Lemon Celebration Cake!
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A delicious, light & lemony sponge filled with a dash of lemon curd and a luscious lemon buttercream! The perfect lemon celebration cake!
Lemon celebration cake!
After posting the recipe for my Victoria sponge celebration cake, I figured it would be so much fun if I experimented on this and produced different flavours! When I asked on my Facebook and Instagram page recently if anyone had any suggestions, and to my joy many of you suggested a lemon celebration cake!
I feel a lemon flavour for a celebration cake is always a safe flavour as (usually!) everyone likes lemon! I also find its perfect for after dinner as the zesty and fresh lemon cleanses your mouth leaving a refreshing aftertaste.
Lemon
I adore lemon drizzle cake – but I decided to do a variation on this for a bit more show! (Don’t worry though, I still have my lemon drizzle loaf cake recipe also!) I also used my homemade lemon curd recipe for the filling – feel free to use shop bought, but making your own is so surprisingly easy!
This cake ended up being a hybrid of a Victoria sponge into something super lemony and heavenly – and its delicious. I posted my recipe for my lemon & poppyseed cake a while ago and had a big success with that one, so I hope you guys like this too!
Two layer cake
Unlike my Victoria sponge I decided to keep this as a 2 layer cake so that its easier for others to make if they only have two tins, and its easier to bake two anyway! Two layer cake, normal cake, sandwich cake – whatever you want to call it, its still delicious regardless!
I tend to think some people prefer a two layer cake as you can simply slather buttercream in the middle and on top and you are done – its the perfect cup of tea pairing! I love using these tins for my sponge cakes and also this angled spatula for spreading buttercream. On this occasion I piped the buttercream but the choice is yours!
Drizzle
The drizzle aspect of this cake makes the sponge SO moist and scrummy, and the buttercream gives it the light sweetness that is often craved with cake – delicious. You simply mix the lemon juice and caster sugar together to make a yummy drizzle, and drizzle over the sponges whilst they are still hot.
This on top of the zesty buttercream and curd drizzle topping, you get the lemon taste in every bite of cake and it is just DELICIOUS! Of course I had to add some themed yellow sprinkles to the bake but they dont have to be yellow and they completely optional anyway!
Lemon recipes
I love a lemon recipe and have a fair few of them on my blog, and I can tell you guys do too – for example my lemon drizzle cheesecake, lemon drizzle cupcakes, lemon bars, even my lemon and blueberry blondies!
I love baking with lemon – as you can tell! I find that lemon bakes along or with a combination of another flavour is the perfect alternative if someone doesn’t want a chocolate themed bake. Its also a preference of mine in the middle of summer as it hits the sweet craving perfectly! ENJOY!
Recipe updated May 2017
Lemon Celebration Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 350 g unsalted butter
- 350 g caster sugar
- 7 medium eggs
- 350 g self raising flour
- zest of 2 lemons
- 75 ml lemon juice
Drizzle
- 75 ml lemon juice
- 75 g caster sugar
Decoration
- 2-3 tbsp lemon curd
- 200 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 400 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- spare lemon curd
Instructions
Cake
- Grease & line two 8"/20cm deep cake tins and preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan.
- Beat together the unsalted butter & caster sugar until smooth - this will take a couples of minutes!
- Once combined add the self raising flour, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice and beat until combined - try not to over beat!
- Pour the mixture evenly into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Drizzle
- Towards the end of baking - in a bowl, mix together your 75ml lemon juice and 75g caster sugar together.
- Once the cake is baked, drizzle this over the cakes, whilst still in the tin. Let the cakes cool fully.
Decoration
- Beat the unsalted butter for a couple of minutes using the whisk attachment with a stand mixer - doing this will make it nice and smooth!
- Once smooth, start gradually adding the icing sugar until it’s all fully mixed in.
- Add the lemon juice, and beat for about 5 minutes on a medium-high speed until super light and whipped.
- Pipe some buttercream in a circle round the edge of the top of your first sponge, and then add the lemon curd into the middle.
- Place the other cake on top, and pipe on the rest of the buttercream however you wish.
- Drizzle on some spare lemon curd, and add some sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- I updated this recipe in May 2017 - the original recipe was 250g of each ingredient, and 5 medium eggs, and the cake was baked for about 25 minutes.
