Lychee Sponge Cake

Delicate lychee flavour

For the cakes

4 free-range eggs

225g/8oz, caster sugar

225g/8oz self raising flour

225g/8oz butter at room temperature

1tin of lychees, reserve the syrup

For filling

300ml whipping or double cream

½ tin lychees

For icing

250g (9oz) icing sugar, sifted

80g (3oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml whole milk

A couple of drops of vanilla extract

½ tin lychee cut in halves

Praline

100g/3½oz caster sugar

55g/2oz cashews/almonds

Place a lightly greased sheet of baking paper onto a baking sheet.

Heat the caster sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat without stirring, until the sugar dissolves and liquid turns a deep brown caramel colour.

Add the nuts and pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

Allow the caramel to cool and set hard, and then break it up into tiny pieces.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease and line 2 x 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, flour, baking powder and butter.

Mix everything together until well combined.

Be careful not to over-mix – as soon as everything is blended you should stop.

The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency – it should fall off a spoon easily.

Add chopped lychees coated in flour so they don’t sink. Mix gently.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins: this doesn’t need to be exact.

Smooth the surface of the cakes.

Place the tins on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins.

Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.

To take your cakes out of the tins without leaving a wire rack mark on the top, put the clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand onto the tea towel and turn the tin upside-down.

The cake should come out onto your hand and the tea towel, remove baking parchment, then you can turn it from your hand onto the wire rack.

Set aside to cool completely.

To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with whipped cream.

Place handful of chopped lychees on top of cream.

Top with the second cake, top-side up.

Spread butter cream on top and sides.

Decorate with praline and lychees.