Butter Pecan, Orange and Thyme Sponge Layer Cake

Ingredients

Sponge cake:

4 eggs

3.5 oz caster sugar

3.5 oz plain flour

½ tsp cream of tartar

1.76 oz Westgold Unsalted Butter, melted

2 tsp orange zest

Butter cream filling:

2.5 oz pecans, roasted & chopped                               

2 tsp orange zest                                                        

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped                                       

1c icing sugar                                                 

4.4 oz Westgold Unsalted Butter, soft

Pinch salt

1-2 tbsp milk

Orange syrup:

1 orange, juiced

2 tbsp sugar

1 lemon, juiced                                                                                        

Method

To make the sponge:

Preheat the oven to 374°F. Grease and lightly flour 2 x 7.9'' cake tins.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together over a bowl of boiling water until slightly warm, then beat with an electric mixer until pale, thick and creamy.

Measure the flour and tip into a sieve. Sift the flour into the eggs folding in gently using a metal spoon in 3 stages.

Lastly fold through the melted butter and zest. Pour the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for around 10-12 minutes until they bounce back when touched with your finger. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.

To make the butter cream: 

Beat the butter on a high speed for 5 minutes until it looks whipped and lighter in colour.  Add the icing sugar and salt and continue to beat while gradually adding the milk.

Divide the butter cream into 2 bowls using a 60:40 ratio. Add the pecans, thyme & zest to the lesser amount of butter cream and add a little more milk to loosen if needed.

This flavoured butter cream is to join the inside sponge cake layer/s together. The larger amount of butter cream is to ice the exterior of the sponge cake.

To finish the sponge cake:

Remove the cooled sponges from the tins. Place the bottom sponge layer on a serving plate. 

Pour the syrup into a squeeze bottle with a small opening and sprinkle the syrup over the sponge. Spread with the pecan butter cream.

Sprinkle the syrup over the bottom of the top sponge cake layer and place on the flavoured butter cream. Continue to sandwich all the layers together using the flavoured butter cream, depending on how many layers you are using). Spread the plain butter cream all over the exterior of the cake.

Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to set the icing but serve at room temperature. Decorate with dried orange slices, extra pecans and fresh thyme. Serve.

Note:  You can make a 2, 4 or 6 layer sponge cake.  This recipe will make a 2-layer sponge cake so if you’d like to make a tall 6-layer sponge cake like ours, you’ll need to treble this recipe.  This sponge cake is best eaten within 2 days while the pecans are still crunchy.