We spent the 4th of July bbq-ing with friends, and this year I thought I’d bypass the star spangled cake designs and flavors all together. Instead, I reached for the perfect lemon cake recipe (always a crowd favorite!) and paired it with the tastiest lemon cream cheese buttercream. It did not disappoint. I think this lemon cake is so perfect for any Summer gathering (or year round!), and I can’t wait to share this recipe with all of you lemon fans. 

Last month, after tons of recipe testing and plenty of fails, this magical lemon cake was created. My insides squealed as I took it out of the oven and discovered that I had finally stumbled upon a lemon cake that’s fluffy, moist, packed with lemon flavor, and has the perfect amount of rise! Since lemon is such an acidic ingredient, you’ve got to be extra careful with which rising agent ratios you choose. I’m happy to say that these ones are perfection, so you can expect a beautiful lemon cake every time you bake it!

The first time I attempted a lemon cake recipe, I was flavoring the batter with fresh squeezed lemon juice. It turns out that lemon juice doesn’t really do much for flavor because most of it bakes off in the oven, and the most potent flavors of lemon actually come from the peel. So in the end, fresh lemon zest and a little lemon extract (which is made from distilled zest) add the perfect amount of zingy lemon flavor to this cake. Don’t worry about wasting any lemon juice though, you can save that for the lemon cream cheese buttercream! 

I’ve paired this lemon cake with blueberry buttercream before, and it’s a beautiful flavor combination. This time around, I whipped up some lemon cream cheese buttercream and it is so, so dreamy with this cake. While cream cheese buttercreams tend to be on the softer side, this one is actually perfect for both frosting the cake and piping on designs, so it’s a real winner! And flavoring it with a little hit of fresh squeezed lemon juice really helps bring out the perfect amount of lemon flavor throughout the cake. So tasty!

As a finishing touch, I oven dried some lemon slices and stuck them onto the frosted cake. I think they’re so pretty, and really easy to make if you’ve got some down time. All it takes is slicing some lemons, baking them on a piece of parchment paper for 2-3 hours in a 200º oven (until they’re dry to the touch), and voila! The prettiest little lemon accents for your cake! However you choose to decorate, this lemon cake will have everyone reaching for that second (and third) slice.

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Lemon Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

Layers of soft, zesty lemon cake topped with delicious lemon cream cheese buttercream.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

Lemon Layer Cake

• 3 1/4 Cups (344g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 Cups (410g) white granulated sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 Cup (75g) sour cream, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp pure lemon extract
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest (about 1 small lemon)
• 1 1/4 Cups (300ml) whole milk, room temperature

Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 16 oz (452g) cream cheese, room temperature brick-style, not the spread*
• 8 Cups (960g) powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 small lemon)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Make The Lemon Layer Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker’s Joy is my favorite) and a wax paper circle fitted to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans. 
• Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside. 
• In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Add in sugar and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon zest and mix for one minute on high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more. 
• With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the milk slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. 
• Pour batter into prepared cake pans (no more than 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 30-35 minutes. They’re done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they’re entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.

Make The Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about five minutes. Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the lemon juice and salt, mixing on low for another 30 seconds. 

Assembly

• After the lemon cake is cooled, torte each layer to remove the excess cake dome. Fill and frost with lemon cream cheese buttercream. To replicate the design pictured, after crumb coating the cake, divide the lemon cream cheese buttercream amongst three separate bowls. Color one bowl with yellow food coloring (I used Americolor Lemon Yellow). Mix a little of the yellow buttercream into another bowl of plain white to create a middle yellow shade. You should now have one bowl of deep yellow buttercream, one bowl of mid-yellow buttercream, and one bowl of white buttercream.
• Frost the bottom third of the cake with the deepest shade of yellow buttercream, the middle third with the mid-tone buttercream, and the top third with white buttercream. Smooth it with an icing smoother to create an ombre finish. Top with pretty piping, oven dried lemon slices, and a few yellow and white sprinkles for good measure.

Notes

*This frosting recipe only works with brick-style cream cheese, as the spread contains much more liquid and will result in runny buttercream. If you cannot find brick-style cream cheese, I recommend pairing this cake with either my Vanilla Buttercream or White Chocolate Buttercream. 

Make ahead tips: the Lemon Layer Cake can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can cover with plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing to room temperature. 

The Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer to bring it back to frosting consistency.

Did you make this cake recipe? I want to know how it went! Let me know in the comments below or feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram. I love to see your cake creations!

The post Lemon Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

As I was perusing the freeze dried fruit section of my local Trader Joe’s, I stumbled upon a bag of freeze dried blueberries and just had to add them to my cart. It’s no secret that I love adding freeze dried fruits to buttercream (case in point: this delicious Raspberry Buttercream Recipe), and could imagine how amazing both the color and the flavor would be with these bluebs added. With my buttercream flavored set, I started thinking on cake flavors to pair it with, and that’s how this lemon cake recipe was born.

