Poppy seed cake with lemon curd

Place flour in a large bowl, add cornstarch, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Dry ingredients should mix well. Melt and cool the butter.

In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar until fluffy, 8 minutes. Beat the eggs with a mixer until the mixture doubles in volume and becomes light in color. Pour the flour mixture into the eggs in three stages, stirring gently with a spatula.

Add poppy seeds and butter and mix again with a spatula. Mix the ingredients carefully and quickly so as not to disturb the fluffy texture of the beaten eggs.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease an ovenproof dish with a diameter of 18 cm with butter and lightly sprinkle with flour. Fill the pan with dough and bake for 35-40 minutes. Check doneness with a wooden skewer; if necessary, bake the cake for another 5-7 minutes.

Remove the pan and leave the cake in it for 5 minutes. Run a knife along the sides of the pan, carefully remove the cake and cool on a wire rack. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate overnight.

Prepare lemon curd. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and remove the zest with a fine grater. In a small saucepan, combine the yolks with starch, sugar, lemon juice and zest and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat, continuing to stir. Cook for 1 minute and remove from heat. Add butter and stir. Cover the curd with cling film in contact, cool to room temperature and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Boil sugar syrup to soak the cakes. Pour water into a small saucepan, add sugar and bring to a boil. Cook the syrup for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Pour in lemon juice, stir and cool.

Prepare the cream. Place the cream and mixer blades in the refrigerator in advance. Pour the cold cream into a bowl and beat until stiff, 5-7 minutes. In another bowl, combine cream cheese with powdered sugar and beat with a mixer. Add the cheese mixture to the bowl with the cream and beat again.

Remove the poppy seed cake from the refrigerator and remove the film. Divide the thickness of the sponge cake into three equal parts and cut horizontally into three layers. Fill a piping bag with buttercream. Remove the lemon curd.

Place one cake layer on a flat plate. Sprinkle with sugar syrup and spread with cream. Make a border of cream along the edge of the cake. Fill the middle with lemon curd.

Cover with the second cake layer and repeat. Cover the top layer of the cake with the remaining cream and smooth it out using a spatula or spatula. Cover the cake with cling film and place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

Half an hour before serving, remove the cake from the refrigerator and cut. If desired, the top of the cake can be decorated with fresh berries, mint leaves or crushed nuts.