Lemon Cake can be the Waterloo for bakers. Everyone has their own preference on how best it should taste, and what the perfect texture the cake must have. After working extensively with major trial and error, and more error, we’ve assembled the perfect cake: Lush Lemon Layer Cake! Let’s dive in to how we got this great dessert.
Trial & Error
Creating an amazing lemon cake taste a ton of patience. Creating a cake that does not contain and lemon extract takes even more time. Our goal was not only to create an amazing tasting cake with an amazing texture, but we also wanted the caveat of making a cake that didn’t force our readers to buy any lemon extract.
Lemon Extract
While we love our extracts, we hate to depend on it for an amazing dessert (outside of vanilla!) Lemon extract, while adding a strong lemony taste can also taste artificial if you don’t purchase the right one. It’s also an added cost for something you’ll only use sparingly, unlike vanilla extract. So why not make a cake that doesn’t need it at all, while still containing a strong and refreshing lemon taste? Lemon extract, while having a ton of benefits cannot make up for the fresh taste of zest or juice from an actual lemon. Lush Lemon Layer Cake gives you everything you’re looking for in your lemon cake.
Texture
Another issue that commonly arises when making desserts is the texture. We all depend on our senses when eating, and for desserts, that used to the highest level. During our process, we notice that butter-alone, didn’t give the moistest texture. We added oil. Too much oil sometimes! And we ended up loving the added softness. While butter is more needed for taste, oil is used for texture.
An underrated aspect of baking is not only the ingredients itself, but how they’re applied. With this recipe, we’ll whipped in the sugar with zest and butter; we also apply liquid and dry ingredients — alternating between the two back to back — and the dessert’s texture ends up making a big difference. We want this batter to be fluffy as possible, so by the end, we get a fluffy cake. We add eggs at the end because we don’t want to overwhip our eggs. Eggs help bind our cake together. Overwhipping, or overmixing will make our dessert collapse. And we don’t want that! Yet ironically, overwhipping your dried ingredients will have very little effect. Huh! Isn’t baking fun!
Lemons
The key ingredient for our Lush Lemon Layer Cake is what: LEMONS!!! Lemons are a powerful fruit that can shape any dish. For this cake, it contributes both to taste and texture. We use both the zest and juice to pack the most flavor we can have to make a gorgeous dessert. Summer will always be the best time for quality lemons, but this dessert can be made year round. All you’ll need is four lemons for the cake, and another two for the frosting. Zesting over your mixing bowl allows for the natural oils of the lemon to spray out onto your ingredients in your mixing bowl. Fresh lemon juice cannot be replicated. Bottled lemon juice will not have the same effect. Get the lemons, juicer and zester.
Let’s Begin
Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven. Zest for your life!
Make sure your ingredients are room temperature. This allows our cake to be made evenly. Now cream your butter, sugar and lemon zest for a couple of minutes, before adding your oil.
Add your flours, both all-purpose and cake flour (because why not), and milk. Alternating between the two helps form a creaminess to your batter. Also add your baking soda, baking powder, salt, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract to the batter and mix.
After mixing well, add your lemon juice, and finally your eggs. Remember, add your eggs one at a time.
Lush Lemon Layer Cake
Ingredients
Lemon Cake Layers
- 704 g granulated sugar
- 376 g AP Flour
- 198 g cake flour
- 113 g unsalted butter
- ½ cup canola oil vegetable or any neutral oil
- 4 medium lemon zest
- â…” cups fresh lemon juice
- 4 eggs room temp.
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1¼ cup milk room temp.
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 oz. cream cheese room temp.
- 113 g unsalted butter room temp.
- 2 medium lemon zest
- 4 tbsp. fresh lemon juice up to 6 tbsp., if needed
- 700 g powdered sugar more if needed
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. clear vanilla extract
Instructions
Lemon Cake Layers
- Preheat oven to 325℉, and prepare two-round 9" baking pans, or three-round 8" baking pans.
- In a mixing bowl, add the butter, lemon zest and sugar and mix for at least 3 minutes until well combined. It's best to zest over the mixing bowl and not separately for best results.
- Add the canola oil and mix for another minute or two.
- Prepare your flours together, and alternate between adding by a ¼ or ⅓, both the flours and milk into your batter mix. Mix between each addition.
- Add your baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract. Mix until well combines.
- After, add your lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Mix well before moving forward.
- Lastly, add your eggs one at a time. Mix briefly between each egg addition into the batter.
- Pour batter between each cake pan evenly.
- Bake your cake for at least 50 minutes, or until a toothpick reveals a cooked cake.
- Set aside and let cool for at least 1 hour until it reaches room temperature or even cool.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a mixing bowl, mix together cream cheese, salt, butter and zest together for 5 minutes until extremely creamy
- Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and mix again until smooth.
- Pour in the fresh lemon juice. It's always best to start small, since everyone has their own lemon taste preference. 4-6 tablespoons are usually the perfect amount.
- Mix the juice in very well. Then add the second half of the powdered sugar. Mix until creamy and stable. Since this frosting is liquid/dairy heavy, additional powdered sugar may be needed, based on weather climate. Creamy, but stable is what you'll need for the perfect frosting.
Assemble Cake
- Place a thin layer of frosting, evenly with an offset spatula on a cake board, drum or plate.
- Place the first layer of cake on the board. Level cake, but cutting the cake evenly on top for a flat surface if needed.
- Add an even layer of the frosting o top of the cake surface. Spread with the offset spatula.
- Place second layer of leveled cake on top of the frosted first layer. Push down gently to adhere. Make sure cake is level before proceeding. If you have more layers, repeat this process.
- Next, crumb coat your cake. This is an important step. Set aside cake for at least 30 minutes.
- Place cake in fridge for 20 minutes after letting it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. The coldness of the fridge will harden the buttercream, to allow placing the final frosting coat easier.
- Rewhip your frosting for a minute or two. This will help make your frosting fluffier again.
- Remove cake from fridge and frost your cake again and the top and sides with a thick, yet even coat of frosting. Use your spatula and/or a bench scraper to get the best visual results for your frosting.
- Decorate as you like.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Are You Ready To Bake It?!
While this cake is a process with many steps, it’s worth it in the end. Lush Lemon Layer Cake is one of those desserts where you have to just bite the bullet and bake it! Bake it, then enjoy it! Its use of lemon , and only lemon to enhance the amazing flavor of this dessert is worthy of a try in itself.
If you’re interesting in a gorgeous accompaniment with you new lemon cake, why not add Raspberry Filling Fruit Jam to your cake for an amazing filling to your cake.
