Bake lemon cake using this easy recipe

Nothing screams spring quite like a fresh lemon cake. The following four-layer lemon cake is filled with zesty lemon curd and a sweet raspberry compote, frosted with a layer of smooth vanilla buttercream and decorated with colorful rock candy to create the look of a geode. Inspired by the website My Recipes, this lemon cake is sure to impress in both looks and flavor.

Lemon cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened

• 3 large eggs

• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk

• 2 1/4 tablespoons lemon zest

• 2 1/4 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. To prepare the pans, cover two 8 inch round cake pans with cooking spray. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and dust each pan with the tablespoon of flour. Set each pan aside.

3. In a medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour with the baking powder, salt and baking soda.

4. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter at medium speed for 5 minutes or until well blended. Add in one egg and beat well. Repeat for the other eggs.

5. Add in a small portion of the flour mixture. Once incorporated, add in a small portion of the buttermilk. Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk has been added in; however, be sure to end with the flour mixture.

6. At medium speed, beat in the lemon zest and lemon juice.

7. Place the batter into the prepared pans, being sure to leave a quarter of the pan exposed. Before placing the pans into the oven, tap the pans on the counter in order to remove air bubbles.

8. Bake the cakes for 32 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Leaving the cakes in their pans, allow for them to cool for ten minutes on a wire rack, then remove them from the pans and allow them to cool completely.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients

• 4 large zested and juiced lemons

• ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

• 5 egg yolks

• ½ cup unsalted butter cut into pieces

Directions

1. Mix together the lemon zest and the sugar in a medium bowl, rubbing the mixture together using your fingers until fragrant.

2. Combine the lemon zest-sugar mixture with the lemon juice, egg yolks and butter in a medium saucepan. Stir until all ingredients are combined, then stir constantly over medium-low heat until all the butter has melted and the mixture has begun to thicken. This should take about 12 to 15 minutes.

3. Take the saucepan off the heat and pour the mixture into a glass bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing it against the surface of the lemon curd so as to make sure a skin doesn’t form on the surface. Cool the lemon curd to room temperature, then keep it in the fridge. After the mixture has cooled completely, it will thicken more.

Raspberry Compote

Ingredients

• 2 cups of raspberries

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

1. Combine the raspberries, sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil. Allow the mixture to boil for roughly 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning.

2. Turn the heat down to low and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. (Note that the mixture will thicken as it cools down.)

3. Allow the raspberry compote to cool and store it in a clean jar in the fridge for up to five days, or freeze it for up to two months.

Vanilla buttercream

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 3 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth.

2. Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix it in on low speed.

3. Continuing to mix on low speed, slowly add in the whipping cream. Once all whipping cream has been added, beat in the remaining powdered sugar for 1 to 2 minutes.

Assembly

1. Level each cake by cutting off any curves at the top.

2. Cut each cake in half lengthwise, making sure that your cut is even and precise. The cake should be completely cooled for this step.

3. Place a small dollop of buttercream on the center of a plate or cake stand. Place one cake layer on top of this.

4. Using a piping bag, create a rim of vanilla buttercream on top of the cake layer. Fill the inside space with raspberry compote.

5. Place another cake layer on top. Again, create a rim of buttercream. This time, fill the inside space with lemon curd.

6. Place the third cake layer on top. Create another buttercream rim and fill with raspberry compote.

7. Place the final cake layer on top. Using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of buttercream all over the cake, and then allow the cake to freeze for 30 minutes.

8. Remove the cake from the freezer and frost with vanilla buttercream. Decorate as you wish.

To create the geode cake:

1. This process requires rock candy and gold luster dust.

2. Once the cake is completely frosted, cut out a portion of the edge of the cake. For inspiration on what shape to cut, search ‘geode cake’ on the internet. Keep in mind this cut should not be flat, but rather should dig in and out of the cake. Cut carefully, as the filling may ooze out if the cake has not been properly cooled.

3. Using vanilla buttercream, frost the exposed section of cake.

4. Fill the cut-out section of cake with rock candy in an ombre fashion, with the darker colors towards the inside of the cake and the lighter coolers towards the outer edges of the cake.

5. Brush the edges of the cut-out section with gold luster dust.