Best Decorated Lemon Cake Recipe In 1 Hour

Hey Guys, Today we’re making the best lemon cake recipe. So let’s get started. First off, set your oven to 350 get it nice and hot into a large bowl. I’m adding 300 grams or two and a half cups of all-purpose flour. For a little contrast, we want three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. So wake our lemon cake up, with one and a half teaspoons of baking powder and half a teaspoon of baking soda.

Ingredients:

For the Lemon Cake:

300 grams (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
226 grams (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approximately 2 lemons)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

226 grams (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
226 grams (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
Zest of 1 large lemon
7-8 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Yellow food coloring (optional)

The baking soda’s gonna react with the acids from the lemon juice and the buttermilk coming later on and it’s gonna give us a light and fluffy lemon cake. Whenever you have a baked good and it has some acid in it, you’re gonna be using some baking soda so the acid gives you a lift. The baking powder has everything built in so it doesn’t need that. Whisk it up and we’re gonna set this aside.

Table of Contents

Lemon Cake Recipe Ingredients

Now we’re gonna add one cup or 226 grams of room temperature unsalted butter in and room temperature means that you can press into the butter and with a little bit of pressure, the butter will yield. It’s not falling apart in a pool, and it’s not hard either. Cream it up on medium speed until it’s all worked up into a nice paste.

Once it’s nice and creamy, I’m gonna add one and a half cups of sugar in, it’s 300 grams. We’re gonna scrape this bowl down and then add the zest of about two lemons, it’s two tablespoons. Adding zest will elevate your lemon cake’s flavor. Lemon trees were a part of my childhood, and this was one of our favorite lemon cakes to bake.

Prepare the Cake Pans

Now we’re gonna mix this on medium for about five minutes until it is light and fluffier than can be, while that’s mixing, you’re gonna grab two eight-inch pans. I cut out some parchment circles. This is optional, but it makes the cake remove full proof. Add some butter to the side, place that parch paper on, and then add a little spoonful of flour and kick it around.

Repeat for the other pan, give these lemons a good roll. So they get nice and juicy. We need about a quarter cup of fresh lemon juice and yes for this lemon cake, you would only use fresh, never that bottled stuff. A quick scraped-in, my butter is light and fluffy, look at that. And all of that lemon zest has been mashed into the sugar so it has so much flavor.

Egg Addition

Add three room-temperature eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl down. The mixture may look chunky due to the eggs not mixing with the butter, resulting in a dimpled consistency. Now for the fun part, we’re gonna combine one cup of buttermilk with our 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. It’s about two lemons, but you might need a little bit more. Just give it a quick stir.

I’m adding one tablespoon of vanilla. Now we’re gonna add the flour mixture and the milk mixture in a couple of alternating batches while mixing on the lowest setting. And I would mix until almost combined not until it’s just combined. We can always finish it off by hand. The over-mixing batter is a baking blunder that can ruin your cake’s texture. Too much flour makes it dense, while excessive mixing creates a gummy texture. Be mindful of the mixing process to ensure a perfectly moist cake.

Completing the Cake Batter

All right, so here I let it mix until it was almost combined. There are a ton of flour streaks. There’s a lot of butter streaks but I wanna finish this off with my spatula. It gives me the best control. If I’m ever making something like whipped cream I’ll whip the cream with the machine for a bit and I’ll finish it off by hand so I can be sure it won’t cuddle and get overmixed.

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Just work all the flour in, this mixture is so foamy right now because of all the acid the lemon juice, and the buttermilk reacting with the baking soda. This is ready to go into my two pans. I’m gonna measure it out. So it’s nice and even, I didn’t mention this earlier but adding acid into any cake batter is amazing because it gives you a tender cake. That happens because the acid inhibits some of the gluten from forming and getting those like bread chewy bonds in addition to reacting with the baking soda.

Measuring and Pan Preparation

So it’s like just over 600 grams of batter per pan. If you’re measuring it out, use your spatula to level the batter out in the pan. And then this is optional. But if you want a very flat-level lemon cake with soft sides, you can apply cake strips to the pan before baking cake strips are just wet fabric strips like a wet headband, basically that you pop on your lemon cake and it cools everything down.

