Lemon Elderflower Cake!
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A three-layer lemon & elderflower cake with an elderflower drizzle, blackberry jam, and elderflower buttercream.
Royal wedding
So.. you might, or if you have been on Mars, might have not heard… that there is a royal wedding coming soon. I’m not sure if it is confirmed or not, but there have been several mentions of the flavour, or one of, being lemon & elderflower.
I couldn’t resist posting a recipe for this one, whether its used in the royal wedding cake or not. Elderflower is one of my most favourite flavours in the world, but I have only ever really had drinks with the cordials. In cake form? DREAMY.
Elderflower
I have made a few elderflower cakes in practice for all of this, but mixing it with a dash of lemon is the best. You can easily just use elderflower if you want, and leave out the lemon zest in the cake, but I adore the combinations of flavours. I use one of the bottlegreen elderflower cordials, but there are so many out there that taste wonderful. Its just such a fresh spring flavour.
I decided to use the elderflower cordial in the sponge, along with the lemon zest, and then make it even more elderflower by adding in some elderflower drizzle (rather than lemon drizzle) and elderflower buttercream.
Drizzle
The drizzle is basically the same as how a lemon drizzle would behave, because you mix the cordial with some caster sugar. I always use a touch of sugar in my drizzles as I prefer it to just drizzling over the cordial (or lemon) on its own, but thats up to you.
I feel the drizzle keeps the cake wonderfully ~moist~ and it gives it an extra kick of flavour. Drizzles really are the best things when it comes to keeping cakes fresh, and I use them quite often when I want to make a cake last, but with something like this its all about the flavour.
You could try a flavoured elderflower cordial, or stick to a lemon drizzle, but I feel in this particular cake using a lemon drizzle would be a tad overpowering as elderflower is so delicate.
Buttercream
I went for the elderflower buttercream as I thought it would be wonderful. Buttercream itself is sweet, but in a way adding in the elderflower cordial increases and decreases the sweetness.
I don’t personally find cordial that sweet, but I know some people do. Its just as I have said before such a pleasant flavour. You just need to make a usual buttercream, and use the cordial to loosen it instead of water or milk.
Drip
I obviously went for a drip cake type recipe, as I just couldn’t resist. I realise the cake is slopping slightly in the pictures, but it was a tad hot in my kitchen, and I got a little carried away with the lemon curd in the middle.. so my bad. However, I still love how it looks!
The pop of colour for the blackberries helps, as the white chocolate drip near enough matches the buttercream. To be fair though, white chocolate and lemon go so well together I had to use it. It tastes soooo good in every slice.
Smaller cake?
As you can see, its a bit of a beast of a cake, but there are notes in the recipe of how to make it smaller. I always have to make my recipes the biggest, and best they can be to really test them out, but this was devoured extremely quickly.
Everyone mentioned how summery and spring like the recipe was, and thats what I was aiming for. Three layers of delicious elderflower cake with lemon, an elderflower drizzle, an elderflower buttercream, and more. Enjoy! X
Lemon Elderflower Cake!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 400 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 400 g caster sugar
- 400 g self raising flour
- 8 medium eggs
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100 ml elderflower cordial
- zest of 1 lemon
Elderflower Drizzle
- 125 g caster sugar
- 150 ml elderflower cordial
Elderflower Buttercream
- 400 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 800 g icing sugar
- 100 ml elderflower cordial
Decorations
- 150 g white chocolate
- 50 ml double cream
- Lemon slices
- Blackberries
- Lemon curd or blackberry jam
Instructions
For the Cake!
- Heat the oven to 180ºc/160ºfan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment – leave to the side.
- In a stand mixer, beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the flour, eggs, baking powder and beat again briefly until combined – try not to overbeat!
- Add in the elderflower cordial and lemon zest, and mix in.
- Divide the mixture between the three tins and smooth it over – bake for 25-30minutes until the cakes are golden and when the cake springs back (skewer should also come out clean)
For the Drizzle!
- Whisk together the sugar and elderflower cordial.
- Once the cakes are baked, drizzle over the cordial mix, and leave the cake to cool in the tin.
For the Buttercream!
- In a stand mixer, beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and loose and then beat in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time until its fully combined. Keep beating the buttercream for 5-6 minutes on a medium speed so it starts to get fluffier and lighter.
- Add in the elderflower cordial and beat again for 3-4 minutes. If its too stiff, add a bit more cordial in, but you want it to be relatively stiff to not slip off the cake!
For the Decoration!
- Once the cakes are cooled, put the first layer on the serving plate spread some of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer, spread over a little lemon curd, add the second cake on top, and then top again with some of buttercream, lemon curd or blackberry jam, and then add the final sponge layer.
- Only use about 2 tbsp of buttercream per layer so that you have enough to decorate with!
- With the leftover buttercream, as you can see, I covered the sides (and top) too! Do a first layer of around the edge and top using a large metal scraper and refriergate for 10 minutes. Repeat again with a slightly thicker layer of buttercream.
