Orange sponge with curd filling

I love a fair, I truly do!  This weekend Mr CC and I visited a fair with many craft and cottage industry type stalls; one of my favourite stalls was run by a Hertfordshire bee keeper selling their honey.  They even bought along some bees for us to meet!  They also made honey curds.  Yes – honey curd!  Chatting to the lady who made the curd, she explained it was a classic curd recipe but she simply replaced the sugar with honey.  Here’s my classic curd recipe  I shall be adapting to make honey curd in the future.   Yes, there is some curd missing from the pot in the photo – Mr CC snaffled some to have on bread before I used it all up for this cake!

I purchased a pot of honey and lime curd and – oh my – it was heaven!  The first hit was thick, rich honey and then the lime cut in with a light sharpness.  I instantly ditched the recipe I was going to bake this week and picked an orange sponge which I suspected would work with the curd perfectly.

The orange sponge gets its intense flavour purely from orange zest.  I know!  Me using the hated peel!  But I did, for I have made a discovery.  I don’t mind zest if it’s so fine it has no texture in the baked sponge.  Step forward Lakeland with their awesome ceramic grater for zest.  Seriously – look at how fine it grates!  It’s finer than strands of saffron:

Now, it must seem like I bang on about Lakeland a lot – truth be told, if they set up a cult I’d probably be an early follower!  I sometimes think it would just be cheaper to do a Victor Kiam and buy the company (now there’s a reference for all of you who enjoyed TV adverts in the 80s!).  But, I must stress that I bought it (the grater, not Lakeland) – it’s not a product plug and I don’t have an advertising deal with them! 

Tempting though it was to make buttercream and beat the curd into it, I decided to keep it very pure and use the curd on its own.  The curd had a pleasingly citrus edge to it and I didn’t want to dilute that and lose its punch.  I topped the cake with an orange glace icing which added good flavour and texture.

For a cake designed and created on the hoof, I’m rather proud of this one – it’s fresh, zingy, light and beautiful.  I’m looking out the window and seeing grey skies and Autumn; I’m looking at my plate and seeing sunshine and Summer.  What more could one ask for? 

Ingredients

For the sponge:

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self raising flour
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

For the glace:

100g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoon fresh orange juice

For the curd filling:

I bought the curd for the filling.  Next time I will make the honey curd adapting my trusted curd recipe by swapping the sugar for honey.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Line two 20cm loose bottomed sandwich tins with baking paper.

Start with the sponges: beat together the butter and sugar until paler and fluffier.  Because of the ratios, you won’t get a very whipped mix but you will notice it turn paler.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little of the flour should the mixture start to curdle.

Fold in the remaining flour and grated zest.

Spoon evenly into the prepared tins and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.  Mine took 30 minutes.  Don’t panic as the cakes don’t turn particularly golden.

Leave to cool on a wire rack, removing the sponges from the tins when they are cool enough to safely handle.

When you wish to build the cake, cut each sponge through horizontally so you end up with four layers.

Place a layer on the plate you will be serving the cake.

Spread 2 tablespoons of curd over the sponge and place a disc of sponge on top.

Repeat until you put the top disc of sponge in place.

Now make the glace: place the icing sugar in a bowl and beat in one tablespoon of fresh orange juice.

Add more orange juice if required – I needed an extra ½ tablespoon.  Don’t add too much – if it’s too runny it won’t set on top of the cake.

Spoon onto the centre of the cake and let it spread out at its own pace.  It’s nice if a little runs down the side.

Serve in thick slices with a mug of tea!

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.