Moist, tasty and addicting this Lemon Layer Cake is the perfect Springtime cake recipe that you need in your life. Easy to whip together and easier to devour.
I don’t know how many times that I’ve stressed on how much that I love anything lemon flavored. Especially Lemon Cake. Or any cake in general.
Luckily lemons are one of those fruits that are around all year long, so you really don’t have to wait until Spring or Summer to actually whip up anything with them.
Some of my favorite lemon desserts that we have here are Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Ricotta Cake and Cake Mix Lemon Squares.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- This recipe uses really simple pantry baking ingredients that you most likely already have on hand.
- You can swap out fresh lemon juice with bottled if you’d like.
- It has just the right amount of lemon flavor between the cakes and frosting that it is not overwhelming.
While it feels like I haven’t made a layered cake in a long time, I really made this cake for my mom because she told me she missed me making my layer cakes.
Of course you have to always appease your mother, so this one is for you mom if you’re reading this, also I hope you enjoyed the leftovers.
HOW TO MAKE LEMON LAYER CAKE, STEP BY STEP:
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In large bowl whisk together your four, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt until combined.
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With hand or stand mixer mix in your eggs, oil and lemon juice until blended.
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Add in your sour cream and lemon zest and continue beating until incorporated.
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Pour evenly into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes or until golden and cake springs back when touched, remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes in pans before inverting on wire rack to cool completely.
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Meanwhile to make your buttercream in stand mixer or with hand mixer beat add your butter.
- Beat butter until light and fluffy and pale in color.
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Add in you lemon juice and lemon zest and beat until blended.
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Add in your powdered sugar one cup at a time beating well after each addition.
- If your frosting is too thick add a few tablespoons of milk, then frost your cake as desired.
When it comes to cakes this Lemon Layer Cake is one of the easiest as they come. The cake itself is made in one bowl which makes clean up super easy.
If you are anything like me, cleaning up is the worst part about cooking or baking, for real. That is the part that I make my husband or kids do.
You can decorate this cake however you like to, we always love swirls on top of the cake itself, I feel like the more frosting I can get in each bite the better.
I’m a frosting type of girl and this ensures me that there is more to go around! Personal preference I guess you could say.
You could also make a cream cheese lemon frosting as well if you don’t want to do a straight lemon buttercream which we use for this recipe.
HOW DO YOU STORE THIS CAKE?
This Lemon Layer Cake can be stored at room temperature over night (covered) as it doesn’t include ingredients that would spoil if left out.
If you are not planning to consume within that 24 hour period of time, then refrigeration is your next best bet, again make sure it is covered.
Covering the cake keeps the cut portions of the cake from hardening. When you serve the cake, we like to bring it to room temperature before consuming.
HOW TO FREEZE CAKES:
If you want to whip up this Lemon Cake to serve later it is best that you bake the cakes and cool them and then wrap the layers in plastic wrap.
Then throw them in the freezer where they should keep for up to one month, but ideally you should not keep frozen cake more than three months.
To serve take your cake out of the freezer and place in the refrigerator over night to defrost, then decorate as planned. I don’t recommend freezing already frosted cakes.
PRO TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Line your cake pans with parchment paper and spray with a flour based non-stick cooking spray, this has always been our best results in removing cakes.
- If you do not have lemon juice on hand, replace the lemon juice with water in the recipe and add some lemon extract, maybe about 2-3 tsp, same goes for the frosting.
- I like to do a crumb layer on all my cakes which means place you coat the outside of your layered cake with a thin layer of frosting and refrigerating before frosting the remainder of the cake.
If you are wanting a fresh and flavorful cake recipe then you need to bake up this Lemon Layer Cake! It is a family hit and even the kids enjoy it!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this LEMON LAYER CAKE or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Lemon Layer Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup lemon juice fresh or bottled
- 1 tbs lemon zest + more for decorating
- 3/4 cup sour cream
Buttercream:
- 1 1/2 cups sticks butter softened
- 5-6 Tbs lemon juice
- Zest of one large lemon
- 6-7 cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 Tbs milk if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line two 9" round cake pans with parchment paper and then grease sides with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.
- In large bowl whisk together your four, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt until combined.
- With hand or stand mixer mix in your eggs, oil and lemon juice until blended. Add in your sour cream and lemon zest and continue beating until incorporated.
- Pour evenly into prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and cake springs back when touched, remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes in pans before inverting on wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile to make your buttercream in stand mixer or with hand mixer beat your butter until light and fluffy.
- Add in you lemon juice and lemon zest and beat until blended.
- Add in your powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Add in milk if desired.
- Taste flavor to adjust adding more lemon juice if needed,
- To assemble, on a cake board on turntable place one layer of cake and spread with about 3/4 cup buttercream and spread out to sides.
- Top with remaining layer of cake and then do a crumb coating by frosting top and sides of cake with a thin layer of buttercream.
- Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.
- Frost remaining cake, reserving about 3/4 cup frosting for decorating if needed.
- Pipe swirls onto top of cake if desired and top with extra lemon zest if desired.
Notes
- Line your cake pans with parchment paper and spray with a flour based non-stick cooking spray, this has always been our best results in removing cakes.
- If you do not have lemon juice on hand, replace the lemon juice with water in the recipe and add some lemon extract, maybe about 2-3 tsp, same goes for the frosting.
- I like to do a crumb layer on all my cakes which means place you coat the outside of your layered cake with a thin layer of frosting and refrigerating before frosting the remainder of the cake.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
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