Lemon Layer Cake
Description
Monday night was not my best work. The quinoa and roasted beets sprinkled with feta was lovely but I attempted to flour – egg – and panko crumb some fish and bake it, and it was fine, but that’s really all it was, just fine. Last night was a Frittata (spinach, red pepper, a couple of cut up leftover potatoes, a few mushrooms and green onion) with some pumpkin bread from my favorite bakery. Tonight is Moroccan Carrot, Squash and Chickpea Stew – served over couscous.
This is the second dessert that I made last Saturday – or rather, I made it last week, wrapped each layer and froze them, and then iced the cake on Saturday. This was adapted from Cooking Light and it’s original name is ‘Nathan’s Lemon Cake’.
Ingredients
Lemon Layer Cake
Cake
2 c. flour AND 1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. EACH baking soda AND salt
1 1/2 c. sugar AND 1/2 c. butter, softened
3 eggs
1 c. buttermilk
2 T. EACH grated lemon zest AND fresh lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350, grease 2, 8-inch round cake pans, layer a piece of parchment on the bottom of each and grease again.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a small bowl and set aside, then use your electric mixer to beat the sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes until fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well in between, then alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk, mixing in between, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the zest, then the lemon juice.
Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for about 10 minutes and then turn each out onto a rack to cool completely. Once they are cooled, you can either get ready to ice them, wrap them well and refrigerate for a day, or freeze them if you won’t be using them for a couple of days or more.
Icing
3 c. icing sugar
1/4 c. cool, melted butter
1 T. lemon rind AND 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice (room temperature)
Lemon rind strips for decoration
Instructions
Whisk everything except for the lemon strips together in a large bowl until smooth. Place one cake layer on your serving platter and spread on half of the icing – it doesn’t all need to be covered, it looks lovely when it just starts to spill over the sides. Top with the second cake layer and spread on the rest of the icing, topping with some lemon rind if you wish.
If you aren’t serving this straight away, cover it lightly and refrigerate.
- Category: Cakes, Lemon
I made this last weekend and it was a HUGE hit!!! Will totally make it again and again!
I made the lemon later cake for my hubs birthday, it was amazing!!!