Pressed for time? Make this quick Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze.
Lemon Cake
This is a three-layer Lemon Cake with a beautifully tender crumb that’s adapted from my Vanilla Cake batter. The Vanilla Cake batter is one of my master recipes that I adapt to all sorts of cakes. It could be blueberry-studded ones, a pink, real strawberry cake (in the works!) or even a layered chestnut cream Mont Blanc Cake. The sponge is unique because it’s made using a French-Japanese cake-making method that relies on whipped eggs more than baking powder to lift the cake. This yields a much more elegant, softer crumb than typical Western cakes which often start with a “cream butter and sugar” instruction. Here’s a comparison of the Vanilla Cake Crumb vs a typical butter cake: As mentioned, this makes is an excellent general-purpose foundation for so many other cakes. Like this Lemon Cake! Here’s a little behind the scenes Instagram video from when I was experimenting: So, this recipe was actually the outcome of cake sample number 3 you see in the above video! After keeping it to myself for a few months, I decided it was time to share!
Ingredients in Lemon Cake
Here are the ingredients required for the signature, soft and fluffy Lemon Cake Layers! The Vanilla Cake post on which this batter is based already has additional detail about some of the ingredients, which I won’t repeat in full here.
Lemon zest and juice – Powers the lemon flavour! Most of the lemon flavour comes from the zest, while the tartness comes from the juice.Natural lemon extract (oil), OPTIONAL – Made from lemons, this is a concentrated oil that gives this cake a little extra lemon flavour leg-up. No matter how much fresh lemon you put in a cake batter, I find you can never achieve the quite same flavour intensity you can with just a a small amount of lemon extract (we just use 1/4 teaspoon).It comes in little bottles like food colouring, found in the same baking section of stores. However, if you don’t want to get a bottle especially for this cake, I do get that. So just skip it – I promise this cake still has sufficient lemon flavour!Flour – Just plain/all-purpose flour works better here than cake flour. However, if you can only get cake flour, that works just fine. The only difference is that the cake surface becomes a bit tacky the next day (not really a big deal in this frosted cake);Sugar – Superfine / caster sugar is best as it dissolves more readily. But ordinary granulated white sugar is fine too. Please do not attempt to substitute with brown sugar or any sugar substitutes;Butter – Unsalted, the default for baking;Eggs – Fresher is better, and at room temperature. Fresh eggs fluff better, and room temperature eggs fluff faster than fridge-cold eggs. If you don’t know how, here’s how to check how fresh your eggs are;Milk, full-fat – Just plain old cow’s milk! Low-fat does work too but rises marginally less. Do not substitute with non-dairy milk or buttermilk;Baking powder – For lifting power. If you don’t use yours regularly, make sure sure it’s still good. Inactive baking powder is a common hidden culprit of cake fails;Vanilla – For its beautiful flavour which complements the lemon so well;Salt – Just a little brings out the flavours of everything else in the cake; andOil – For a touch of extra moisture but more importantly, it keeps the cake fresh for 5 days. Any neutral oil works fine here – vegetable, canola, peanut etc.
How to make Lemon Cake
The batter for this cake is based on my Vanilla Cake. There, I’ve already provided comprehensive process steps as well as the “why” in the method. Rather than repeating it all, I’ll focus on the essentials relevant to this particular cake. It comes in little bottles like food colouring, found in the same baking section of stores. However, if you don’t want to get a bottle especially for this cake, I do get that. So just skip it – I promise this cake still has sufficient lemon flavour! You’ll know straight away when you touch the cake that it’s a very special cake because you can feel how plush and velvety it is even on the surface. Lighten the hot milk mixture – Add some of the egg batter into the hot milk mixture. The purpose of this step is to lighten the hot milk mixture before combining it with the batter so it is incorporated more easily. The batter is beautifully aerated and this technique thus helps preserve all those air bubbles we created in Step 1. Bake for 23 minutes. If they don’t all fit on one shelf, put 2 on the middle shelf and one on the shelf below. Take the top 2 from the oven at 23 minutes, then move the bottom one up a shelf and bake for a further 2 minutes. Let the cakes stand for a few minutes in the pan then cool upside down on a rack. Why upside down? Because the weight will will flatten out any slight doming on the upper surface so there’s no need to trim to make the cakes level. Be sure to let it cool fully before frosting, otherwise it will melt your frosting!
How to make my secret Less-Sweet Fluffy Lemon Frosting
Ah, that magic fluffy frosting that’s 100% smooth yet not cloying and overly-sweet like buttercream! This frosting uses a flour-based roux as the thickener which is whipped up with icing sugar / powdered sugar and butter. It’s gained a bit of a cult following for good reason. 🙂 For this cake, we’re making a lemon-flavoured version of the recipe.
Lemon Frosting ingredients
All you need is butter, milk, sugar, salt, lemon and … flour. “Flour??”, I hear you cry. YES. That is what thickens this into a frosting texture and gives it its trademark light and fluffy mouthfeel. It’s a vintage frosting technique from the days before cream cheese frosting was ever a thing. The actual name is “Ermine Frosting” or “Boiled Milk Frosting” – read more about it here in the original recipe. I promise you will not detect even the faintest bit of flour once finished – not in texture and certainly not taste. Why salt? As with the cake, just a little brings out the flavours of everything else in the frosting. You won’t taste it!
How to make this Magic Fluffy Lemon Frosting
First, we make the roux. It’s just like how we start creamy-sauce savoury foods like Mac and Cheese, only it’s sweet and we take it much further until it’s very thick.
1. Thickening roux for frosting
Now, we whip it up like any other frosting. Cooling the roux / making ahead – I usually cool on the counter for 20 minutes then refrigerate for 30 minutes or so to speed things up. Don’t let it get fridge-cold because otherwise it won’t mix together well with the room temp butter (because the temperatures are too different). You can also leave it overnight in the fridge but take it out about 1 hour prior to de-chill it and bring to room temperature.
2. Whip frosting
Decorating the Lemon Cake
This Lemon Frosting behaves just like buttercream. So you can spread it or pipe it into beautiful swirls, even into sky-high mounds on Cupcakes if you wanted to! In the cakes shown in this post and the recipe video, I’ve kept it pretty simple:
Lemon slices and fresh flowers – As shown in the photos above, I just finished the cake with a smooth frosting on the surface then decorated it with lemon slices and edible flowers. (Planting my own edible flowers is one of the best things I’ve ever put in my garden! If you’ve ever thought about planting your own, do it! They are completely low maintenance and are still thriving 9 months after planting.)Lemon quarters and decorative piping – In the cake I make in the recipe video below, you’ll see that I just use leftover frosting to pipe decorative blobs around the edge of the cake, then tuck a quartered slice of lemon next to the blobs. (I’m sure there’s a proper word for the blobs, it just eludes me right now 😂)
I just realised what a complete fabrication the photo above is. Look at that pathetically narrow sliver of a slice. As if I would ever cut myself a slice that tiny. What was I thinking?? 😂
Stays 100% fresh for 4 days
One very unique characteristic of this cake batter is that the crumb stays 100% perfectly fresh for 4 days, and is still excellent after even 7. That’s basically unheard of in the cake world! See the video and photo demos in the Vanilla Cake recipe. Because this Lemon Cake has milk and butter in the frosting, it is best to store it in the fridge. But as with any cake, it must be brought to room temperature before eating. Nobody wants to eat cold, firm frosting! It must be creamy, fluffy and melt-on-the-mouth!!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Life of Dozer
You’d think this dog never gets out, the way he carries on lying forlornly by the front door. As you all well know, he gets out for a good play every single day and I take him everywhere with me!!! #DramaQueen
