIENTS

For the lemon drizzle cake:
225g butter, soft
2 lemons
225g sugar
6 fresh free range eggs
275g self-raising flour, sieved
1 tsp baking powder
A splash of milk
Several different coloured fondant icings
12 scented cupcakes of your choice

For the syrup:
80g sugar
1 lemon

Equipment:
1 10″ or 12″ cake tin
A piece of dowling, 25-30cm long
Coloured ribbons
Toothpicks or little picks with flag decorations on them
Fresh flowers to decorate

METHOD

Grease and line your baking tins and preheat the oven to 200C.

Whisk the butter, zest of 2 lemons and sugar together in a mixer until pale and fluffy, scraping down the bowl on several occasions to make sure it is all well combined.

Whisk the eggs together with a fork in a jug. You should aim to get big fat bubbles—remember the more air you can incorporate, the lighter the cake.

Reduce the speed on the mixer and gradually add the whisked eggs, whisking each time with a fork before adding more. If you see the cake is slightly on the edge of curdling, add a small amount of flour.

When all the egg is in, turn off the machine. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder. Add the juice of 1 lemon and a splash of milk, then fold through gently. Divide between the tins and cook until golden and well risen.

Make the syrup in a small saucepan by adding the sugar and lemon juice and simmering until syrupy. Cool. When the cakes come out of the oven, prick with a skewer and spoon over the lemon syrup. Cool, then remove from the tins.

To assemble, cover a cake board with coloured fondant icing. Cover the top of the large cake with either coloured fondant icing or a dusting of icing sugar. Place the cake in the middle of the board.

Decorate the cupcakes using different coloured fondant icings to make fondant flowers, or use bought ones. Position the cupcakes around the central cake.

Using two different coloured ribbons, cover the dowling by alternately spiralling the ribbons around it, and fix at the bottom with tape.

Push the dowling through the centre of the large cake. Fix 12 pieces of coloured ribbon to the centre pole and secure with double sided sticky tape, then cover that with a small piece of ribbon to hide all the edges.

Place each ribbon in the centre of each cupcake and secure with a toothpick or a floral flag.

ALTERNATIVE: If you are in a rush, make an all-in-one cake and add 1 tsp extra baking powder

www.katherinefrelon.com

About The Author

Katherine Frelon

I am Katherine Frelon, and my passion is creating delicious, colourful, food sourced from the freshest ingredients and sharing it with others over a glass or two of perfectly paired wine. Leaving England when I was in my very early 20′s, I set out on an adventure. I renovated various old buildings, learning to roof, plumb and tile along the way; forage for mushrooms; skin some of the most unpleasant looking fish and mammals I’d ever seen; pluck the wildlife; experiment with cheesemaking; make ‘boudin noir’ with no skins; rustle up a cauldron of a few hundred snails (all collected by hand, although I’m pleased to say not mine!); and finally made my way to Burgundy, where I settled and worked as a successful Chef for the American/French 5* Hotel Barging Company. Having searched high and low I finally found ’La Ferme de la Lochere‘, the perfect setting to share my love of all things French – the markets, the food, the wine and the wonderful local artisans. ‘La ferme de la lochere’ became the epicentre of gourmet culinary wine adventures! As well as my freelance catering commitments I have a passion for writing, being included in the BBC Good Food magazine and providing special occasion recipes in the newspapers. My inspiration comes from all over the world and I love creating recipes that are easy to follow and reproduce at home. A pioneer for all things locally grown and sourced, I created a range of ready prepared meals for my local farm shop. These have since gone on to win many awards and have been featured in Country Living Magazine. One of my greatest passions is cooking with spices and I am always experimenting with different combinations of ingredients, styles, and tastes. I am slightly obsessed I guess!!! I often refer to myself as the “head chef and bottle washer” but nothing would be possible if it were not for the dedicated team of friends and professionals that make my work such a joy!

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