It’s snowing. Again. In March. We had a brown-ish Christmas here in Buffalo, and now a white March. So as I sit here wanting to whine about my NEED to plant things, start wearing sandals (yes, March/April is that time here…) and the desperate want to feel in season with bright, flavors and… sigh.
So I made lemon cake. And got carried away so I also made lemon buttercream. And lemon curd.
LEMON ALL THE THINGS!!!
Sorry for yelling. And I guess I don’t really need to advocate for the rest of the baking world to lemon things when I clearly went overboard. 🙂 But it made the snow seem so much more springy! I’m good at imagining. But food can definitely take you away and transport you to another time and place. It’s kinda magical.
Perhaps this delicious cake will take me to a warmer place with flowers just popping out of the ground and crisp-bordering-on-warm breezes sweeping gently around.
When I was creating the cake I was craving I decided I would reeeeeaaallllyyyyy have to layer the lemon thick to drown out our snow and poke at the next season, maybe antagonize it to just show up already. So lemon cake, lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and lemon curd it had to be.
I’ve never had luck with lemon curd. It never as smooth as jarred ones (forgive me!!! I know. * hangs head in culinary shame *) But I was determined this time with all the leftover lemon I had after zesting. Lemonade would have worked, too. You know the saying about getting bunches of lemons… I can’t ever go along with custom, and my goodness do I love a good challenge!
And it worked perfect in a THIRD way! Yolks for the curd, whites for my Swiss meringue buttercream! See how that all worked out?
Zest for cake = extra lemons
Lemons for curd + yolks for curd = extra whites
Whites for Swiss Meringue Buttercream!!!
It’s like a virtuous circle of baked goods 🙂 It was kinda cool.
Anywho. The curd came out grand and was the perfect POP of bright lemon against the gentle and subtle lemon of the cake and buttercream. Truth be told, I could just eat the stuff by the spoonful. Or shovel full. No judgement here.
The drip cake craze is catching so I decided to take my leftover curd and drip it. And pile every last lemon things I could find on top of the cake. Granted the Peeps aren’t lemon, but they are wonderful, sweet little things.
(I named the ones on top Tom. They’re all Tom. And if you get what I did there, I LOVE YOU! We’re kindred weirdos with a superb sense of humor! You’re my kind of people.)
So these are the delicious recipes I nearly did not share with you. Wanna know why?
I hated the photos. (Bloggers out there, you know what I’m talkin’ about!) It was getting too late afternoon and my beautiful north facing window wasn’t getting enough of the typical light I wait for. I knew all of my own tips like in my Better Cake Photography post, but I had to get it done then.
“Why couldn’t you just wait a bit, Kara? Like just till the next day?”
Because there were lemon cookies on top. That needed to be eaten. By me. Right then. Patience has never been my strong suit. So I dealt with the light problem. I shot and shot and rearranged, and shot more, switched things up, sliced the cake, (resisted eating cookies – please note my self-control), more pictures, popped a peeping Tom into my mouth.
Then. THEN. I saw the results when I popped that memory card into my computer.
I avoided it. I set the idea aside. And I ate the darned cake. Hey, it WAS delicious. And that LEMON CURD!!! I may have swiped my fork through a layer of the cake to grab one last taste before placing it into the fridge… But I have kids I can blame it on if ever questioned.
I’m sure by now you just want me to stop typing and share the recipe, right? Well, then you’re in luck! Because I want the world to feel and taste springy and bright and yummy! I present to you my Lemon All the Things Cake!
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup Cake flour
- 1 Tbsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 lemons zest
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 2 Tbsp Amoretti Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Goop two 8 x 2 pans (recipe for goop in the link below). Soak 2 baking strips in cold water.
- In a medium bowl sift or whisk all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
- In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, zest and Lemon Flavor paste.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add flour and milk mixtures alternating in 3 batches of flour, 2 batches of milk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat until just combined.
- Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until cakes just barely pull away from sides of pans, 30-40 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto a metal cooling rack. If you used goop, your cakes should just slide out of then pan without hesitation.
