Triple Lemon Cake with Lemon Pastry Cream and Lemon Frosting
This is lemon at its finest. This Triple Lemon Cake is made with tender, flavorful lemon cake, filled with creamy lemon pastry cream, and finished with luscious lemon cream cheese frosting. Every bite is bursting with fresh lemon flavor, from the cake to the filling to the frosting.
You know those days when life hands you lemons?
The first thing I do is call my mom. That always helps. And since my mom brings me lots of lemons from her wonderful lemon trees, I usually have plenty of lemons to work with.
For a while, I made lemonade. Chatting with my mom and enjoying a cold glass of lemonade seemed like the perfect solution.
That worked for a few years.
I even tried adding vodka to the lemonade, but that made it a little challenging to get on with the rest of my day without consequences, especially that early in the day.
So I moved on to lemon cookies.
I cannot tell you how many lemon cookies I’ve baked. Then came the teenage years. Wow. My parents warned me about the teenage years, but apparently not enough.
Between hormones, schoolwork, learning to drive, dating, and all the other things that come with the teenage years, I needed more than lemonade.
I needed cake.
And not just any cake.
Lemon cake.
This is where my Triple Lemon Cake comes in. It’s moist lemon cake layered with smooth lemon pastry cream and covered with lemon cream cheese frosting. Basically, lemon from beginning to end.
And honestly, my solution is working pretty well.
Anyone who stops by gets a slice and helps me cope with all this fun!
A Cake for Lemon Lovers
If you love lemon desserts, this cake does not hold back. The lemon cake has plenty of fresh lemon flavor, the pastry cream adds a creamy lemon-filled layer between the cakes, and the lemon cream cheese frosting adds another sweet and tangy layer of lemon goodness.
It’s a little more special than a simple lemon cake, but the combination is completely worth it.
I still call my mom, of course. And with Mother’s Day around the corner, I think I’ll be making her one of these.
After all, it’s the least I could do considering she made it through the teenage years with me!
How I Layer and Decorate the Cake
To layer and decorate the cake, I use a lazy Susan. I place a few pieces of wax paper underneath the cake so I can easily slide them out when I’m finished decorating.
I fill a piping bag with the lemon cream cheese frosting and use a round tip to pipe a ring of frosting around the outside edge of each cake layer. This creates a dam that keeps the lemon pastry cream from seeping out the sides.
I also added a little food coloring to the lemon cream cheese frosting so it would match the color of the lemon pastry cream. Having the frosting and filling the same color gives the cake a seamless look when you cut into it.
As I slowly turn the lazy Susan, I smooth the frosting with a large offset spatula. Then I use the same piping bag to pipe small dots around the top and bottom edges of the cake.
I like the simplicity of this cake, but I wanted to add something pretty to the top.
So I went out into my yard to see what I could find.
Lavender was the perfect choice. It adds a pretty pop of color without worrying about it wilting right away, and the contrast between the lavender and yellow is beautiful. I love lavender!
Just be sure that any flowers you use for decorating a cake are food safe and have not been treated with pesticides.
What Size Pans Can I Use?
I baked this cake in three 6-inch round cake pans, which makes a beautiful tall layer cake.Â
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Triple Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 tablespoon lemon baking emulsion or lemon extract
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 3 eggs
Instructions
- place parchment paper in the bottom of 3 round 6″ cake pans and spray with a nonstick baking spray.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In large mixer bowl blend flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together.
- Place milk, oil, butter, lemon extract, and lemon juice in a bowl, and mix thoroughly.
- Pot wet mixture into dry mixture,
- Mix on medium speed, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix for another minute.
- Add in eggs, and continue beating for 2 more minutes.
- Portion the batter evenly into the cake pans.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.
Lemon Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups whole milk separated 1/2 cup and 1 1/2 cups
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons lemon baking emulsion or lemon extract
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt together, then add it 1/2 cup milk and whisk smooth.
- In a small bowl mix egg yolks, then add them to the mixture and blend until creamy.
- In a small saucepan, heat the remaining milk to a simmer. (small bubbles around the edge, not a full boil)
- Slowly pour the heated milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. Allowing the egg mixture to slowly heat to temper the eggs so they don’t scramble.
- Place the mixture into the saucepan and heat on medium-low heat whisking until it comes to a boil and is smooth and creamy. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat, stir in butter and lemon emulsion.
- Place pastry cream into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, allow it to cool for 15 minutes, then put it into the refrigerator to chill
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Â
Ingredients
- 1 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 4-6 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract or lemon baking emulsion
- 2-3 drops egg yellow food coloring gel
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth, add in butter, and mix for 5 minutes, until it's smooth, and creamy. It should look light in color and texture. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream, and lemon along with yellow coloring, and mix to combine. Mix on low until it's creamy smooth.
This is the perfect cake for Mother’s Day and here are a whole bunch of recipes that will help you plan out your day….even if you end up making them for yourself, or send the recipe to the person you hope will make it for you!
