Juliet Sear Lemon Meringue Showstopper Cake Recipe
This delicious and zingy lemon meringue cake is extra special, with a stripy filling which is a lovely surprise when it’s cut. It’s made easy by using 2 packets of the Carr’s Lemon Cake Mix to create a lovely tall 4 layer sponge cake. If you prefer to keep it simple there’s no need to pipe the stripy filing you can simply fill with frosting and lemon curd, but it’s really simple to achieve the stripe effect and well worth it for the reaction you get when people see the inside it’s such fun!
1 x 6” round layer cake – serves approx 16
Recipe
Juliet Sear Lemon Meringue Showstopper Cake Recipe
This delicious and zingy lemon meringue cake is extra special, with a stripy filling which is a lovely surprise when it’s cut. It’s made easy by using 2 packets of the Carr’s Lemon Cake Mix to create a lovely tall 4 layer sponge cake. If you prefer to keep it simple there’s no need to pipe the stripy filing you can simply fill with frosting and lemon curd, but it’s really simple to achieve the stripe effect and well worth it for the reaction you get when people see the inside it’s such fun!
1 x 6” round layer cake – serves approx 16
INGREDIENTS
6 Eggs
200ml Water
200ml Oil or 200g Butter
For the Frosting
350g softened unsalted butter
700g sifted icing sugar
200g Lemon curd
A pack of shop bought meringue of your choice, regular or mini is fine as we will crush these up for the decoration (Juliet used half a pack of M&S mini meringues approx. 25g)
Yellow food colouring (strong gel colour is best, not the liquid kind or it will make the icing runny)
Equipment needed:
2 x 6” round cake tins, base and side lined
Stand mixer with paddle attachment or bowls and wooden spoons
Cake turntable (optional)
Cake stand or plate for display
2 x piping bags
Palette knife
Wire rack
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 190C (170C Fan/Gas Mark 5).
- Mix the cake mixes according to the pack instructions.
- Divide the batter into 4 and place a quarter into the two tins, reserving the remaining half until the first two layers have baked.
- Bake for around 20-25 mins until the sponges are light and springy, light golden and cooked in the centre completely. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove from the tins, remove the paper and cool on a wire rack. Then bake the remaining two layers in the same way.
- While the cakes are cooling, make your frosting. Beat the butter until very creamy and smooth, for a minute or so. Gradually add the icing sugar, about a quarter at a time, beating each addition slowly at first so the icing sugar doesn’t puff up everywhere, and then once mixed, beat well for a minute or so each time. Continue until you have a light and fluffy butter cream. Mix in 100g of lemon curd to the frosting reserving the further 100g of lemon curd for spreading onto the sponge layers.
- Remove 250g of the frosting and place it into a plastic piping bag.
- Remove a further 250g and tint this a bright yellow colour and place it into a piping bag. Once your sponge layers have cooled, check they are flat and level, if any have small humps where they have risen, trim a little off the top of each cake so it’s flat. Save the trim for cake pops, truffles or trifle.
- Place the first layer onto your plate or stand. Add a splodge of buttercream to stick it in place, making sure the side that was in the bottom of the tin is stuck to the plate and the top/trimmed side is upwards. Spread over with a third of the curd.
- Snip a hole in both bags and pipe a white ring around the edge of the cake, you want the frosting in the layer to be about 5mm thickness.
- Now pipe a ring of yellow within the outer circle and continue in the same manner, it will look a bit like a bullseye with decreasing white and yellow rings. Top with a second cake, crust side up and repeat with the curd and striped filling and again with the third in the same way.
- Invert the last sponge with the crust facing down and the smooth part of the cake that was in the bottom of the tin is uppermost. Press onto the cake to set it firmly and make sure it is all in line and as neat as possible.
- With a palette knife, dollop the rest of the frosting on top of the cake, spread over the top and sides until it’s all covered and the gaps between the cake layers are filled. Use a gentle pressure against the side of the cake with the palette knife and use a back and forth spreading motion to spread the frosting over the top and sides. Once you’re happy with the coating, if you like to make a pattern you can run the end of the palette knife around the outside of the cake, building upwards to give you little ruffles up the side of the cake, and for the top use the end of the palette knife and gently sweep around the outside edge to make a swirl, decreasing as you go to give you a swirl pattern over the top.
- To finish, crush up a few meringues into little pieces and press against the bottom of the cake with a flat palm and sprinkle around the outer top edge to finish.