Lemon Mascarpone Cloud Cake

You couldn't dream up a simpler cake to make than this lemon mascarpone cake. This cake involves placing the ingredients in a food processor and that's about it. I suspect the time taken to preheat your oven might exceed the time taken to make the batter! Piled on top of this is a whipped mascarpone with lemon curd and a sprinkle of coconut. It will be our little secret that it took all of 15 minutes in prep! ;)

This lemon cake is such a lovely number. Full of billows of whipped cream, lemon curd and the sheer tastiness of a cake whipped up with no effort. I got the recipe from Helen from Scrummy Lane's lovely blog. It's the sort of handy recipe to have up your sleeve, in case of emergency, when every minute counts!

I have to admit that I tend to cut cake slices on the large side. Whenever I start cutting a slice for people, they inevitably say "Oh no, cut me a smaller piece!" (like my dad who literally will cut a small bite sized piece of cake off the edge like a rat has nibbled on it). The only person that doesn't protest my cake slicing size is Mr NQN. In fact he cuts massive slices of cakes. Giant cake serves 4 kind of thing.

I was chatting to a friend of mine over lunch the other day. She has asked to be called the Fourth Kardashian Sister (FKS) and for her identity to remain a secret because people tend to judge her on that. One evening she went to her neurosurgeon boyfriend's apartment where he was going to make something to eat for the two of them.

"I realised that men are wired differently than women," she said her big brown eyes looking serious. Her boyfriend grabbed the loaf of bread and instead of taking the tie off and taking the loaf of bread out of the bag he literally ripped into the bag. "Who does that?" she said shaking her head.

I then commented that it was even odder because you'd make assumptions about neurosurgeons and I'd imagine them eating very neatly and doing things deliberately because they're used to using their hands in a deliberate way. "He told me that it takes 4 minutes to get into a brain," she said.

I think he'd demolish this cake in about 4 minutes too ;)

So tell me Dear Reader, would you tear into a bag of bread or neatly remove a bag tie? Do you tend to cut big cake slices?

Lemon Mascarpone Cream Cloud Cake

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minute

• 225g/8ozs. butter, softened
• 225g/8ozs. caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup self raising cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 3-4 tablespoons milk

• 250g/9ozs. mascarpone

• 1/2 cup cream
• 6 tablespoons lemon curd
• 2 tablespoons shredded coconut

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8inch springform tin with parchment. In a large food processor process the butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour and baking powder until smooth. Pulse in the milk adding it in 2-3 lots until you get a dollopable consistency. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Step 2 - Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then Turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Whip the cream until you get soft peaks and then add the mascarpone and 4 tablespoons of lemon curd. Whip until you get a thick, dollopy cream. Spread on top of the cake and then drizzle with the extra 2 tablespoons of lemon curd. Decorate with coconut.