Good Friday, the last of my back to back shifts and on call shifts, finally complete. It took quite a long time to completely switch off today, from waking up earlyish, to thinking I was on a break or was that my on call mobile ringing. The sound of that ringtone and I am like Pavlov’s dog, day or night, even when I hear it on a TV drama! What to do to switch off? Baking I thought, looking at the ingredients and realising I needed to use up some lemons and eggs from the community farm delivery. After the chocolate fudge cake success last week in the bread-maker, I thought I would use the basic sponge mix and add the grated zest of a lemon to the mixture.

240 minutes later and the result was in the picture – not quite the hair raiser I had expected, with a bit of a toasted crust for edges. I have trimmed them off and a bit of it didn’t taste too bad. Looking at the size of the remaining sponge, I do not think there would be enough to fill it with butter cream and lemon curd as planned. So after washing up, I have made a second lemon sponge for the base. The top has been covered in lemon drizzle ready to meet its partner in crime. I have had to laugh at the base which has risen on the corners and sunk in the middle like a deflated Yorkshire pudding. With a bit of trimming it will just about do. What on earth would Mary Berry say?! At least it hasn’t got a soggy bottom and I still have 2 days off before returning to work. Happy Easter all : )