Recipe: Kai’s Lemon Cake

Jess Murphy, chef-owner of Kai Restaurant and Caf? in Galway, shares her sensational lemon cake recipe with us.

Serves 8-12

For the lemon cake

350g sugar

5 free-range eggs

zest of 2 lemons

150g cream

270g flour

5g baking powder

100g melted butter

For the lemon syrup

1 lemon, peel removed and chopped finely in strips

200ml fresh lemon juice

100g sugar

For the cream cheese icing

220g butter

250g icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

450g cream cheese

edible flowers, to garnish

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180?C. To make the lemon cake, place the sugar, eggs and lemon zest in a bowl. Do not whip. Then add the cream, followed by the flour and baking powder. Mix to combine. Divide the mixture between two greased sandwich cake tins and cover with tin foil. Bake in the preheated oven for around 30-40 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Remove from the tin, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to cool completely. Once cool slice the

To make the lemon syrup, place the lemon peel in a pot with water and boil for 1 minute. Remove and strain. Place the peel back in the pot with the lemon juice and sugar and cook over a low heat, until the peel has a nice shiny texture and look very bright in colour. Remove from the heat and strain, reserving both the caramelized peel and lemon syrup.

To make the cream cheese icing, beat the butter, icing sugar and lemon zest together until you have a creamy consistence, then add in the cream cheese and mix until you have a nice fluffy mixture. Pour into a piping bag, fitted with a nozzle of your choice.

To finish, pour the lemon syrup over the cake bases. Once absorbed, use the piping bag to ice the middle and the top of the cake. Garnish with caramelised lemon peel and edible flowers.

Chef Jess Murphy shares her My Foodie Life inspirations in the current issue (Jan/Feb 2017) out now