Emu egg sponge cake with lemon myrtle cream

This recipe was given to me by the absolute legend of a high school teacher, Cat Clarke. Cat is a “Home Ec Queen”, and has always championed Australian native produce with her hordes of teenagers, getting them educated young. Plus, she makes an epic cake! SERVES 8 PREP TIME 10 MINUTES COOKING TIME 20 MINUTES

1 emu egg or 6 hen eggs

½ cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 cup self-raising flour

1 tablespoon ground wattleseed finger lime or quandong jam (optional) icing sugar, for dusting yellow rose petals, to serve

LEMON MYRTLE CREAM

150ml cream

1 teaspoon ground lemon myrtle

½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly grease 2 x 20cm round cake tins. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs until pale and thick, about 5 minutes. Gradually mix in the sugar and vanilla. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and sift in the flour and then add the wattleseed. Gently fold until combined. Pour into cake tins and bake for 16–18 minutes. Allow to cool in tins.

2 LEMON MYRTLE CREAM In a bowl, whip the cream until medium peaks form. Stir through the lemon myrtle, vanilla and sugar.

3 Place 1 cake on a serving plate and dollop with jam and then Lemon Myrtle Cream. Spread this on the bottom of the second cake. Place the second cake on top of the cream. Dust with icing sugar, top with extra jam and rose petals, and serve.