Family Favorite Lemon Cake
Christy Rost
| Ingredients: | |
|---|---|
| 1 | cup unsalted butter, softened |
| 1 ¾ | cups sugar |
| 1 | tablespoon grated lemon zest |
| 3 | eggs |
| 3 | cups sifted cake flour |
| 1 | teaspoon salt |
| ¾ | teaspoon baking powder |
| ½ | teaspoon baking soda |
| ¾ | cup milk |
| 1 | tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice |
| ¾ | cup lemon pie filling |
| 1 | lemon, thinly sliced, for garnish |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 8 minutes. Add eggs, beating well after each addition.
In a medium bowl, stir together the cake flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until well blended. Gradually beat dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, alternately with milk, scraping the bowl often, until the batter is thick and smooth. Add lemon juice and vanilla; mix well.
Pour the batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans. Bake in a preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack 20 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and cool completely.
Frost the layers with buttercream.
| Buttercream Frosting: | |
|---|---|
| ½ | cup unsalted butter, softened |
| 9 to 10 | cups sifted confectioners sugar (about 2 pounds) |
| Dash of salt | |
| ½ | cup milk |
| 1 | teaspoon vanilla |
| Yellow food coloring | |
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, confectioners sugar, and salt, alternately with milk, until the frosting is smooth and creamy; stir in vanilla. Add enough yellow food coloring to tint the frosting pale yellow.
Place the bottom cake layer on a serving plate. Transfer some of the yellow buttercream to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the outer edge of the cake to hold the lemon pie filling in place. Spoon lemon pie filling in the center of the layer and spread it to the buttercream.
Place the second layer on top of the first and frost the sides of the cake. Spoon frosting onto the top of the cake and spread it to seal the edges. If desired, pipe frosting rosettes along the outer edge of the cake and garnish with thin slices of lemon.
Recipe makes one 2-layer 9-inch cake.
Category: Cakes