Lemon Funfetti Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

 

I made this as a 50^th birthday cake for a colleague. She loves lemon cake, and I’ve wanted to try making something funfetti-fied for a while now, so I figured I’d combine the two in this colourful cake! It's lovely and light and is bound to brighten any one's day!

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

226g unsalted butter

450g caster sugar

Few drops vanilla essence

7 egg whites

390g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

8floz milk

Juice and zest of two large lemons

Coloured confetti sprinkles – not hundreds and thousands and the colours bleed and turn grey.

For the frosting:

250g unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

Jar of marshmallow fluff

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and lightly grease and line three loose bottomed cake tins with greaseproof paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg whites and mix well.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold this into the mixture. Then pour in the milk and lemon juice and zest and give it a good beat until everything is smooth and well combined.

Lastly, add the coloured sprinkles and fold them in.

Divide the mix equally between the three tins, and spread them up to the edges with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Try and keep the tops as level as possible.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of each sponge comes out clean.

Leave the sponge to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

While this is cooling, you can make the frosting.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter a little to soften it. Add the icing sugar in four stages, carefully mixing together after each addition until you have a soft, smooth buttercream.

Now, add the whole jar of marshmallow fluff (you can also add any food colouring you want at this stage). Stir this into the buttercream and mix until smooth. It will be hard to resist eating the frosting at this stage, but hold on, you can lick the bowl after!

Once the cakes are cool, it’s time to assemble!

Place your first sponge layer onto your serving plate/board, and spoon about 3 heaped table spoons of the frosting onto the top. Use a palette knife to spread into an even layer and add the next layer of sponge. Repeat the frosting layer again, and place the last sponge layer on top.

Now use the rest of the frosting to cover the whole of the cake, sides and all. I used a palette knife to generously cover the sides first, trying to keep it as smooth as possible. Then I tipped what was left of the frosting on top and used the palette knife again to make it as level as possible. If you wanted, you could get a piping bag and cover it with a continuous spiral of fluted icing, or if that sounds like too much fuss, just use a knife to make a textured surface.

Let the frosting rest for an hour before serving, and then sit back and watch your friends faces light up when they find the rainbow hidden inside!