• Grease 3 x 7″ round sandwich tins (or 2 x 8″).
• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
• Cream your room temperature butter with your sugar until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
• Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating really well after each egg. Don’t worry if it starts to look a bit curdled, it’ll all come good.
• Mix in your flour and lemon zest. If you’ve been using a mixer, do this bit by hand. It helps to keep the sponge light.
• Spoon into a your tins, smooth out with the back of a spoon. Make a bit of a dip in the middle to account for rising.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You might need to adjust the time by 5 minutes either way depending on your oven.

Make the syrup:

• Pop the Pimms in a pan with the sugar and bring to the boil. Continue to let it bubble for about 6 or 7 minutes until it has thickened. Allow to cool (it will get thicker as it cools).

Make your icing:

• Beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
• Beat in your icing sugar, beating for at leave 5 or 10 minutes until very fluffy and pale. 
• Mix in the lemon extract and cream cheese if using.

Put it together:

• When your cakes are completely cold, use a carving knife to level them. Just trim the top crust off. This is important, it’s not a waste of cake (taste testing compulsory). If you don’t do this, with a cake this size it will be wonky.
• Drizzle a couple of dessert spoonfuls of syrup over each layer of sponge cake.
• Sandwich each layer together with some of your buttercream and some of the fruit (reserving plenty of fruit, and the mint, for the top).
• Put a dollop of icing on top of the cake and pile on the fruit. Drizzle the remaining syrup and decorate with mint leaves.