Spring comes early here in California, and with tulips and daffodils blooming all around our neighborhood, I was ready for a little spring themed baking. I've been enjoying the homemade lemon curd I made recently, and knew it would be a delicious cake filling. I paired the sweet-tart lemon curd with vanilla cake and lemon frosting. And since I recently enjoyed decorating my daughter's birthday cake with the simple, yet intricate looking petal effect, I wanted to give it another try. The end results was a delicious cake that I think is perfect for spring!
Vanilla Cake
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (or 2 teaspoons extract, and 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste)
1 cup oil (vegetable, canola, or extra light olive oil)
1 cup buttermilk (can be made with 1 cup milk and 2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice, add acid to milk and set aside for 5 minutes before use)
Directions-
* Preheat oven to 350*F.
* Prepare cake pans (line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper, butter and flour the sides of the pans)
* In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
* Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.
* The batter will be thin. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
* Bake cakes until cake is slightly domed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs, no wet batter. Depending on the size pans you use (6", 8" or 9"), the baking time will vary between 22-30 minutes.
* Cool cakes about 10 minutes in pans, then remove from pans. Wrap warm cakes in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and place in freezer about 20 minutes. This will help them cool fully, but stay nice and moist.
* Frost as desired when fully cool.
Yield- The cake pictured is a 6" cake. If you are using 8" pans the finished cake will not be as tall. If you are using 9" pans I would recommend tripling the original Vanilla Cupcake recipe posted HERE.
Recipe source- Glorious Treats (this is the same recipe as my Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes, simply doubled for a cake)
Lemon Filling
Spread about 1/4 cup lemon curd between each layer. I used my delicious Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe.
Lemon Frosting
Prepare one batch of my American Buttercream Recipe. Add one teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest and 1/2-1 teaspoon pure lemon extract.
As I mentioned when I posted my daughter's birthday cake, I first discovered this pretty petal effect style of decoating on My Cake School. Here are a couple photos of the process so you can try it too!
~ How to frost a cake using a petal or scale effect ~
1. After frosting the cake with a thin layer of icing (also called a crumb coat), place the cake in the fridge for 10-20 minutes for the frosting to set up. Fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip (with a 1/4-1/2 inch opening) with frosting and squeeze icing to create dots in a vertical row (as shown).
2. In one motion (per dot), use an offset spatula to spread the icing dot in one direction.
3. Continue the pattern by spreading each individual dot (one stroke per dot), scraping off the spatula (into a bowl) between every or everyother swipe. One you have spread one row of dots, add another row of dots and repeat the process.
Note- When you get all the way around the cake with this technique, the last row of dots you spread will bump into your first row a bit. Just do your best to match the pattern, and this will need to be the "back side" of your cake.
Prop note- The pretty pastel flowers I added to the cake are premade flower decorations from Sweet Estelle's Baking Supply.
Happy Decorating!
