Triple Lemon Cake
This is lemon at it’s finest. Delicious lemon cake, filled with lemon pastry cream and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.
You know the days when life hands you lemons…
First thing is call your mom….that always helps and since my mom brings me lots of lemons off her wonderful lemon trees,
next I make lemonade, because chatting with her and a cold glass of lemonade is sure to be the perfect fix.
That worked for a few years, I tried adding vodka to it but it made it challenging to get on with the rest of my day/life without consequences so early in the day…then I moved onto Lemon Cookies.
I can not tell you how many lemon cookies I’ve baked.
That is until the teenage years settled in.
Wow, my parents warned me about the teenage years, but apparently NOT enough.
Now the cure all…
is lemon cake and that is not a bad thing at all…..
because…
I LOVE cake.
Between hormones, school work, learning to drive, dating and all the rest of the stuff the teen years bring,
Trust me I needed more than lemonade to deal with it and my solution is LEMON CAKE!
My solution is working well and anyone who stops by gets to have a slice and help me cope with all this FUN!
But I still call my mom 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!
To layer and decorate a cake, I use a lazy-susan, I place wax paper pieces under the cake so I can remove them easily when I’m finished decorating.
I have my piping bag filled with frosting and a round tip to pipe the frosting along the outside so that the filling won’t seep out the edges of the cakes.
having the frosting and the filling the same color makes for a seamless look when the cake is sliced. I added a little bit of coloring to the lemon cream cheese frosting to match the lemon filling color.
As I slowly turn the lazy-susan I smoothen the frosting with a large offset spatula and then piped dots with the same piping bag I used to make a damn for the filling on the top and bottom edge of the cake. I like the simplicity of the cake but wanted to add something pretty on top,
so I went to my yard to check out what flowers I could use…lavender was the perfect option it looks pretty without worrying about it wilting and the contrast of the lavender and yellow is the perfect combo, I love lavender.
Cut a BIG piece and enjoy!
I baked the cake in 3-6″ pans, the batter will fit into 2-9″ round pans, or a 13×9 pan if you prefer to bake it in different sized pans the timing will need to be adjusted, be sure to check to see how it’s baking and add time from there, the larger than pan the longer the cake will take, but of course you don’t want to overbake and dry it out.
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
- 1 8oz. package cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 cup butter (room temperature)
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream (or milk)
- 2 teaspoons lemon baking emulsion (or lemon extract)
- 2-3 drops of egg yellow coloring
- beat cream cheese in a mixer until smooth, add in butter, and mix for 3 minutes until it’s smooth and creamy and well blended, add powdered sugar, heavy cream, and lemon along with yellow coloring.
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
This is so adorable, and the perfect size. Yes, when life gives you lemons, lemon cake is a wonderful lemonade substitute.
Beautiful, Diane! What a lovely spring cake!
What a perfect dessert for Mother’s Day! But, actually, the first person I thought of when I saw this recipe was my Daddy. He loved lemon desserts better than anyone I’ve ever known. I think I’ll hold this recipe and make in his honor on Father’s Day 🙂
I love, love, love, love lemon. I texted the link to this recipe to my 15yo daughter with a note: If you love me at ALL. I’ll be having lemon cake soon. 🙂
Hi Diane!!
This cake looks amazing, and I will be making it this Sunday! Quick question, Can you substitute real lemon juice for the lemon flavoring? Thank you..
adding real lemon juice won’t give you the same lemon flavor that lemon baking emulsion or lemon extract will, and the cake will have a bit of a different texture almost stickier texture. You can use it, it’s your cake….but it will be different in taste and texture. Lemon extract is readily available in most grocery stores in the baking aisle in the US. I bakes lots of items with real lemon, cake tends to be the one I don’t do anymore as the leftover cake is so moist it almost has a gummy quality that I don’t prefer.
Your cake is gorgeous! I really want to make this for next Sunday and top it with the lavender from my backyard:)
I love all things lemon. This cake is gorgeous and I would love to make it for Mother’s Day this year. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us.
I just love lemon desserts! I think they are always overlooked by chocolate but they can be just as satisfying. Also this cake is totally manageable being that they aren’t giant layers. Gorgeous!
This is simply stunning, Diane! Any mom would be happy to have a slice… or three 🙂
Oh look at that gorgeous cake! Lemon is one of my favorite flavors so I can’t wait to try this.
Is it just me or are the eggs missing from the cake ingredients? 🙂
oops sorry about that, this recipe uses 3 eggs. I adjusted the recipe to reflect my error, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Oh my, I love lemon cake and this is perfect for our family!
I love, love, love lemon. And I love, love, love, love, love cake. So obviously, I wholeheartedly approve of this lemon cake, even though I don’t currently have any hormonal teenagers driving me bonkers. 🙂 (If anything, the fact that I don’t have teenagers is worthy of celebration, and everyone knows you can’t celebrate without cake.)
Oh Diane, you’re a woman after my own heart — what a perfect May 1st post!
I LOVE lemon filling in cakes. Or on cookies. Or spoons. I’m a very easy person. 🙂 And you are a cake artist!
“That worked for a few years, I tried adding vodka to it but it made it challenging to get on with the rest of my day/life without consequences so early in the day” <– you're the best, Diane! This made me laugh (and it's totally something that I do too – add booze to everything!). Isn't it amazing how time gives us perspective? I was a horrible teenager and now that I'm older, I totally sympathize with my parents for putting up with me. I'm sure all the amazing things you bake for your mom helps make up for it 😉 I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to properly fawn over your cake. This is soooooo beautiful. Your layers and frosting is perfect, the cake itself is so moist and fluffy and light, and the sprigs of lavender on top look so pretty. Any mom would be thrilled to be served this for Mothers Day!
I love that little sprig of lavender on top! This cake looks perfect for a springtime dessert. It’s so beautiful!
What a beautiful cake! The color is also lovely and very delicate. Your mom will love it!
What a gorgeous cake. It’s so tall and such an attention grabber. Many moms would be delighted to have it made for them.
The perfect dessert to honor your mom (and pacify you!!!). Thanks for the frosting hints…I need all the help I can get. Your 3 layer cake is a masterpiece!