I’ll admit, I’ve never ever made a lemon cake from scratch before. I thought it would be easy: just add some freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest into my vanilla cake batter, bake it up, and all would be good. Well, it wasn’t. I learned some valuable baking lessons in my recipe testing sessions, mainly that the acidity of lemon interacts with rising agents like baking soda and baking powder in such a way that it creates too much rise, and the cakes will fall in the center if there isn’t the right balance of acidity. After a few fallen cakes as a result of my recipe testing, I realized that decreasing the amount of baking soda in this recipe yielded a beautiful rise and a cake that is perfectly packed with fresh lemon flavor. Science, y’all.

For flavoring the cake, I initially thought fresh lemon juice would create the most authentic flavor but learned another valuable lesson: the most powerful flavor comes from the zest of a lemon, while fresh lemon juice only bakes off in the oven and doesn’t contribute much to the overall flavor. So I ended up ditching lemon juice completely and opted for the zest combined with a little lemon extract to create that powerful zing you’d expect to taste in a lemon cake. Extract is much more concentrated than fresh lemon juice, so you don’t have to use a ton to get a powerful lemon flavor that tastes totally pure. In addition to the perfect amount of lemon flavoring, using cake flour and sour cream in the recipe makes this cake super light, fluffy, and moist. Just look at this beauty:

With my perfect lemon cake recipe finally squared away, I topped it with the blueberry buttercream I’d been dreaming about ever since I saw that package of freeze dried blueberries at Trader Joe’s. I’m happy to report that it’s as heavenly as I imagined! The little flecks of blueberry are so pretty and since they’re freeze dried, you don’t get all the excess liquid from fresh blueberries messing up the frosting consistency. It’s my favorite way to flavor fruit-based buttercreams!

To decorate, I frosted a smooth layer of blueberry buttercream, then used Wilton Tip 1M and 4B to pipe a diagonal set of rosettes and stars that continues partially around the top of the cake. I popped a few fresh blueberries and these Yellow Solid Sprinkles into the buttercream piping for some additional color and texture. So easy and pretty to look at!

I ended up taking my final cake to work (yes, still rocking my day job) and it was gone before lunch time. Now that’s a true sign of a great cake! If you’re a lover of lemon cake, this recipe is sure to please. The best part is, you can pair it with a berry-flavored buttercream or try it with this lemon buttercream or this cream cheese buttercream for an alternate flavor palette. Whatever you choose to do, I can promise this cake will rise beautifully and will be packed with the perfect amount of zing!

Update 2022: I slightly changed the measurements of the lemon cake to yield less batter because it made too much for the cake pictured, which is a 3-layer 6-inch cake. Same amazing recipe, scaled down to just the right size!

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Lemon Layer Cake With Blueberry Buttercream

Layers of moist, fluffy lemon cake packed with just the right amount of zing, topped with refreshing blueberry buttercream.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

Lemon Layer Cake

• 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 2/3 Cups (355g) white sugar
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest (about 1 medium lemon)
• 1 Tsp pure lemon extract
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 Cup (240ml) whole milk, room temperature

Blueberry Buttercream

• 2 cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 package (34g) Trader Joe's freeze dried blueberries
• 6 Tbsp (90ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 7 cups (840g) powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

Make The Lemon Layer Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/177ºC. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with baking spray and fitting a parchment paper circle to the bottom of each pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans. 
• In a medium bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Set aside. 
• In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), beat the butter on high for two minutes until creamy. Add in the sugar and continue to cream on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the sour cream, lemon zest, lemon extract, and vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to high and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more. 
• With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the milk slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. The batter will be slightly thick.
• Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. They’re done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they’re entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.

Make The Blueberry Buttercream

• With a food processor, grind the freeze dried blueberries into a fine powder and set aside. Whip the butter using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until it’s creamy and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla, milk, and blueberry powder and continue to mix on medium for 3 minutes.
• Add the powdered sugar in two additions, mixing on low until fully incorporated. Add the salt and continue to mix on low for another 30 seconds. 

Assembly

• After torting the cake layers, fill and frost them with the blueberry buttercream. To replicate the look of the cake design pictured, frost the cake with a smooth layer of blueberry buttercream, then refrigerate it for about 20 minutes to let it firm up. 
• Prepare two piping bags by fitting the first with Wilton Tip 1M and the second with Wilton Tip 4B, then fill both with blueberry buttercream. Pipe rosettes and stars in a diagonal design on the front of the cake, then continue the pattern partially around the top edge. Add some fresh blueberries and yellow sprinkles onto the piping wherever you desire. 

Notes

Make ahead tips: the Lemon Layer Cake can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can cover with plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing to room temperature. 

The Blueberry Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer to bring it back to frosting consistency.

Did you make this recipe? I want to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or tag me on Instagram so I can see what you’re caking!

The post Lemon Layer Cake With Blueberry Buttercream appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.