Click here to get my GOOP recipe. This will change how you prepare your cake pans. You already have these ingredients in your cupboard - no need to buy sprays ever again!
If you want to make your own buttermilk substitute like I do (I never buy it), add 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, lime juice, or distilled white vinegar to a 1 cup measure and fill the rest with reduced fat milk. Mix and let it sit for 5 minutes. Buttermilk!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 70 ounces | 40 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 5 minutes |
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The classic and most beloved of buttercreams. These few ingredients transform into a silky, light, and sweet frosting that compliments all cakes perfectly. You need this recipe in your cake decorating arsenal.
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- 20 oz sugar
- 12.6 gr Meringue powder optional, adds extra stability
- 13 oz Egg whites
- 32 oz Butter, Unsalted room temp
- 7 oz Shortening
- 2 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 4 Tbsp Amoretti Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring
- Measure all ingredients.
- Whisk sugar and meringue powder together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
- Add egg whites to the sugar mixture in the stand mixer bowl.
- Heat gently over boiling water to 135˚F (all sugar should be dissolved) whisking the whole time.*
- Using the whip attachment, whisk on high speed for 20 minutes in stand mixer or until room temp and firm, glossy peaks.
- Change to paddle attachment, set to medium speed and slowly add the shortening in chunks, then butter and any flavoring.
- Beat till fully incorporated and light in color
*When whisking the egg whites and sugar over boiling water you do not need to foam them. Keeping them moving to to evenly distribute the heat and keep your whites from coagulating and scrambling.
I use a kitchen scale when I do just about all of my baking. I highly suggest having one as they are the best way to ensure your ingredients are exact every time.
This may seem to “break” at some point, where the butter may look curdled. No worries, keep beating and it comes back together.
To make this natural lemon flavored like mine, you can get Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring from Amoretti <--- here.
Note that this is not a puree, it's a concentrated flavor paste. Puree's won't work the same.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 2 cups | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 20 minutes | 60 minutes |
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Bright and packed with real flavor, this is the perfect way to use those lemons you zested and those yolks abandoned from Swiss Buttercream.
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- 8 large egg yolks
- 2 lemons zest
- 3 lemons' juice Meyer lemons are the sweetest
- 1 cup sugar
- pinch Kosher salt
- 1 1/4 sticks Butter
- Add yolks, juice, zest and sugar to a heavy bottomed sauce pan and whisk to combine.
- cook over medium-high heat stirring constantly with a flexible silicone spatula scraping bottom and side of the pan constantly to avoid scrambling of the yolks. Cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon and has come to 160˚F.
- Remove from heat and add salt and butter and stir until combined. Strain the curd through a medium mesh sieve into a medium bowl.
- Cover the top with plastic wrap allowing the plastic to come into contact with the entire top surface.
- Refrigerate until fully chilled and set for at least 1 hour before using. Store in an airtight container in refrigeration for 7 days.
Enjoy the lemony goodness 🙂
CK says
I love this Kara. I did get the Tom joke. You are hilariously funny. I love your blog. I am on a citrus kick myself trying to usher in Spring. Love that season. This could be my Passover dessert. Do you think I can substitute finely ground Matzo Meal for the flour? If not, I’ll make it for my Easter dessert.
🙂
I’ve never worked with Matzo meal, but now I want to… If you’ve successfully done so in the past swapping it for wheat flours I’d say give it a try! And I love that you got the Tom joke 🙂
Sandy says
Wow. Kara, this looks so good and just perfect for a birthday cake for my dad (He loooves lemon). I look forward to making it next month.
Yes! My dad and hubby both LOVE lemon everything! I was afraid hubby would eat the whole thing 🙂
Hi kara.. what can I substitute cake flour with, since we don’t have it here. Love Love lemons so I neeeed to try this…
Hi Nair! You can use all AP flour. The cake flour just adds to tenderness. The AP substitution will be just as delicious, though 🙂
Saima says
Thank you so much Kara for the recipe ,i was looking for this and i got it.
