Lemonade Cake
My lemonade cake, aka my lemonade Beyonce cake, inspired by her album, is a celebration of lemons! Tart and aromatic, it’s made up of lemon-flavored vanilla cake, lemon buttercream frosting, and topped with sour lemonade jellies!
Table of Contents
Nick’s favorite thing…
I love the look of this cake. That pattern on the side fo the cake takes a lot of patience. I would recommend putting on a podcast while you pipe. But it’s so effective! I love the jellies on top. They’re so yummy. I would recommend adding them up to an hour before serving the cake.
What does lemonade cake taste like?
Lemon! The cake is my moist vanilla cake which is flavored with lemon zest. So yum! And then the buttercream is my swiss meringue buttercream frosting. Perfectly smooth and shiny. The jellies on top are lemon jellies! I mean can it get more jelly?
Disaster!
Fun fact, when I made the first version of this cake I used thick layers of store-bought lemon curd (also known as lemon butter) instead of buttercream. Well, after putting the 6th layer of cake on the cake I began to notice the layers sliding. Not unlike the cake that was held up with a broom in Sleeping beauty! Eventually, Moses made an appearance and the cake literally just collapsed in the middle. So yeah, if you want to use something like lemon curd in the center of a cake, make sure the cake layers aren’t too heavy, make sure it’s not a tall cake, and pipe a ring of buttercream around each layer of cake and fill with the filling. We learn from our mistakes!
What are the ingredients I need for the lemonade cake?
All-purpose flour – also known as plain flour.
Caster sugar – also known as superfine sugar.
Baking powder – this will help the cake rise.
Salt – I used fine salt.
Butter – I used unsalted butte. You can use salted but just leave out the salt in the recipe. Also, make sure your butter is softened.
Eggs – I used large eggs.
Milk – I used cows milk but almond milk will work too.
Vegetable oil – you can also use sunflower oil.
Greek yogurt – this will help make the cake moist. You can also use sour cream.
Vanilla Extract – Always use good quality vanilla extract when baking, it makes a huge difference. I have a great recipe here for it if you’d like to try your own!
Lemons – you’ll be using the juice and zest for this recipe.
Food gel – I used chefmaster branded food gel.
Powdered gelatin – this is used to help set the jellies.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting – Super smooth and totally delicious. Perfect for shiny, sharp cake edges! Grab the recipe here!
Lemon flavoring – this is used for the frosting. Alterntively you can use lemon curd, also known as lemon butter.
What’re those molds you used for the jellies Nick?
You can pretty much use any mold you like, but the exact ones I used for this recipe are the ‘Grainrain Round Diamond Shaped Chocolate Candy Mould Polycarbonate PC DIY Mould Cookie Tray’ I bought mine on amazon at the time.
My Top Tips!
- Make sure you use fresh lemons!
- Prepare this cake ahead of time! Bake the cake on day one, crumb coat and chill the cake and then make the jellies on day two. Final layer of the cake and decorations can go on on day two or day three.
Other Recipes You Might Like!
- Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie – the ultimate lemon celebration in dessert form. There is no better!
- Fluffy Lemon mallow Slice – so deliciously melt in your mouth.
- Lemon Tart – simply divine!
- Amazing Lemon Meringue Cheesecake – baked lemon cheesecake on another level!
- Lemon Sponge Cake – glorious celebration of sponge and lemons!
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I hope you guys enjoyed this simple but delicious lemonade cake recipe with me. Please comment in the comments section below, or feel free to share with your family and friends on social media.
I’ll see you all on the following recipe. Happy baking!
N x
Lemonade Cake
Serves 30 people
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 1/2 cups (430 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (265 g) caster sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (125 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 lemons zested and juiced
- 10 drops yellow food gel
Jelly Jewels
- 6 tbsp powdered gelatin
- 12 tbsp (180 ml) cold water
- 2 cups (500 ml) lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (125 g) caster sugar
Frosting
- 3 batches Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
- 10 drops yellow food gel
- 3 tbsp lemon curd or 2 tsp lemon flavouring/extract.
Learn How To Make it! [VIDEO]
Instructions
Jelly Jewels
- Add water and gelatine to a large mixing bowl. Mix until well combined.Allow to sit for 2 min. Add lemon juice and sugar to a microwave safe bowl or jug and microwave for 3 min. Add gelatine and stir until completely dissolved.Spray jewel mould with oil and wipe excess away with a paper towel. Fill moulds up with jelly mixture. Chill for 2 hours.
Frosting
- Combine all ingredients together and mix.
Cake
- Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; you’ll need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 160C (320F) or 180C (356F) for a conventional oven. Spray an 8” cake tin with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt. Turn mixer on low speed and allow it to mix for a couple minutes to help everything combine well (alternatively you may do this by sifting the ingredients together). Add the softened butter and mix until it resembles a fine sand like texture.
- Add the milk, oil, Greek yogurt, eggs, lemon zest, yellow food dye and vanilla extract into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another20 seconds.
- Fill three 8” cake tins with batter. Bake for 30 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the tins to cool for 2 min and then carefully flip the cake tins over on to a cooling rack to cool completely before using.
- Using a large serrated knife, carefully trim the top off each layer of cake to make even and flat layers. Try to aim to get them all the same height. An easy way to do this is to find the lowest height of the cake, place a skewer or toothpick next to that point and mark it. As you go around each side of the cake cutting it, use the marked skewer to make sure each cut is at the same height.
- To prepare crumb coat, add a dab of frosting onto an 8” cake board or serving plate. Add first cake layer. Use a piping bag filled with frosting to frost around the outside permitter of the cake layer. Add a thin layer in the middle of the cake and then add dabs of lemon curd on top. Use a small offset to smoothen out and layer the frosting on each layer before adding the next layer of cake. Add more frosting around the outside to fill the grooves between each layer. This should just be a neat thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the outside of the cake.
- Add a fresh layer of frosting using a small offset spatula. Use a cake scraper to smoothen out the frosting around the sides. Then smoothen out the top using the cake scraper. Chill for 2 hours.
- To add final layer of frosting add frosting to a piping bag and frost the sides and top of the cake. Use a cake scraper to smoothen out the top of the cake first. Then work the scraper around the sides. If there are any bubbles or any spaces that need filling, add more frosting and work the cake until it’s smooth. Smoothen out the top again and chill for 2 hours.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with a Wilton #5 round tip to draw large geometric shapes on the outside of the cake. Fill the shapes in with more lines. This can take a while. Put on a Beyoncé album and pipe for Yo LIFE! AndDon’t F it up! #RuPaul
- Finish off by adding jellies on top up to an hour before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
4 comments
how many eggs in the cake? 4 or 5??
Hi Soni! Sorry that the eggs were missing! I’ve gone in and added them. It’s 3 large eggs. But because the recipe needs to be doubled, it’ll be 6 eggs all up. Thanks again! N x
the jelly did not hold up
Hmm, how do you mean? N x