Lemon Drizzle Cake

For the cake:
300g unsalted butter
400g caster sugar
zest and juice 3 lemons
8 large free range eggs
300g self-raising flour
250g ground almonds
2tsp baking powder
8tbsp lemon curd

For the lemon syrup:
juice of 4 lemons
120g caster sugar

(Increase all quantities by 50% to bake across 3x sandwich tins)

1. Cream the butter and the sugar until almost white. This is best done in a free-standing mixer, to avoid a very tired arm! Combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside while the butter creams.
2. Beat the eggs in a jug and add the lemon zest and juice to this. Gradually incorporate this mixture into the butter and sugar, mixing all the time and adding a teaspoon of your dry ingredients if the mix begins to curdle.
3. Gently add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients until just combined. Mix through the lemon curd until fully incorporated.
4. Divide the mixture between two lined sandwich tins and bake for approximately 45 minutes. The cakes are done when a skewer comes out clean.
5. Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is perfectly translucent.
6. As soon as you remove the cakes from the oven, poke them right down to the bottom of the tin in several places with a skewer. Really go for it and pour all of the syrup over the top of the cakes but leave each pouring of syrup to soak in before you add more rather than allowing a puddle to collect on top. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Sandwich your cake layers together with Classic Vanilla Buttercream, a cheeky added tablespoon or two of lemon curd will make it lemony buttercream. Leave it there, cover with more buttercream, or go all out glamour and cover with Italian Meringue and a scattering of flaked almonds for the ultimate finish!