Preheat your oven to 160C/140C Fan and line two 7″ (3″ deep) round cake tins in parchment paper, leave to the side.
Beat the Butter and Sugar together for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy, add in the Eggs, Flour and Lemon Zest and beat for 5 minutes until smooth, light and creamy.
Split the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the cake skewer comes out clean from the middle of the cake. Check the cake after an hour to see how its doing!
Once the cake is baked leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool.
Whilst the cake is cooling, make the sugar syrup if using. In a pan add the sugar and water and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Let the syrup cool completely.
Once the cakes and syrup are completely cool, split each cake in two and spoon over the syrup so each cake is moistened and delicious.
To make the buttercream, beat the room temperature butter for a couple of minutes until smooth and light. Add in the icing sugar a half at a time, beating well each time. Add in the lemon extract and two tablespoons of boiling water and beat for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy.
Spread some of the buttercream onto the first layer of the cake, and spread some jam on top. Add on another layer of the cake and repeat until you reach the top layer. Once at the top layer, spread buttercream on the tops and sides of the cake to effectively seal the cake and it be delicious (Like you would for a crumb coat!)
For the Blueberry Jam I used my homemade jam – Any shop bought Jam will do but I love homemade jam – I based it on my Homemade Summer Berry Jam recipe, but made a quarter batch and just used blueberries!
I used homemade Fondant when I made this, but any shop bought fondant would also work well. I’ll hopefully post a recipe for the homemade fondant soon!
The Sugar Syrup for the cake isn’t necessary, but as its a Madeira the cake is naturally a bit heavier, and the syrup will help the cake stay moist when covering in fondant and it has to last a while!
The cake will last for 3 days on its own, but once covered and sealed it’ll last for longer until cut!