Instructions
Basic lemon curd
This makes about 375 ml (1½ cups)
1 Melt 155 g butter in the microwave.
2 Add the juice of 3 large lemons (340 ml), 2.5 ml sugar and salt. Mix well.
3 Beat 5 eggs well and stir into the lemon mixture.
4 Microwave for 4 minutes on 100% power. Remove and stir. Microwave it for about 1 minute at at time, stirring after every minute for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickens.
5 Allow to cool.
Icing Butter
Makes about 2 cups
Beat 500g softened butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy and add 500 g sifted icing sugar. Beat until smooth. Add 5 ml (1 t) vanilla extract.
Italian meringue frosting
Enough to cover one big cake
1 Beat 1000 g egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peak stage and add 30 g caster sugar.
2 Heat 300 g caster sugar and 100 ml of water over low heat in a small saucepan.
3 Turn the heat to high and bring to 113 ° C.
4 Pour the sugar syrup in a steady stream to the egg whites and beat until the mixture is completely cool
Coconut icing
1 x amount of butter icing (shown above)
250 ml (1 cup) desiccated coconut, lightly toasted
1 x amount of Italian meringue (shown above)
1 x amount of lemon curd (shown above)
Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.
1 Line a 20 cm pan with baking paper and grease with butter.
Lemon Cake
2 Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3 Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks gradually, beating well after each addition until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest and vanilla.
4 Add the flour mixture and sour cream alternately to the mixture. Start and end with the flour mixture.
5 Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave for 10 minutes in the pans before turning out on a cooling rack.
Meanwhile, make the coconut icing
6 Mix the butter icing and coconut and set aside.
7 Cut each cake in half and spread each half with lemon curd and coconut icing.
8 Stack the cakes together. Leave 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
9 Decorate the cake with the meringue mixture.
10 Burn the meringue gently with a blowtorch to add color. Serve immediately