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Caroline's Lemon Cake

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Servings 12

Ingredients
  

  • 6 oz Soft margarine, such as Stork, Pure Baking or Flora Buttery or Butter at room temperature (Don't even start if your butter is straight out the fridge. It has to be room temperature. And don't try to soften it in the microwave. This rarely goes well.)
  • 6 oz Caster Sugar
  • 3 medium Eggs - about 2oz each in weight
  • 6 oz Gluten-free self raising flour (I always use Doves Freee)
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 tbsp Milk, rice milk or other dairy alternative) (I'd always recommend using Rice milk. It's not as overpowering as other flavours, does a great job and fewer people have an intolerance to it.)
  • 1 Grated zest of a lemon. Save the juice for the icing!
  • 1 tsp Lemon extract

Butter cream icing

  • 3 oz Butter
  • 6 oz Icing sugar
  • Lemon juice

Dairy Free 'buttercream equivalent' icing (yes, I know I've switched to metric. Hey ho, that's how my brain does this recipe).

  • 70 g Flora Buttery or other buttery tasting dairy free margarine
  • 50 g Trex or other vegetable shortening
  • 300 g Icing sugar
  • Lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp Milk or dairy-free milk alternative e.g. rice milke

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Heat your oven to 170°C. Grease and line two 7½" cake tins.
  • Blend maragine and sugar food processor until well mixed, light and fluffy
  • Add eggs, one by one. If needs be, and a tbsp of flour with each egg to stop the mixture splitting.
  • Add the flour, grated lemon zest, and lemon extract.
  • Blend until mixed
  • Divide equally between the two cake tins and smooth the top
  • Bake for approx. 35 minutes.

Icing

  • With a hand mixer, mix the softened butter (or margerine and Trex) until smooth.
  • Add the icing sugar tablespoon by tablespoon, adding the lemon juice in after about 3 tablespoon's worth of icing sugar. Be gentle with the mixer, or you'll cover yourself and the kitchen in a cloud of white powder.
  • Add the milk or milk alternative as needed until your icing is at the desired consistency. If you are making the dairy free version, your icing is likely to be a little runnier, so go easy on adding the milk alternative.

Notes

Lemon juice and gluten free flours don't seem to be the best of friends. Much more reliable to use lemon extract, and to save your lemon juice to flavour the icing.