Louise Cake with Lemon Curd

Makes 24 pieces

Raspberry jam is a standard filling for this popular slice, but it’s so gorgeous with lemon curd that once you try it, you may never go back to raspberry jam again. Louise Cake is quite a good keeper – up to 4 days in an airtight container.

Base

Ingredients

• 130g standard flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 75g butter, softened
• 45g caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• ¾ cup lemon curd, apricot jam or strawberry conserve

Method

1 Sieve flour and baking powder together with a pinch of salt. Put butter in a smallish warmed bowl and beat with an electric beater until soft and loose. Gradually beat in sugar, and beat until light and creamy. Beat in egg yolks, then blend in dry ingredients. The mixture will be on the dry side and will be difficult to amalgamate, but this is how it should be, and it will form a stiff paste with a bit of elbow grease.

2 Press into a small Swiss roll tin roughly (25cm x 16cm) lined with baking paper and spread generously with lemon curd.

Topping

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 120g caster sugar
• 60g desiccated coconut

1 Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar gradually and beat again until stiff and glossy. Carefully stir in coconut.

2 Spread coconut meringue topping evenly over jam layer making sure all the jam is covered.

3 Bake in an oven preheated to 160°C for about 15 minutes, or until the coconut meringue is lightly coloured and the jam is bubbling underneath. Cut Louise cake into 24 slices while still warm, then transfer to a cooling track. Store in a container, separating the pieces with waxed paper.

Recipe notes: If you want to get some preparation done in advance, make the base, press it into the paper-lined tin and freeze. Once frozen, remove from the tin and transfer to a sealable freezer bag and freeze until required.

Quick Lemon Curd

Here's the easiest way ever to make lemon curd ...a quick lemon curd that lives up to its name.

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter, cut into large cubes
• 200g caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 120ml fresh lemon juice
• 6 medium (size 6) free-range eggs, beaten and strained through a coarse sieve

Method

1 Put the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap (use a wrap suitable for microwaving). Cook on High for 4 minutes.

2 Remove from oven, carefully lift off plastic wrap and mix in eggs. Cook uncovered on High for 2 minutes, remove from microwave. It will look weird at this stage– the eggs will be puffy and there’ll be butter floating around the edges – but don’t panic, it will come together! Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and blend for 30 seconds, or until smooth.

3 Tip into a container, cool, then cover with a lid and refrigerate.

While it is tempting to use Meyer lemons because they are cheap and plentiful, in this part of the world at any rate, and they yield plenty of juice, if you want a good set you must use acidic lemons. Lemon curd is best kept in the fridge but even then will not last as long as jam, especially if made with Meyer lemons.