Thank you so much.
Susan Fitzgerald says
Peeps named Tom! Now THAT’S funny!
Is this cake as fabulously moist as your vanilla cake (a/k/a The Best Vanilla Cake Ever)?
I’ve had some mixed results with cake flour….some of the recipes I’ve tried have been on the dry side. Currently, I’m adding lemon zest and lemon simple syrup to your vanilla recipe (yum!), but this one looks delish! Final question: will it hold up to fondant and is it good for stacking?
Counting down to the Cake Mentor Series…tick, tock, tick, tock……!!!
It’s good for all of those things 🙂 It’s fondant friendly!
Marie Bryant says
Hi Kara, I know the recipe calls for the paste but I am not able to get that right now but I really want to try this for my dads birthday on Friday. What can I substitute?
Hi Marie, you can always substitute a good quality extract.
Shelly W says
Kara,
This looks absolutely deliciously divine! I can hardly wait to try it.
You said you had problems with making lemon curd. I did too. Then I came across microwave lemon curd. Couldn’t be easier or quicker. Turns out every single time.
There are a number of recipes online and they’re all similar. I found one that I played around with to get the consistency and flavor I wanted. (Be sure to strain if you want silky smooth texture.)
I encourage you to try the method. After finding it I make lemon curd, and just about any kind of curd quite frequently.
Hope it helps and we see more recipes using curd.
Hey Shelly! I’ve heard of the microwave method but still haven’t tried it. I’m going to now 🙂 Lemond curd is just too yummy! And anything that saves me some time and energy is well worth the try. And if I can make friends with it, I’m sure I’ll be curd-ing all the fruits! LOL
What if you don’t have Amoretti? How much juice would you use?
You could use juice, but the amount you would need to get this full of a flavor would drastically alter the recipe and cause it to fail. Instead, use a good quality extract.
I love lemon, so will definitely be making this! Being in the uk, having the metric weight converter also saves me a LOT of time! Thanks Kara �?��?��?�
I prefer to scale everything in metric �?� I’m all for overthrowing the Imperial measures standard here. LOL!
Hi again, forgot to ask. If I can’t find the Amoretti flavouring, what’s the next best thing?
Hi Debbie! You can always get the Amoretti flavoring here: https://amoretti.com/products/lemon-artisan-flavor?variant=27097591559
It’s just a matter of ordering in time for your needs. Other than that you can use a good quality extract.
Luisa says
Hi Kara!
I love lemon cake and when I saw you making this fantastic recipe I just run to see if I had every thing in pantry to make it!
You are awesome and I love the way you share all what you know.
Thanks to be who you are.
P.d. I didn’t got the joke �? hehehe
Hi Luisa! They are Peeps (the marshmallow candy). And they are “peeping” out from behind the cookie. And since they are named Tom, that makes them Peeping Toms. 🙂
So glad you changed your mind and shared the recipes.
I think it is time to shop Amoretti Artisan. The recipes are very straight forward and I am loving the little Toms 🙂 Thank you
Ha! You like my Peepers �?� Yes, Jeanne if you like the passionfruit paste before, you’ll LOVE Amoretti’s line!
Denise Foster says
Is the Amoretti in the cake recipe the Amoretti Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring?
Hi Denise! Yes, it is 🙂 You can get it here: https://amoretti.com/products/lemon-artisan-flavor?variant=27097591559
Stephanie says
First thing I have to say is I love your recipes! I’m not big into lemons but I’m trying this out mostly to make the lemon curd cause I love me a challenge too! I’ll tag you when I make.(decocakes123-ig) Second, I ordered artisan flavoring from your link, they had no more small so they upgraded me free of charge! Artisan is awesome sauce! Third why are you using reduced fat buttermilk? Is there a science behind it or can I go ahead and use fI’ll fat and call it a day? Thanks! Love your stuff!
Stephanie says
Umm that’s full fat.. don’t know what got into my autocorrect there..
