Crochet and lemon cake

19th January  

For me crocheting is both an individual occupation where you can loose yourself in the rhythm and before you know it several hours have passed, that is if the family will leave you alone. Or indeed crochet can be a social activity whereby people come together to create in an atmosphere with like minded people, chatter and laughter,  a must as is cake!

For the past couple of weeks I have been hosting a crochet course and as you can probably guess where there is more than one crocheter there really should be cake.  I have been asked to include each week the cakes that we scoff during our Thursday evening and must apologise that there is only one photo for this week, not thinking to blog about it before now! 

Week one, the ladies learnt how to chain and how to make treble crochet stitches along with that we all ate lemon and blueberry cake...

Lemon and blueberry sponge cake 

You will need:

♥  175g/6 oz butter
♥  1 to 2 tsp of finely grated lemon rind
♥  175g/6oz caster sugar
♥  3 small eggs
♥  175g/6 oz self raising flour
♥  1.5 tbsp lemon juice
♥  extra lemon juice for moistening the cake

for the Lemon curd, this needs to be made in advance, if you do not have time, buy a jar?!?!?

Lemon and blueberry cake and crochet

♥  225g/8 oz sugar
♥  3 medium lemons
♥  100g/4oz butter
♥  2 large eggs

for the Lemon icing
♥  225g/8 oz icing sugar
♥  lemon juice

Blueberries for filling and decoration


1  Cream together the butter, lemon rind and sugar until soft and light.  
2  Gradually beat in the eggs, lemon juice and  adding in a tablespoon of flour with each egg, to avoid the mixture curdling.
3  Sift the remaining flour and fold in gently and carefully into the mixture, try not to loose the air.  You should have a slow dropping consistently to the batter.
4  Divide mixture evenly into two 7 or 7.5 inch tins.
5  Bake in a moderately hot oven about 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit, for approximately 18 minutes or until firm to the touch.  Allow to cool in tins.
6  Once the cakes are baked I place a fine skewer into them and then drizzle in lots of lemon juice, more the better, I think.  This adds extra lemon flavour but also ensures the cakes are lovely and moist.
7  Once cool spread a generous amount of lemon curd over one half and sprinkle liberally with fresh blueberries.
8  Place top layer over the lemon curd and blueberries.
9  Sift icing sugar and mix with lemon juice to make a thick consistency icing sugar. 
10  Spread over the cake and decorate with blueberries on top.

To make the Lemon curd:

1  Grate the top zest of the lemons very finely, taking care not to use any white pith.
2  Squeeze out all the juice from the lemons.
3  Put lemon rind, juice, butter and sugar into a heat proof basin.  Stand this over a pan of boiling water and heat until the butter and sugar have melted.  Lower the heat, so the water is no longer boiling.
4  Whisk the eggs, stir into the lemon mixture and cook slowly until the curd coats the back of a wooden spoon.
5  Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal as jam. 

♥  Enjoy and  let me know if you make it  ♥