I started writing this post two weekends ago, a couple weeks after my family threw the loveliest baby shower for my cousin and his wife Ashlee, who has become one of my best friends. And I get to be an AUNT. As an only child, I never really thought I’d have that opportunity, but now I’m so excited! Baby Henry better get ready. ?
ABOUT THIS CAKE
- As per usual, I baked this one in three 6-inch pans, but it works perfectly in two 8-inch pans as well. (For the baby shower, I actually made this recipe twice to create a four layer 8-inch cake. We ended up cutting two-layer slices though, if that makes sense, so the cake fed a ton of people!)
- This cake is based off my new fave classic yellow cake recipe. I just swapped vanilla extract for lemon, added some zest, and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice.
- The frosting is lemon as well, but I added a pinch of cardamom. It just smells SO FRESH. Before that I was tempted to add a tiny splash of lavender extract, but I’ll have to save that for another day, another cake. 🙂
- I can’t tell you how easy this cake is to make. It uses oil instead of butter, so you don’t even have to cream anything. Just mix it all together!
The drips are made from a mix of white and light blue candy melts, which I melted with some heavy cream like a ganache. You could easily change the color to pink for a girl baby, or any other color to go with a wedding or birthday! They make some pretty fancy flavors of candy melts these days. Cheesecake, caramel, and my fave, color burst–aka confetti! Haven’t tried drips with those yet, but it’s only a matter of time. 😉
LEMON LAYER CAKE
Ingredients
lemon cake
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup milk
lemon frosting
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup vegetable shortening cubed
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1/4 tsp cardamom optional
- 6 cups powdered sugar
garnish (optional)
- lemon slices
- dried lavender
- flowers
Instructions
for the cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray three 6-inch (or two 8-inch) round cake pans with nonstick spray. Line with parchment paper and spray again.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Combine sugar, oil, eggs, lemon extract, zest, and lemon juice. Mix on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Add half of flour mixture and half of the milk. Mix until just blended. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.
- Divide batter evenly among cake pans and bake 22-25 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
for the frosting
- Cream butter on medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. With mixer running, add shortening a little bit at a time until completely incorporated. (This helps prevent lumps.)
- Add lemon extract, cardamom, and half of powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until mostly combined, then medium-high speed until completely combined. Repeat with remaining powdered sugar. Mix on medium-high speed 1 additional minute.
assembly
- Use a serrated knife or a cake saw to cut off domed tops of cakes so that cakes are even and smooth. Place one cake layer on a plate or cake stand. Spread frosting over cake. Repeat with the next two layers.
- Optional: Spread a thin crumb coat over the cake and chill for 20 minutes.
- Spread frosting over outside of cake and garnish as desired.
Notes
Recipe from bethcakes. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without permission. If you would like to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.
Lemon is absolutely my favorite cake variety, and I want this RIGHT NOW! You always make the prettiest, tallest cakes.
Beautiful cakes! Oh how I’d love to taste your frosting with cardamom in it. 🙂
This cake was incredibly moist and very delicious! It tasted every bit as good as it looked!
I am going to try this recipe as a large sheet cake, which will serve many at my husband’s residential care facility. Wish me luck!
Wow, I just love this super amazing looking cakes!!! You are so talented!!! Thanks for sharing:)
That cake is SO beautiful. You amaze me Beth!
Xx Taylor
http://lightscameracatwalk.com/
Hello, this recipe looks wonderful, however, I was wondering what sized pans you used, I am planning on making this cake for Easter and would please like to know? I have an 8-inch pan, do you think that would work? would it be worth it to buy a new sized pan if the size is different?
Sorry to comment again, but do you know if this recipe would taste good with strawberry frosting, or some kind of filling? I was thinking of maybe making a strawberry lemon cake? Would it be better to keep the integrity of the flavors? and would you mind letting me know what type of flowers you used to decorate? I am learning to decorate and I love how your cake looks!
This recipe was very easy to follow and my cake came out delicious and beautiful! I made three 6 inch cakes and found that I needed a second batch of batter and more frosting. I’m so excited to share this with my friends and family.