Lemon cloud cake

Lemon cloud cake

Like a lemon meringue pie, but with a lighter touch

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 12

Preparation and cooking times

Ready in 1½ hours plus cooling and chilling

Method

  1. To make the curd, put the sugar, eggs and zest in a pan and whisk together. Keep whisking over a very low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add a little lemon juice to the cornflour to create a paste and add to the saucepan with the remaining lemon juice and butter. Keep whisking over a low heat until the curd thickens. Stir in the vanilla seeds, transfer to a bowl and put a sheet of clingfilm directly over the surface. Cool.
  2. Lightly oil and line the base of a 25cm spring form cake tin with baking parchment. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. To make the cake, whisk the eggs and caster sugar together with electric beaters for at least 5 minutes, until very thick and pale. Sift the flour over and fold in carefully with the lemon zest, retaining as much air as possible. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 30 minutes until golden, risen and springy on top. Leave to sit for 5 minutes then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
  3. Turn the oven up to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the cake base on a baking sheet and spread the lemon curd over the top. Make the meringue by whisking the egg whites with half the sugar until stiff peaks form. Add the remaining sugar and the cream of tartar and whisk again until very stiff. Spread the meringue over the cake to cover the curd completely (make sure the meringue forms a seal around the edge of the cake). Cook for about 8 minutes, until the meringue is tinged with golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes then chill for an hour before serving.

Per serving

303 kcalories, protein 6.3g, carbohydrate 57.8g, fat 6.8 g, saturated fat 2.8g, fibre 0.3g, salt 0.47 g

Recipe from olive magazine, February 2008.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • 16 February 2008

    rosie rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Nex

    22 February 2008

    Nex commented on this recipe

    Brilliant success! Just don't try to make the meringue without an electric mix, it takes forever :)

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  • Binder photo Nex

    22 February 2008

    Nex rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • 25 February 2008

    Nicola rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Really enjoyed taking my time and making this cake on a Sunday afternoon. Delicious and impressive.

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  • 17 May 2008

    doshis commented on this recipe

    this was a lovely cake i made it for my great granghildren they loved it

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  • 28 May 2008

    aliceme23 commented on this recipe

    Blimmin amazing, my friend hugged me when I took it out of the fridge!

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  • 28 May 2008

    aliceme23 rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 18 June 2008

    Angela Boyd rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Yum Yum Yum!!!!!!!!! Fab cake very easy to make. I did cheat and used a jar of lemon curd!!!

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  • 20 September 2008

    ratryn rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Absolutely lovely - easy to make and works gluten free too!!!

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  • 25 October 2008

    Leah rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    very light cake, nice after a rich meal. I also cheated and used a jar of lemon curd.

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  • 15 November 2008

    my_dunh rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    This cake was a structural disaster - it completely fell apart and the balance of cake, lemon curd and meringue was all wrong. It was far too sweet for my liking.

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  • 30 January 2009

    Jennifer rated this recipe

    1 stars

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  • 23 March 2009

    Emily Irvine rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Looks and tastes fantastic, the whole family loves this cake.

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  • 06 August 2009

    kiauh rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    loved it! It was so easy to make. My whole family loved it.

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  • 10 August 2009

    LV20000 rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 08 October 2009

    JenStan commented on this recipe

    Have made this cake twice now - my husband absolutely loves it! I found the second time it worked better when I halved the quantities for both curd and meringue as then stayed on top of the cake! The first time I made full quantities and found too much of both curd and meringue and slid off the cake - it was still demolished however! Really lovely recipe and fun to make too!

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  • 11 November 2009

    k_london08 rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Tasted great, followed instructions to the letter and it came out pretty near perfect. Only problem was my cake didn't sink?(not usually a problem I know!) which meant my lemon curd had to sit on not in the cake making it tricky to seal the top with meringue-but apart from that great recipe-would make again-and the lemon curd was yummy-and i don't even like lemons!

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 12

Preparation and cooking times

Ready in 1½ hours plus cooling and chilling

Ingredients

LEMON CURD

  • 220g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 4 lemons , juiced, plus finely grated of 1
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 40g butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract, or seeds from 1 vanilla pod

CAKE

  • 4 eggs
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 1 lemon , finely grated zest

MERINGUE

  • 4 egg white
  • 250g caster sugar
  • ½ tsp cream of tartar (look in the baking section of supermarkets)
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Per serving

303 kcalories, protein 6.3g, carbohydrate 57.8g, fat 6.8 g, saturated fat 2.8g, fibre 0.3g, salt 0.47 g

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