Lemon fondant cake

Lemon fondant cake

The ultimate occasion cake, this beautiful indulgence will be the star of Easter or any other celebration

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Freezable

Freeze un-iced

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line bases of 3 x 20cm sandwich tins. Beat the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, almonds, yogurt, all the zest and half the lemon juice. Divide between the tins and bake for 20-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean (you may want to change the shelves around after 20 mins to ensure the cakes cook evenly). Mix the juice of the second lemon with 1 tbsp sugar, poke the cakes a few times with a skewer and drizzle over. Cool in the tins on wire racks.
  2. Sandwich the 3 sponges together with 8 tbsp of the lemon curd. Brush the rest over the top and sides of the cake. Break off 50g marzipan, then roll out the rest on an icing sugar-dusted surface until large enough to cover the cake. Cover the cake with the marzipan and transfer it to an upturned bowl or saucer on a tray, so the edges of the cake overhang the bowl, but it is stable.
  3. Mix enough water into the fondant icing sugar to make a thick icing. Set aside a few tbsp, then mix some yellow food colouring into the rest. Spoon bit by bit over the cake, letting it dribble down the sides until the entire cake is covered (and excess has dripped off).
  4. Knead pink colouring into half the marzipan and green into the other half. Roll out the green and cut out leaves. Use a cocktail stick to draw veins on. Press bits of the pink into long, flat sausages and roll up to look like roses. Put the reserved white icing into a food or piping bag. Snip the end and pipe fine squiggles over the cake. Add roses and leaves once the icing is almost set.

PER SERVING

1015 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 149g, fat 46 g, saturated fat 21g, fibre 3g, sugar 125g, salt 0.82 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, April 2011.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo dotmonster

    20 March 2011

    dotmonster rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Made a version of this cake for my friends birthday yesterday. I used the sponge recipe, with a little lemon curd between the layers and only a drizzle fo fondant icing (instead of marzipan etc). Only crumbs we left! Really moist, great lemon taste - could have even managed more lemo in tyhe sponge. Lovely recipe- my firends were rraving about it! and the very fussy birthday girl loved it!

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  • Binder photo rs

    28 March 2011

    rs rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this cake for an early mother's day tea party and everyone loved it. My husband said it was his favourite cake ever! It froze really well. Loved the combo of marzipan and lemon. I made the icing with lemon juice rather than water. Next time I would put more lemon zest in the sponge as it could have been a little more lemony. A really delicious, moist, squidgy and yet pretty cake!

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  • Binder photo Ripley

    16 April 2011

    Ripley rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    I've tried making this twice now, and each time the sponges - despite increasing the baking time - have sank badly in the middle. I may try a third using lemon extract plus zest instead of the juice and reduce the yogurt to 100ml.

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  • Binder photo EllaBellaLovesYa

    20 April 2011

    EllaBellaLovesYa commented on this recipe

    That looks Beautifful

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  • Binder photo Philippa

    23 April 2011

    Philippa commented on this recipe

    I love the look of this but really hate marzipan and hard icing. Any suggestions for another icing to go on top? Maybe a lemon butter cream or maybe a cream cheese icing? How about mixing lemon curd into butter cream?

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  • Binder photo scullery maid

    26 April 2011

    scullery maid rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    Oh dear - made this for Easter Day, the sponge layers were wet and heavy in spite of giving them extra time in the oven. What a dissapointment. Will use normal sponge recipe next time.

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  • Binder photo Frances Booth

    27 April 2011

    Frances Booth rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was amazing, the sponge came out still quite moist but I did not feel heavy at all. I rolled the marzipan quite thin and used runny icing made with lemon juice and the whole thing was divine! Really lemony and scrummy, this will become a family easter staple!

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  • Binder photo Lil'MissCupCake xox

    29 April 2011

    Lil'MissCupCake xox commented on this recipe

    That looks really amazing can somone who has made this tell me , is the sponge light and fluffy , or dense? thankoo x

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  • Binder photo Sharon B

    06 May 2011

    Sharon B rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    its very light & moist, absolutely delicious :D

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  • Binder photo Maria

    16 October 2011

    Maria rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This cake is amazing! I made it for my friends birthday and everyone totally loved it. Its really easy to make too. I added some lemon flavouring after reading some of the other suggestions. Keep the calorie content secret though!

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  • Binder photo Freddy

    29 January 2012

    Freddy commented on this recipe

    My sponges were very heavy and a bit too moist, any ideas what I did wrong?

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  • Binder photo Cath

    16 March 2012

    Cath commented on this recipe

    My mum hates marzipan. Can I make this without it but still use fondant icing?

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  • Binder photo MacyMoo

    26 March 2012

    MacyMoo rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    Firstly all my family love marzipan so we were all looking forward to this cake. I used a high quality marzipan not just the general cooking one for Christmas cakes etc. We all found the combination of lemon and marzipan a bit sickly so consequently I have only given this 2 stars. I actually divided the cake mixture between 2 normal 8 inch (20cm) cake tins then cut the 2 cakes in half so I had four layers which worked really well. The Fondant icing was way to runny (my fault) but I would like to add it doesn't really go rock hard as some people seem to think. Nice cake but I'd not bother with the Marzipan again as it just didn't add anything to it.

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  • Binder photo cuccimum

    14 May 2012

    cuccimum rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo jackiecas

    09 June 2012

    jackiecas rated this recipe

    2 stars

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  • Binder photo foxy01

    10 October 2012

    foxy01 commented on this recipe

    Hi my family hate marzipan and I want to make this cake for my Mum's birthday, is it possible to just put the fondant icing on the top and leave out the dreaded marzipan? I want to make this next week , so any advice would be very welcome

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  • Binder photo Jane

    30 October 2012

    Jane commented on this recipe

    I have made this several times. It tastes delicious. However, it is a very thin cake, and with the lemon drizzle it is quite soggy. Has anyone else had problems with this. I would like to get it right as it is so much tastier than a plain sponge. Any suggestions?

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  • Binder photo Hollypugh

    06 February 2013

    Hollypugh rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    I made this cake for my mums 50th birthday and it basically all went wrong! The sponge was way too moist each sponge broke in half as it wasn't sturdy enough! If you have not rolled marzipan or icing before make sure you practice first as it was very hard! I don't recommend this recipe unfortunately!

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  • Binder photo recipes

    07 February 2013

    recipes rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I made this cake for a colleague's birthday. Due to the incredibly soft sponge, I had major problems with the sides of the cake. Everything slid downhill very rapidly. I managed to rescue it with ribbon and disguise and was very impressed with the fondant icing on the top of the cake. It looked very professional and I'm really not. It tastes great but another time I think I would look for other ways to increase the lemony flavour which didn't involve making the sponge wetter.

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Freezable

Freeze un-iced

Ingredients

  • 350g very soft butter
  • 350g caster sugar , plus 1 tbsp
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 150ml pot natural yogurt
  • 2 lemons , zest and juice

TO ASSEMBLE & DECORATE

  • 12 tbsp lemon curd
  • 500g pack marzipan
  • 500g fondant icing sugar , sieved
  • yellow, pink and green food colouring
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PER SERVING

1015 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 149g, fat 46 g, saturated fat 21g, fibre 3g, sugar 125g, salt 0.82 g

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