Scrummy Lemon Meringue Cake!

If you have read any of my previous blogs you will know that I love cookery books with Nigella being one of my all time favourites.  I am trying to go through my collection and turn down the corners of the recipes that I want to try.  I hope I live to be a ripe old age because I need all the weeks on earth I can to get through baking all these cakes!  After making the gorgeous lemon curd the other day I was so looking forward to trying the recipe for Nigellas Lemon Meringue Cake.  While not the most attractive or neat cake i have ever made, what it lacks in style it makes up in flavour! Gorgeous chewy meringue with layers of lemon sponge, lemon curd, double cream and a few Wexford strawberries thrown in for good measure.  Sure with just one slice you almost have two of your fruit servings for the day.*

*this is a slight exaggeration! :-)

Ingredients

• 125gr soft butter
• 4 eggs, separated
• 300gr caster sugar and an extra teaspoon
• 100gr plain flour
• 25gr cornflour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp of milk
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 150ml of double cream
• 150gr lemon curd
• 1/2 punnet of strawberries

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and butter and line two sandwich tins.
Mix egg yolks, 100gr of the sugar, butter, cornflour, baking powder, bicarb and lemon zest together till combined.  Add lemon juice and milk and mix again. Spread mixture between the two prepared tins.
Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form and slowly add in the remaining 200gr of sugar.  Spread meringue on top of the sponge mixture in the tins, smooth one flat and peak the other one with a spoon before sprinkling over a tsp of caster sugar.  Put in oven for 20-25 minutes.  Test the flat meringue topping with a skewer to make sure no crumbs stick to it from sponge.  Remove to a wire rack and cool completely in tins.
Turn the flat topped meringue onto a cake stand or plate and peel of greaseproof, spread scrummy lemon curd generously over sponge layer, top with halved strawberries and lightly whipped double cream before topping with remaining cake, meringue side up. 

This tasted fabulous and sliced really nicely! Definitely a good cake to try if you like lemon curd and have a pot of it in your fridge.  Its a nice alternative to lemon meringue pie and I guarantee there will only be crumbs left! Thanks Nigella!