Shamrock St Patrick’s Day Cake
Serves 10 to 12
For the lemon lime curd
- 2 limes, juice and zest
- 2 lemons, juice only
- 180g Siucra caster sugar
- 120g butter
- 4 egg yolks
For the cake
- 180g Siucra caster sugar
- 180g unsalted butter, softened
- 7 large eggs
- 380g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100ml milk
For the butter cream:
- 250g butter, softened
- 550g Siucra icing sugar
- 2 limes, juice only
- Green food colouring
- Black food colouring
- Siucra roll out icing, to make shamrock cut outs and a leprechaun hat
- Cut a 15cm heart shaped template from baking paper
- A large cake board or wooden board
- A piece of green or white ribbon for around the board (optional)
To make the curd, place all the ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat and stir most of the time until a thick curd forms. Remove and leave to cool completely.
For the cake, preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan160°C/gas 4. Brush 3 x 18cm cake tins with melted butter and dust with flour.
Cream the Siucra caster sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Whisk in the beaten eggs one at a time.
Fold in the flour and baking powder. Add the milk and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the 3 cake tins and bake for about 20 to 22 minutes or until golden and when a skewer is inserted into the middle it comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.
To make the butter cream, place the butter, Siucra icing sugar and lime juice together and whisk until smooth, light and fluffy. Retain 5 generous tablespoonfuls of buttercream for sandwiching together. To make a pale green mix, add green colouring to the rest and whisk again until you’ve reached the colour you want. Remove about 4 tablespoonfuls and add another drop of the green food colouring and mix again. Retain this for piping rosettes later.
To assemble, place the heart shape template onto a cake and cut the shape. Slice the cake in half and repeat for the two remaining cakes.
Spread some curd on one cake half and divide the 5 tablespoonfuls over the other halves and sandwich them together.
Place the points of the hearts facing inwards in the shape of a shamrock (you may need to trim them a little so they fit together.) Use a trimmed piece of cake as the shamrock stem. Spread the pale green butter cream over the top and sides of the cake.
Colour a piece of Siucra roll out – one green and a small piece, black. Using the green roll out, cut out small shamrocks and cut out or shape a leprechaun’s hat and trim with black rollout icing, place on the sides and top of the cake.Spoon the darker green buttercream into a piping bag with a nozzle and pipe around the cake.
Secure a piece of ribbon around the board if you are using this.