- I slather it on all over using an off-set spatula, and then run the metal scraper round till its smooth. The more you put on, the thicker it’ll be as because you are making it smooth, more comes off than you realise with smoothing it over.
- Melt the white chocolate carefully with the double cream to make a ganache. Using a disposable piping bags, pipe it round the edge of the cake, edging over slight bits to create the drip. You don’t need to use too much per drip as it’ll drop quite far down by itself!
- Leave the chocolate to set a bit, and pipe on any extra buttercream, add some lemon slices, and some blackberries if you wish!
Notes
- I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags for the drip... I wouldn't be anywhere without them!
- All of the decorations are completely optional – but I love this style of cake! To make a smaller version of the cake, use 300g of everything in the cake, 6 medium eggs, 1 tsp of baking powder, 75ml cordial, and it might take an extra 5-10 minutes to bake and use 2/3 of the decoration recipes!
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days!
- I used white chocolate for the drip, but you can use whatever you like! Or leave it off!
- I used lemon slices and blackberries out of personal preference, but feel free to decorate how you please!
ENJOY!
Find my other Cake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
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Hello! I’m wondering what the measurements would be if I wanted to make this into a 4 tier cake? Just to make it a bit taller, will it work or would the weight be too much? Thank you!
Definitely will try making this recipe. Where did you buy the cake tins from these exact ones.
I made this last summer and it tasted great but the middle tier broke in half, possibly under the weight of the syrup? Did I add too much?
I’m keen to make it again but just don’t want a repeat of the breakage
It will likely just be the handling of the sponge – as the amount of syrup is no more (still less) than alot of lemon drizzle sponges. It may be worth chilling the sponges before handling to make them more sturdy xx
Hi!
I’m planning on making this as a three tier wedding cake. The 8 inch being the top tier and I’ll then times the ingredients per a comment above for the middle 10’’ tier by 1.6.
As for the bottom 12’’ tier, what should I times the 8’’ recipe by do you think?
Thankyou!! Xx
Hi Jane! I am planning to make this recipe into cupcakes,
can I use the same measurements, and what would the
cooking time be?
Hi Jane,
What measurements of cake ingredients would I need for 2 6inch sponges?
Hi Jane! , I was hoping to make this cake over the weekend for my birthday and I was wondering if the elderflower cordial is supposed to be concentrate syrup or if it’s supposed to be the sparkling diluted version ?
Thank you so much for the recipe i can’t wait to try it out!
Hiya, I want to make this cake but I’m GF is it okay to just substitute the flour? ☺️ love all your recipes!
Yes, the flour can be substituted!! But make sure to double check all other ingredients are also GF x
This is a firm favourite, and highly requested recipe in my family!
Planning to make this into loaf cake instead (without the icing, maybe just white choc drizzle). What would the proportions for the sponge be? Sorry if someone’s already asked this!
Thanks
Roughly how tall is the final cake? I’m planning on making this for a relatives birthday but will need to make it 2 days in advance and need to know what size of air tight container to get to transport it
Hi Jane! I’ve made (& loved!) several of ur recipes! Thank you for including notes for a smaller cake! I plan to make this as the 6″ top tier of my daughter’s wedding cake nxt wk! My only issue is that i only have one 6″ tin! Will the recipe keep ok whilst the other layers bake? Or do i need to make each layer separately, by dividing the recipe into thirds?
Many thanks in advance & kindest regards!
Kel..xx
I made this and used nearly all of the elderflower drizzle. The cake came out really soggy though! Am I supposed to use the whole quantity?
Hello, I made this cake today, it was absolutely delicious, great flavour from the drizzle. I used the bottle green syrup as suggested. I found the buttercream tasted really lemony even though there wasn’t any lemon in it. The buttercream didn’t really taste of elderflower. Any suggestions? Maybe I should use slightly less syrup? 🤔 what do you think?
Hi Jane, this recipe looks insanely delicious!! I am going to make it for our Queen’s Birthday Brunch here in Canada that we have annually amongst precious girlfriends…my question is whether you put lemon into the melted white chocolate? In the picture, I can see bits in it on top, so was wondering if you might have, especially given the color of it. Your comments in the article seem to hint that you love white chocolate and lemon together. Or did you just put lemon bits on top once you poured the white chocolate.
Thanks for any feedback you might have….cheers!
Hey! I only decorated with the lemon after! Adding lemon to the white chocolate may cause it to seize or split xx
Ha Jane I’m planning on making this for my birthday. Is it possible to swap out the buttercream for fresh whipped double cream as I’m not a fan of buttercream.
Hiya! Yes, this should be fine! Enjoy! x
Hi Jane
I love your recipes! I’m making a wedding cake in a few weeks and need to convert this for a 10” cake. What do I need to multiply the ingredients by? Thank you so much, Emma x
Hiya! I recommend using 1.6x the recipe! Also, baking time will increase. Hope this helps! x
For the smaller size recipe what size tins should I use ? Thanks xx
Hi Jane, I’d like to try this for a wedding cake layer. Could you please advise how to scale up the recipe for a 12” and how many layers you’d suggest. Many thanks.