The mascarpone melts and blends magically with the lemon. A bit of lemon zest and the oils are released in the butter, which transcends into this perfect cream. A wonderfully soft Italian cheese ...

Melt the butter in a saucepan, remove from heat and mix in the flour, sugar, cornflour and lemon ... cheese with the sugar with an electric beater for 5 minutes. Whisk in the cream and mascarpone ...

Use a tart variety of lemon to give this cake a good citrus flavour. Elderflower cordial has a distinctive flavour which I really enjoy, but you could substitute with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.