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3-4 days - probably longer as it has so much moisture.
- Or you can freeze it for up to 3 months
- The layers are thick so if you wanted a more raised cake simply slice the two sponges in to two and have a 4 layer cake!
- If you dont have any lemon juice for the decoration, use 2 tsp lemon extract instead.
- I use these 8" cake tins
- I use this medium 2D closed star piping tip
- I use these piping bags
ENJOY!
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J x
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Hi Jane- I really want to make this for a birthday cake for my friend but I would need to make it bigger, maybe a 23cm tin. Do you have any tips on how much I should increase the recipe by or should I just give it a go and see?! Can’t wait to try it! Thanks, Paula
Hey! I recommend using this website/app because it helps you scale up the recipe! http://www.cakebaker.co.uk/baking-tin-size-conversion-calculator.html xx
Thank you!
I read somewhere that you use Stork sometimes in your sponges. Would you do the same with this recipe?
Yes I would! ?
After making your lemon and lime drizzle cake on Friday which was heavenly, I made this on Sunday….. Another fabulous delicious lemony wonder
Thank you x
Hahah so much lemony love! ❤️ thank you for baking them! X
I made this yesterday for my friend. I *may* have added limoncello to the syrup and the butterceam… It went down well at the party. Thanks for the recipe! (now to find more recipes to use up all the lemon curd I made!)
Ooh that sounds lovely! 🙂 thank you for making it!
Very nice Jane! I have tried a few of your recipes and they are lovely! Stop by and visit me at lynzrealcooking! My favorite so far is the no bake chocolate cheesecake!
Thank you! I love the chocolate cheesecake, so so yummy! 🙂
Hi would ot be ok to add poppy seeds to the 8inch lemon drizzle cake, and how many would you add, thank you xx
Hiya! Yes absolutely, I would use 30-40g! Hope this helps! x
So classic. An absolute beauty!
Thank you! 🙂
This looks great! Going to try it!
Thank you! ☺️ and please do!!
A classic. To make it more adult I use a gin based sugar syrup.
I really want to try a Gin & tonic cake soon so mixing it with this sounds ideal ? haha thanks!
I’m not that into lemon cakes that this looks just too delicious, literally wish I could get a piece!
Haha thanks Sari! 🙂
This looks delicious! Lemon is the best 🙂
I agree! And thank you! ☺️
Wow
i am definetly gonna try it 😀
Thanks! And please do! 🙂
WOW! Absolutely amazing…
Thank you! 🙂
This couldn’t have come at a better time! My friend has requested a lemony cake for her birthday on Saturday. I’m looking forward to giving this one a go! (ps. Joining in with the Bake Off excitement too!)
Ohh YAY! Haha I’m so glad to have helped out there 😉 and yes maybe counting down the hours is a bit too excited?!
Am loving the look and sound of this recipe and your blog! I love baking with lemons too. Your cake looks beautiful.
Thank you so much Roberta! 🙂 Thats so lovely of you to say! 🙂
Lovely! A nerdy question: do you use lined sandwich tins or springform tins? I ask because I recently made a sandwich cake and the edges were rather irregular thanks to the folds in the baking paper around the rim of the tin. Your cakes have such lovely smooth sides – are you just brilliant at lining tins and I’m doing it wrong? 🙂
SO excited about Bake Off being back tonight! 🙂
Thank you! I tend to use just a circle of parchment on the bottom for like a victoria sponge as they tend to peel away from the edges themselves – but with some cakes I will make a separate strip the depth of the tin and wrap it round that way so its flat against the sides! And I 95% of the time use a springform so its easier anyway! 🙂 (If that makes any sense…)
And ME TOO! 😀
That makes sense! Thanks! I think I’ll try the separate strip of paper next time… 🙂
I’m not a big fan of sponge cakes, but yours look absolutely delicious, the sponge looks to be fluffy light and moist! Would love a bite now!
Aww thank you! This one is lovely and moist so it makes a nice change to normal ones! 😛
Hello, was just wondering how I could make this into a lemon and lime cake ? Would I just replace the lemon Zest with lime Zest and keep the lemon juice? Or replace one Zest? Or is there a better way? Thanks 🙂