Super Lemon Victoria Sponge

I breaking this into 4 parts:

• Self-rising flour
• Victoria sponge
• Drizzle
• Swiss merengue buttercream

Self Rising Flour

A lot of British recipes call for self-rising flour.  When they do, I use this recipe from King Arthur:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/homemade-self-rising-flour-recipe

Victoria Sponge

I had not realized until embarking on this endeavor, but pound cake, quatre quarts, and victoria sponge are all nearly identical cakes.  They are defined as having equal parts sugar, flour, butter, and eggs.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces flour
• 8 ounces sugar
• 4 large eggs (2oz each)
• 8 ounces unsalted Kerrigold butter
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Zest of one lemon

Steps

1. Warm the butter and eggs to room temperature.  Line the bottom of two 8inch cake pans with parchment paper and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream the sugar and butter in a stand mixer until it is fluffy and pale yellow (~5min)
3. While the butter is creaming, whisk together the dry ingredients, including zest.
4. Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed butter, and continue to mix until it has the consistency of cream cheese
5. Add the dry ingredients and slowly mix for a full minute to develop some gluten (otherwise cake will fall).
6. Divide batter into the two pans, and bake for 25min.
7. Let cool for 5min, run a spatula along the edged of pan, and upend onto wire rack covered in parchment paper for further cooling.

Lemon Drizzle

While the cake is cooling:

• Juice two lemons, add 85g sugar, and heat in pan on medium until the sugar dissolves (do not boil).
• Use toothpick to poke holes in each cake, then pour 1/2 of syrup over each, using pastry brush to spread evenly.

Swiss Merengue Buttercream

I just stole the recipe for this from a Martha Suart page and wasn't too happy with it, so for now I am going to say to pick a recipe. Use an amount with 2 egg whites, and at the end mix in the zest of your second lemon.

Cover one sponge in buttercream, then sandwhich the other on top.
Like always, I forgot to take a picture until we'd eaten almost all of it.