Last weekend was my friend Debbie’s birthday.

We’ve been making birthday cakes for each other for years and as her birthday is in the summer I often make her birthday cakes with summer berries. 

This year it was going to be raspberries and when I thought of what kind of raspberry cake would be tasty, pretty and big enough so that all birthday party friends could enjoy a slice I came up with this lemon and raspberry creation.

It’s inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Royal Charlotte Birthday cake, which is rather suitable for Debbie too, as she is both a Jamie Oliver fan and a bit of a royalist! But I think most birthday girls and guys would enjoy this cake…

For the cake you’ll need:

• 250 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing, softened
• 250 g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 250 g golden caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp natural yellow food colouring
• 1 lemon

For the icing/filling you’ll need:

• 400 g icing sugar
• 150 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 200 g cream cheese
• 400g raspberries
• 1/3 – 1/2 jar of good quality lemon curd
• 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350ºF/gas 4.
Grease a 26cm springform cake tin with a little butter and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, making sure you beat each one in well before you add the next, then fold in the flour, food colouring and zest from 1 lemon. 

Pour the dough into the cake tine, spreading it out well with a spatula, then place in the hot oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, then carefully turn out onto a baking rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, to make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the butter and beat until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla essence, cream cheese, finely grate in the zest of 1 lemon and add a squeeze of juice, then beat until just smooth – it’s really important not to over-mix it. 

Once the cake is cooled, halve the sponge horizontally into two rounds. Spread the lemon curd onto one of the cooled sponges, then layer over half of the icing and half (or a third) of the raspberries. Cover with the other sponge and spread the rest of the icing on top and decorate with the left over raspberries.

Store in the fridge for at least an hour but bring back to room temperature before tucking in.