Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Raspberry Buttercream

 

As our friends and family have been our primary taste testers for our blog creations the requests have been coming in! One of our first requests is for "a lemon cake with some kind of lemon curd or lemon filling." So, being that we love a challenge we decided to oblige the request with a creation we've never done before!

After much deliberation we decided on a light lemon layer cake with a lemon curd filling. The difficulty was deciding on the frosting. Lemon buttercream? Possibly too much lemon. Since most any fruit flavor goes with lemon we narrowed our choices down to raspberry, blackberry and orange. Raspberry won!

So, here is our lemony creation: a lemon layer cake with lemon curd filling and raspberry buttercream frosting. This recipe has three major components and requires a lot of ingredients, not to mention work! It isn't super complicated, but is a bit time consuming. Happy spring!

LEMON LAYER CAKE WITH LEMON CURD FILLING AND RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM

INGREDIENTS

Cake

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 tbsps lemon juice
• 1 cup buttermilk

Curd Filling

• 3 lemons
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

• 2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of seedless raspberry jam
• 3 - 4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

CAKE

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.

In a mixing bowl beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until fluffy. Mixing on low beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in lemon juice. Slowly add in flour mixture and then buttermilk. Mix until just combined.

Pour cake batter evenly into 2 or 3 same sized, small baking dishes, depending on the number of layers desired. We did three layers here, baked in 8 inch round baking dishes. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean.

CURD FILLING

Using a microplane, zest 3 lemons. Use a food processor fitted with a blade, mince the lemon zest with the sugar.

In a mixer, cream the butter and beat in the lemon zest mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Then add lemon juice and salt. Mix until well combined.

Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir constantly. The lemon curd will thicken just before it reaches simmer. Once thickened, remove from heat and refrigerate until cool.

RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

This is the easiest part of the recipe. Phew!

In a mixing bowl cream the butter. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, then add the raspberry jam. Mix until combined. Then add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. It should be stiff enough to hold a shape, but still creamy.

ASSEMBLY

Once the cakes and curd have cooled, you can finally start to assemble!

Place one of the cakes first, then cover the top with ahalf of the lemon curd. Repeat with a second cake and second half of lemon curd. Place final cake on top and frost. Garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired. Tah-dah!