So it’ll keep the edge nice and cool. So it doesn’t burn and everything rises together evenly. It’s one of the secrets to having a cake that’s easy to stack and decorate. These are gonna bake it three 50 for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center has a skewer that can come out clean or it’s springy to the touch. You’ll also see the edge as just pulling away from the pan when it’s done baking.

I need eight ounces of softened cream cheese, 226 grams of an equal amount of room temperature, and unsalted butter. Just a nice corn tortilla that you warm up over a flame with that big block of cream cheese in the middle, and roll it up. We will now mix the cream cheese and butter until it turns creamy.

It is important to soften the cream cheese beforehand, otherwise, you may end up with lumps that won’t mix well. Let the mixer run at medium speed for a minute or two until everything is mixed properly. Remember to scrape down the bowl as needed and make sure to do it at least once.

Zesting the Lemon

You wanna grab a big lemon or two small lemons as well as a rasp. And now we’re going to zest the whole lemon. it has little specs of some shiny yellow throughout once the frosting is done. Honestly, if you wanted to just add more lemon zest, not gonna be mad at you. You do it. Mix the ingredients for about three minutes on medium speed until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.

While mixing, the lemon zest is agitated which releases the lemon oil and enhances the flavor. Next, add the remaining ingredients and gradually pour seven cups of powdered sugar into the mixer while it’s running on low. Alternate the powdered sugar with a bit of lemon juice to help everything mix smoothly. To make the frosting, start by adding two tablespoons of lemon juice.

Balancing Sweetness and Texture

Let it mix in and continue adding more lemon juice and powdered sugar, alternating between the two. Repeat this process until you have added six cups of powdered sugar. At this point, give the frosting a taste and check the texture. The powdered sugar will give the frosting some sweetness, as well as provide it with strength and body.

I’m almost done with baking this lemon cake. I just need to add some lemon juice and a little bit of vanilla to the batter. I’m planning to decorate it with dollops of frosting, and I want to give it a slight yellow color. I’ll do this by adding a drop of food coloring to the frosting. If you don’t want to use food coloring, you can use a pinch of turmeric instead.

Assembling the Cake

Now we’re ready to assemble our lemon cake, grab a cake plate and we’re gonna carefully move these layers on. First layers on, I would add about a cup of frosting. Give that a quick smooth. This frosting is so luscious and soft and I love the lemon flavor.

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The second layer goes on. Now we’re gonna add the remaining frosting and give it a good cover. And I don’t think you need a crumb coat for this lemon cake. A crumb coat is where you just completely cover the cake with paper thin layer of frosting. You set the lemon cake in the fridge and you let it set up and then you add a final layer. And then that will protect any crumbs from coming off the lemon cake.

Decorating Our Delicious Lemon Cake

When it comes to decorating cakes, some tools can make it much easier. To get the job done right, I like to use a turntable to spin the cake, a bench scraper to smooth the sides, and an offset spatula for the top. These tools can make the process easy and stress-free. If you don’t have the right tools, it can be frustrating. So, just remember to use the right equipment, and decorating a lemon cake will be a breeze!

Now we’re gonna use our bench scraper and start spreading the frosting all around. I always think that people who are cake decorators would make excellent plasterers. So it’s from someone who’s on home renovation projects and I have plastered a lot of things. Okay, just a final bit around the edge. And now we’re gonna get rid of this ridge here by using our offset spatula and pulling in as I turn.

Just make sure to wipe your spatula off in between swipes, in a final little bit on the top to smooth it out. Now, we’re gonna make this pretty with some dollops and a little bit of magic. Drop a piping tip in, I’m using an 846. It’s a larger closed star tip. Fill it up with our reserve frosting. I’m gonna do a little practice dollop. You can always use a spatula or a plate or even your bowl just to get a feeling for how it looks before it’s on the cake.

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Now for the moment of truth. So dollop towards the edge. One, two, up, dot toward the edge. One, two, and just keep going. I don’t wanna go crazy, but we’re gonna add a few paper-thin lemon slices just in between the dollops. And I will say you want to add the pansies just before serving because they won’t last forever. The frosting is soft and beyond luscious.

You might wanna let your lemon cake set up in the fridge for just a few minutes before cutting it ’cause it will be soft, but so delicious. It’s totally up to you. Bright and zingy, the lemon cake melts in your mouth.