A very lemony pudding

We’ve been invited over to our neighbours’ house for dinner this evening, and I’ve been put in charge of pudding.

This week has seen an unusual flurry of social activity and we were also out last night, having dinner with friends visiting from the UK. I must say that I was feeling just a little peaky this morning – not enough hours in bed and probably at least one too many glasses of wine. Eeek.

Our undoing was deciding to watch the sunset from Mumi’s Cafe – a newish cafe bar on the seafront in Kaş, which has a birdseye view of the Greek island of Meis and the other islands surrounding our peninsula. A lovely balmy evening, coupled with excellent company and lively conversation meant that one sun downer inevitably turned into two…

A good time was had by all, and the 6km brisk walk along the new boardwalk into town to collect our car this morning certainly blew out any remaining cobwebs that coffee, toast and a sneaky paracetamol had failed to reach.

So, owing to a certain amount of residual lethargy, tonight’s pud is a very simple affair. A very lemony cake, which takes just a few minutes to mix together, sandwiched with tart lemon marmalade and topped off with lemon cream cheese frosting and some fresh spring flowers for a finishing touch. I will serve strawberries on the side to complete this perfect summery dish.

The lemon cake is one that I spotted on Mrs Twinkle’s rather lovely website a couple of weeks ago and have been looking for an excuse to try out. I have added the cream cheese frosting to make it slightly more dessert-like, rather than the afternoon tea cake it was originally intended to be. Click here for Mrs Twinkle’s Lemonious Cake recipe.

Here’s the cake just out of the oven, together with the cream cheese frosting, which is about to be consigned to the fridge for setting.

For the frosting, just beat together 50g each of soft butter and full fat cream cheese until well combined – I find a table fork is the best tool for this job. Add the very finely grated zest of a lemon and a little squeeze of juice, then stir in about 120g icing sugar. (If you have any of that natural concentrated lemon extract – a couple of spots would be perfect here). Beat well until smooth and refrigerate for at least half an hour. (The cake is best not refrigerated, so if you make the frosting a long way ahead, you may need to let it sit again at room temperature for a few minutes to make it easier to spread).

When the cake is completely cool, split horizontally and spread with a thin layer of lemon curd or lemon marmalade/jam. Spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake and decorate with fresh flowers – make sure the flowers you use are not toxic. I used daisies and mallow, but any spring flowers would be pretty.