You can use full fat buttermilk, but it might be a bit “fatty” or excessively oily seeming. It’s the fat content compared to the rest of the recipe that keeps me using low fat or fat free buttermilk.
Margie says
This cake looks delicious and beautiful! Love it! Would I be able to convert this cake recipe into cupcakes?
Hi Margie! I haven’t tried it as cupcakes, but if you do please let me know how it turns out!
Alexis says
HI Kara! Love your recipes, use them often. I am wondering what the purpose of the shortening is in the buttercream recipes? Not a fan of shortening, but I am wondering if it acts as a stabilizer maybe? Does it make the frosting hold up better? Would like to bring this cake to a party where it might sit out for a while. Would the shortening help keep the frosting from softening?
Hi Alexis! It is in fact a stabilizer, just like the optional meringue powder. The shortening helps with temperature resistance and with cooling the mix down and prepping it for the addition of he butter. You’ll notice that the recipe calls for adding the shortening before the butter. �?�
Sophy says
Hi Kara! I’m in the middle of making this and realized in step #2 for the cake, it say baking soda but it’s not listed in the ingredients list. How much should it be?
Hi Sophie! It’s 1 tsp. Thanks for catching 🙂
Do you really mean 4 T., or 1/4 c. Amoretti Artisan Natural Lemon flavoring? Seems like a lot.
Yes, I do. Have you tried the recipe?
Maria says
Hi Kara, I enjoy following your ideas. I have a question regarding this lemon cake. I noticed that you have a version of the cake recipe that is different from the one that originally came in your email; main difference is inclusion of the lemon flavoring vs lemon juice as in your original. I am curious why. Many thanks, Maria
Hi Maria! *Confession time* I had two recipes written that I had tested. I liked both. But the lemon flavoring one I prefer. I was tired (read: Kara refuses to sleep for days at a time when things get busy) and mindlessly grabbed the wrong recipe to input. Seriously. Someone else caught me. LOL! I did try both and both work. But this one stands just above the other. You know when something just isn’t right? Like you’re doing something and something is off, but you can’t put your finger on it? Like you’ve walked out of the house and forgotten something? That’s how I felt after adding the recipe into the software. LOL!
Kelli says
Hi Kara,
I have a bride that wants a lemon cake, would this be good for stacking or would you recommend the vanilla cake and flavoring with lemon extract?
This is more of a dessert style cake, one tier, served after Sunday dinner or at brunch. I would suggest Kara’s Perfect Vanilla Cake and add lemon extract or artisan paste to it. That’s THE PERFECT (har har!) layered tiered cake.
If I wanted to switch lemon for key limes or limes how many would I have to use?
Same amount. 🙂 And that sounds WONDERFUL!!!
How do you can leftover lemon curd?
Spread it on toast, use it for tartlets, and you can freeze it for up to 4 weeks.
Hi Kara,
I am new to your site and Love it 🙂 So my question is can I mix the cake like your Perfect Vanilla cake recipe? I have changed a lot of my recipes to that new mixing method. I was hoping I could do the same for this one.
Please let me know
Thanks
Jeanette
Hi Jeanette! I haven’t tried so I can’t verify the results. I say give it a try and let us know how it goes!
Kim says
Do you really mean 1 tbsp of baking powder?
Yep. As written. 1 Tbsp of Baking Powder.
Tiffany says
This may be a stupid question but, how did you spread your SMBC over the lemon curd without making a mess?
So beautiful and I can’t wait to make it, tonight!
The lemon curd is thin - and that’s the key. But with how strong curds are in flavor you don’t need a ton to get the pint across. And you can pip concentric rings around the top of layer, or just carefully spread with an offset spat.
Hi Kara,
Hello
I am new to your site and Love it 🙂 So my question is can I mix the cake like your Perfect Vanilla cake recipe? I have changed a lot of my recipes to that new mixing method. I was hoping I could do the same for this one.
Please let me know
Thanks
Jeanette
Hi, Jeanette! Welcome! Give it a try and let me know how it turns out! I always encourage experimentation. Send pictures if you can!