Step 1

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas Butter and line the bases of 3 x 20cm sandwich tins. Beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and lemon zest together with beaters until you have a smooth batter. Add enough milk so the mix just drops off a spoon.

Step 2

Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, swapping the tins around halfway through so that they brown evenly. When they’re ready, a skewer poked in should come out clean. Cool on wire racks, cooked-side up.

Step 3

Make the icing by beating the soft butter with the icing sugar, lemon zest and juice until light and fluffy. Use 2/3 to fill the cake and top each layer with some lemon curd. Frost the top with the rest of the buttercream and finish with sugar flowers.