Lemon and raspberry battenberg made with homemade lemon curd

As I've said in a previous post I really don't know when spring is actually planning to arrive this year but it better be soon as the wind whipping around my house is FREEEZING, we've been waddling about like penguins for the past three days. To try and coax Mr Spring out from hibernation (or Mrs spring!) I decided this weekend to make a fruity battenberg with zesty lemon curd. That's right, this is not your average battenberg my dear friend.

This is a terrible picture, I know, I'm really upset with how the battenberg pictures turned out today, next time I'm either not going to use this blue background or iron it more thoroughly. Anyhoo this is my lemon and raspberry battenberg sandwiched together with a very generous spread of lemony lemon curd and covered in fondant icing (shop bought icing sorry). Now I know raspberries aren't in season but for this recipe I used frozen rasps, which can be cheap as chips, and if they don't taste too good just add a little icing sugar. If your still not convinced on frozen raspberries, read this, this cake is positively healthy!....
First of all I'll give you the lemon curd recipe otherwise you might do what I did and get to the part of assembling the whole cake and realising you forgot to make it. Luckily it's super quick, tastes utterly nom and pretty much uses store cupboard ingredients (depending if  on your stores of course), you will never be reaching for that rip off shop bought stuff again! I found this ammount made enough do sandwhich the battenberg and fill a medium sized jar with about three table spoons left to eat for yourself.

Lemon Curd

• a steralized jar
• 2 eggs
• zest of two lemons
• juice of two lemons
• 180 grams of caster sugar
• 110 grams of butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of corn flour

1. crack your eggs into a heavy based pan and whisk (not on the heat)
2. add all the other ingredients and whisk
3. set over a medium heat and continue whisking for 8- 10 minutes until it thickens, it won't become the exact consistency of lemon curd yet becase it's hot
4. take off the heat and pour into a jar, save some for the battenberg too!

original recipe from Delia

Didn't I tell you it would be easy?

And on to the Battenberg.....

Lemon and Raspberry Battenberg

• two loaf tins (I used 2 lb ones)
• 150 grams of butter
• i50 grams of caster sugar
• 150 grams of plain flour
• 1 generous teaspoon of baking powder
• 3 eggs
• zest of one lemon 
• juice of 1/2 a lemon (maybe a bit less)
• 100 grams of fresh or frozen raspberries blitzed to a paste
• Zesty lemon curd (see recipe above)
• white fondant icing
• (for the perfectionists like moi) a ruler!

1. grease and line your two tins and preheat the oven to 180oC/ 350oF/ gas mark 4
2. put the butter sugar, flour and baking powder in a food processor or electric mixer and pulse until you get bread crumbs
3. add each egg, one at a time and blitz well inbetween
4. divide the mixture equaly between two blean bowls
5. to one add the lemon zest and juice and to the other add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the blitzed raspberries (you will definately not need all the paste because this will make the batter too wet and won't rise well, the same with the lemon juice)
6. divide the mixtures into the seperate tins and bake in the preheated oven for 20- 25 minutes (you might find one takes longer than the other, my rarpberry batter was wetter than the lemon so took almost 30 minutes)
7. leave to cool completely on a wire rack
8. next cut each of the cakes in half, you might need to do some neatening on the tops and edges with a knife so it will fit together nicely and this means they'll be some pieces of cake to put into your cake hole to put in the bin or make a trifle
9. roll out your fonfant icing on a piece of baking parchment to about the thickness of a pound coin, if you're like me you might want to measure the deph and width of your cake to check it's gonna fit
10. get a slice of the cake and cover one side genorously in lemon curd and place curd side down on the icing before covering the side facing inwards too, get your piece which will go next to it and cover one side with lemon curd and again face curd side down next to the previous piece. cover the top of these two before placing another cake slice on top, covering the inward side, and placing the last piece next to it.
11. Cover the remaining three outer sides in lot of lemon curd and lightly brush the icing with a thinlayer of water to make it nice a sticky
12. use the baking parchment to help you carfuly and tightly roll the icing around the cake (like a swiss roll)and use a damp finger to neaten the ends to the icing
13. brew a cup of tea and enjoy!

adapted from Lorraine Pascale's baking made easy

I really hope you enjoy your battenbergs and lemon curd, and that spring arrives soon!