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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Hi Jane,
Can’t wait to try this! I tried your raspberry and white chocolate muffins and they were delicious!
If I want to turn this into a loaf cake or lemon cupcakes, how much elderflower cordial do I use?
Thanks
You could half the entire recipe to make 12-14 cupcakes quite easily! x
Hiya! Would you adjust the sponge recipe at all if not using any elderflower? I don’t want it to become dry but don’t want to use any elderflower x
No, you can just leave it out x
What would I do differently for a 9inch cake tin?
Hi, I’m excited to attempt this! Was just wondering if I could use elderflower gin rather than cordial?
I would say it would be best to use it for the drizzle as you would get enough ‘gin’ flavour from that – I wouldn’t use gin for all of the bits personally! x
Hi Jane!
Love your blog, it seems to be the only website I go on lately! I’m wanting to do this cake but as a two layer 7” sponge and usually I would divide the ingredients by the size of the tin in the recipe then multiply by the size I want to use (if that makes any sense haha) and I was wondering if there was an easier/more straight forward way to alter the measurements?
Many thanks! X
Hey!! Ahh thank you! I actually use this website – you can either just input the tin sizes to see the difference, or input all of the ingredients! http://www.cakebaker1.co.uk/apps-for-bakers/baking-tin-size-conversion-calculator/
Superb recipe and cake as always from my go to baking site
Hi, what sized piping nozzle did you use? Thanks
Hi Jane I made this cake once before as a practice (have to make it again for a 50th) and it was delicious! I intentionally put very little lemon curd as it was a trial but I just wondering how much lemon curd you would recommend using per layer?
I usually use a few tbsps per layer, but generally anything works as long as it doesn’t over flow! x
Hi, I am making this for a Diamond Wedding Anniversary celebration – what size cake board would you suggest? (I’ve never used one before!) Thanks
I always personally use a board 2″ bigger than a cake, so for an 8″ sponge, you’d use a 10″ board xx
Hi Jane,
I’m a big fan of yours (especially the amazing cheesecakes!).
I would love to make this but as a two tier 8 inch cake. How should I adjust the quantities please?
Thank you!
Hey! There is notes on the recipe card about a two layer version xx
HI Jane!
I noticed that with this being a white chocolate drip, you haven’t added double cream or oil like you would for milk/dark chocolate drips. If i wanted to make it coloured, would I just add food colouring and nothing more to the white chocolate?
Thank you!
Hey! Yes I don’t personally usually bother for white chocolate as the ratios are completely different! You could definitely colour white chocolate (As long as you using a good quality colour) or you can make a white chocolate cream ganache and colour it that way!
Jane, is the drizzle suppose to have some lemon in too?
No, the recipe is correct.
Is the drizzle meant to soak in? The cake tastes delicious but I’m not sure if it’s soggy or just right!! Not sure whether yo make it again without the drizzle….
Would this recipe work using one deep 8″ cake tin, then split the cake into three once cooked.
It can – but I would bake it at 140C, and for a lot longer so it’s less likely to dry out!
Looks amazing. How would I convert to use a loaf tin please?
Have a look at my Lemon & Lime Drizzle cake for weights/timings, and add elderflower into that one x
Hi Jane,
I’m really looking forward to trying out this recipe!
Can I just ask, why does the recipe need self raising flour and baking powder?
It’s just to make it a smidge lighter 🙂
Hey I was wondering if this recipe could be made into cupcakes please and would you keep the measures the same? Thank you 😊
This recipe would make between 30-35 cupcakes, its best to look at either one of my lemon recipes or the vanilla cupcake recipe, and add the elderflower into that.