At last, a plava of your dreams. This one is light as a feather, moist and freezes well. To make it extra special, split and layer with lemon curd (recipe below) and drizzle with a sharp lemon icing. To make the icing, combine 200g sieved icing sugar with the juice of 1 lemon.

Serves 10–12

INGREDIENTS

12 organic free-range eggs, separated

300g caster sugar

15g vanilla sugar

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Juice of ½ orange

75g cake meal

75g potato flour

70g ground almonds

Icing sugar, to dust

METHOD

● Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease and flour a square or round 27cm spring-form tin.

● Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest and beat until thick and creamy.

● In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. l In another bowl, sift the cake meal with the potato flour (twice if possible) and stir in the ground almonds. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, with the orange and lemon juice, and then carefully fold in the egg whites.

● Pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 1¼ hours. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Lemon Curd

Makes 3 x 500ml jars

INGREDIENTS

3 large unwaxed lemons (organic, if possible), zest and juice

240g butter or low-fat margarine, melted

450g fairtrade soft brown sugar

10 organic free-range eggs, beaten

3 x 500ml jam jars, sterilised

METHOD

● Put the lemon zest in a glass mixing bowl and pour in the juice through a strainer to remove any pips.

● Add the butter and sugar and place over a pan of gently simmering water.

● Stir gently until the sugar dissolves and add the eggs.

● Keep stirring until the mixture thickens, pour into warm, sterilised jars and put on the lids