Stop on by to see what great recipes my blogging friends have in store for you for this Mother’s Day Holiday Food Party:
1. Coconut Cupcakes from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
2. German Apple Cake from Magnolia Days
3. Baked Lemon Pasta with Broccoli and Shrimp from What Smells So Good
4. Cinnamon Pear Cake from Roxana’s Home Baking
5. Strawberry Whiskey Sour from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
6. Huevos Rancheros from Crumb Blog
7. Triple Lemon Cake from Created by Diane
8. Banana Chocolate Chip Bread from Chocolate Moosey
9. Lemon Thyme Shortbread from Jen’s Favorite Cookies
10. Pineapple Coconut Sweet Rolls from Pineapple and Coconut
11. Caramilk Stuffed No-Knead Brioche from Gotta Get Baked
12. Mom’s World Famous Sponge Cake from Hungry Couple NYC
13. Brown Butter Pecan Fudge Ripple No-Churn Ice Cream from Cupcakes and Kale Chips
How to assemble this cake..do I put the icing first then the lemon pastry cream …please help I really love the taste of the cake
Take a look at the third photo, the edge is piped with frosting, then the center is filled with the pastry cream, the frosting helps the pastry cream stay in the center of the cake so it doesn’t come out the edges. Then place the cake in the fridge just until it’s cold, so it’s easier to work with, then spread icing on the sides and top of the cake.
I actually used the recipe on two 9-inch pans, and baked them for 20 mins. They came out beautiful, fluffy and delicious, and I was so happy. By the way, I used almond milk instead of milk, and olive oil instead of vegetable oil, more lemon juice and some zest instead of lemon extract, because that’s just what I had and I didn’t want to go to the store again.
Do you remember about how many servings someone can get from this cake? I have to laugh when I see all these lemon things. I know its sacrilege to some but I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate. Oh its OK, I can enjoy chocolate but for one thing it often makes me thirsty and then I want a big ice cold glass of milk with it. Lemon is my favorite when it comes to flavors. For the rest of the world when life gives them lemons they make lemonade (or pout and have a pity party) but for me when life hands me lemons I’m THRILLED and I make lemon meringue pie, lemon cakes, Shaker lemon pie, all sorts of things. My mom years ago used to bring home to me here in Maryland lemons that were the size of large grapefruit. Sadly however, their friend that had those trees either passed away or moved or something. I can’t get those large lemons any longer. Some years she would bring around 6 specifically for me to give a few coworkers. I would leave them on their desks. At first, they were so large they didn’t even know what they were. I don’t really like California in general, but they sure can grow some terrific lemons out there.
This cake is generous, it’s baked in 3 6″ pans, depending on how thin you slice the pieces since they are tall, you’ll get at least 20 slices if not more. the slice cut out in the photos and on the plate is a big piece, would easily feed 3 people. I make this size cake often and it’s great if you want large slices or want to cut them thin and have a more average slice of cake. I love lemon items too, enjoy!
Hi Diane! A few years later, but I came across your cake and cannot wait to try it! Do you use cake flour or all purpose flour?
In this recipe I use all purpose flour. Happy baking!
Can I use 5 6″ pans that are .75 ” high?
I think it should work well. Be sure not to overfill each pan and I think the cake will bake nicely. You could always bake one pan first to check on timing and such before you bake all 5.
The batter for 3-6 inch pans will fit in 2-8 inch pans nicely.
Here is a chart you can use to estimate how much batter or doubling of a recipe you’ll need to different sized pans.
https://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
I used the 3 9″ pans and filled with 2 cups each of batter. Used the remaining batter for cupcakes. Doubled the batter from original recipe. Turned out great and everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing.
Your recipe has become my go-to lemon cake recipe! It is SO lemony and tangy! Everyone who tries it loves it. Five stars!
I can’t thank you enough for coming back and telling me how much you like my recipe. It means so much to me 🙂 And I too love this lemon cake!
Is it just me or is the step to merge the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients missing?
Sorry about that, pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix a minut or two and scrape down sides (don’t whip or overbeat) I adjusted the recipe to reflect the change. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
I just tried to make this recipe. I should have looked it over a little closer and adjusted it but I didn’t… I am not sure how the softened butter is supposed to mix thoroughly if you add it in with the liquid ingredients…maybe it should go in a separate step or melted? I have my finished cake mix with chunks of butter. :/
The butter should be at room temperature (Typically I leave it out for 30 minutes before baking) it will blend right into the cake batter without any lumps. Cakes I find come out best with room temperature, butter, eggs and not ice cold milk either. If you add room temperature butter to ice cold milk, it won’t mix in well. If all your ingredients are room temperature they will mix in smoothly. The butter should not be melted as that would change the consistency of the batter all together.
If you have this happen again, place the batter bowl over slightly warm water and whisk it for a minute or two so the butter has a chance to blend into the liquids. By slightly warming the bowl (metal bowl) the ingredients will all come to a slightly warmer temperature (if you place your hand on the outside of the metal bowl and it’s ice cold, you milk is too cold) just place the mixing bowl over another bowl of warmer water and you should not have any more issues. Hope that helps, sorry you had trouble.
So the first time, i went ahead and poured it in a cake pan, so I could taste the flavor (trying to find a good cupcake recipe…) and I loved it…. so I just rewrote it a bit with the same ingredients… This is what I came up with…
In large mixer bowl blend flour, baking powder, salt together.
4. In a separate bowl combine butter and sugar
5. Add oil, lemon extract and lemon juice to the butter mixture.
6. Mix on medium speed, scrape down sides of bowl and mix for another minute.
7. Add in eggs one at a time.
Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk mix just till combined on each addition.
Would it be possible to make this recipe using 9″ rounds? I was curious how many pans I would need (2 or 3?) and how to adjust the temp/cook time? Thanks!
Yes you can bake this cake batter in other pan sizes. This chart is what I use as a guide when adjusting recipes and cook times. https://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-party-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm