Garden Party Lemon Layer Cake
This delicious lemon cake is filled with lemon curd and lemon buttercream frosting, then topped with a garden full of beautiful and edible flowers! But, don’t feel like you have to eat the flowers, they are mostly for presentation!
Equipment
- 2 8-inch round cake tins (2 inches tall)
- 1 revolving cake turntable (for frosting and decorating the cake)
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
- 11 oz. unsalted butter (softened to room temp)
- 2 7/8 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs (at room temp)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
Lemon Curd
- 2 large eggs
- 6 tbsp. granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- 1 tbsp. butter
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- 12 oz. unsalted butter (softened to room temp)
- 2 tsp. vanilla powder (we use Cook’s Vanilla Powder)
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- cup milk +/-
Flower Garnishes
- 3 dozen assorted edible flowers, herbs, leaves
- 1 cup assorted berries: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries
- 1 medium peach, cut into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
Lemon Cake
- Line two 8-inch layer cakes with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Blend flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in sugar and beat until well-integrated. Blend in vanilla extract.
- Add eggs to butter mixture, one at a time, beating very well after each addition.
- Add flour mixture and liquids to butter mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat until well blended. Stir in yogurt.
- Distribute batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake pan comes out clean. Remove cakes from oven and cool on a rack for about 20 minutes.
- When cool, remove cakes from pans and continue to cool. Cakes can be made several days ahead of time and refrigerated, or several weeks ahead of time and frozen. Before wrapping and freezing or refrigerating the cake layers, cut off any rounded tops so that the two layers are the same height and flat on both the top and the bottom of each layer.
- Be sure to completely wrap each layer separately in plastic wrap before freezing. I usually put the wrapped layers into a ziploc baggie as well, to keep them extra moist.
Lemon Curd
- Blend eggs, sugar and lemon juice with a wire whisk in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat and continue to stir until mixtures thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and butter. Cool for about 10 minutes and transfer the lemon curd to a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on top of the lemon curd. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- Place butter in a large bowl or the bowl of your standing mixer. Beat until light in color and very creamy. Add vanilla powder and beat well.
- Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat well. Add lemon juice and beat again.
- From this point on, add remaining powdered sugar and milk alternately, adding just a tablespoon of milk at a time, and continue to beat until you reach your desired spreading consistency.
Assembling the Cake
- I really love to work with a frozen cake, so I usually make the cake ahead of time and freeze it before filling and frosting it.
- Place one layer on your cake platter, right side up. Spread lemon curd over the top of this layer. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes so that the lemon curds stiffens up a bit. Then, spread a layer of buttercream frosting right over the lemon curd. Place the second layer, this time with the bottom side up, right over the filling. Press down on the top layer slightly to flatten and even out the cake.
- It’s now time to frost the entire cake with a crumb coat of frosting. To do this and not get crumbs into your frosting, separate out about 1/3 of the frosting into a separate bowl. Use this for the crumb coat. This coat doesn't have to be perfect, but should cover the cake. To make this frosting smooth, use a bench scraper along the sides of the cake. Refrigerate crumb-coated cake for at least 30 minutes, or put it into the freezer for about 15 minutes before spreading your final coat of frosting. This just makes it so much easier to spread the frosting.
- Now, spread the entire cake with the final coat of buttercream frosting using an off-set spatula. Once the cake is completely frosted you can either refrigerate it or go about decorating it, depending upon when you want to serve it. You can frost this cake a few days ahead of time and keep it in an air-tight cake carrier, or you can frost, decorate it and serve it all at one time. Be sure to add the flowers just before serving so they stay fresh and won’t wilt.
- Using the fruit, edible flowers, and herbs you've selecte, (we like to use mint for the green leaves), arrange them on top of the cake and along the bottom edges of the cake platter, making a beautiful English garden effect. When ready to serve, your guests can decide if they want to eat any of the flowers. I usually don’t, but some people may like to!
