Triple Lemon Cake was inspired by the fact I didn't have any good chocolate on hand. I'd wanted to make brownies, but duty called in the form of a bunch of lemons and an open jar of lemon curd.
Fine Cooking Triple Lemon Cake
This recipe was adapted from one in Fine Cooking and requires two 8x2 inch deep cake pans. It turned out all my 8-inch cake pans were only 1 ½ inches deep, so I had to adjust the recipe and make it in three pans. I also streamlined it a bit to cut down on appliances and bowls. At the end of the day, I think I liked my way better than Fine Cooking's because there was a better ratio of cake to lemon curd.
Fine Cooking Lemon Curd
When it came time to fill the cake with lemon curd, I decided that this cake deserved its own fresh batch and not just what was left of the jar in the refrigerator. The cake will leave you with 5 egg yolks, so it makes sense to just whip up a quick batch of lemon curd.
If you are looking for an easy scratch lemon cake with lots of fresh lemon flavor, here it is.
Two Layers or Flour
Update: I still have my old set of shallow 8-inch cake pans, but it seems like 8x2 inch are easier to find these days so you may want to make this as two layers. Or make it extra lemony by slicing two layers to make 4 for Quadruple Lemon Cake. This cake is very versatile. You could also make ⅔ of the batter and make it as a six inch cake. Six in cake pans are also easier to find since posting this.
Recipe
Triple Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cups cake flour (260 grams)
- 2 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces unsalted butter, softened but slightly cool (170 grams)
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, divided use (1 ½ and ¼)
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest lightly packed and finely grated
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature (230 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 large egg whites at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Filling
- 1 -1 ½ cups lemon curd
Frosting
- 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 3 ½ cups sifted confectioners' sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1-2 tablespoons of milk or as needed
- 1 pinch salt or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray three 8 by 1 ½ inch round cake pans or two 8x2 inch round cake pans with flour-added baking spray or just grease generously and dust with flour.
- Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium size bowl and set aside.
- In the stand mixing bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy, then add 1 ½ cups sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add a little of the milk and beat just until blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture alternating with remaining milk in 3 batches, scraping sides of the bowl.
- In a second mixing bowl, whip egg whites on medium speed until foamy, add cream of tartar. Increase speed to high, beat, gradually adding the remaining ¼ cup of sugar until whites just hold stiff peaks.
- Add some of the whipped whites to batter to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gradually. Divide batter evenly between cake pans and smooth tops. Bake for about 28 minutes or until tops are brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, remove from pans and let cool completely on rack.
- Spread the top of two cakes (or one if you only made two layers) with lemon curd and stack so that you have three layers and two levels of lemon curd filling. Let cake stand for about 30 minutes while you make the frosting.
- Frosting: In an electric mixer, beat butter and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar gradually and beat well. Add lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add milk as needed until you get a creamy, spreadable consistency. I recommend adding a little salt as well. If you used salted butter there will be no need, but with unsalted butter it's sometimes a good idea to balance with a pinch or two.
Miss Cake Baker says
Wow what an elegant Lemo cake! So pretty.
Gloria says
Beautiful decorating. I love not only the taste of lemon cakes, but the fragrance on your hands after zesting lemons! Also you can use up the egg yolks for the curd so not so much waste...Thank you for another great recipe!
Mackenzie@The Caramel Cookie says
What a pretty cake! Lemon cakes are so light and refreshing!
Upstate NY Native says
The cake is beautiful, sorry it will be mashed up. But what better reason than for cake pops!!
Nom! says
I LOVE lemon cake! This one looks really pretty, love it
Nom!
Adam says
That looks so good. I love lemon cake. They're always so light and refreshing. Unfortunately this usually means that I eat too much of it (in theory) :).
Anna says
If you're serious about making scratch white, yellow or lemon cakes, you might as well get some cake flour. Do you have room in your freezer? Cake flour freezes well.
d.liff @ yelleBELLYboo says
Looks lovely! I'm always afraid of cake flour (where am I going to keep even more baking supplies in my little kitchen?) but I should take the plunge next time I need to make a cake!
Anna says
Cake balls are the solution to my problem of always having too much cake and not enough people to eat it. I'm not going to wait for the cake to get stale before I make the cake balls, but rather slice off what we need, then mash, shape, and freeze the rest. Now I need to go buy a bunch of cake pop sticks and some sort of drying stand.
Stefanie says
What a beautiful cake! It's always nice to have a go-to lemon cake recipe! Love all the layers of lemony goodness 🙂
Jackie says
Yum. I love a good lemon cake.
Sue says
This cake looks fabulous! I love lemon!!!
Sheri says
I've made that cake, and love it. Yours is beautiful!
Fallon says
Sounds delicious! Cake balls would be a great idea.
Emily says
Mmm looks delicious! It's very beautiful. I love lemon cakes.
Katrina says
That Fine Cooking lemon curd is the recipe I made for the coffee cake I was telling you about. It is an Elinor Klivan's recipe and is really good. Cake looks good. I need to get that coffee cake blogged.
Kenni says
That cake looks yummy and those cake pops sound delicious!
CindyD says
So there's no lemon juice in the cake itself, just zest? And please post the cake pops - I want to try them for a bake sale in early November!
Anna says
Yes, everything looks better surrounded in a little garland of leaves :). Thanks for noticing the Portmeirion. I love it.
Holiday Baker Man says
Looks great! Probably tastes even better!! Portmeirion always shows off a cake!