Whole Lemon Cake Recipes

SIMPLE LEMON CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). In a medium saucepan, cover lemon slices with 3 cups water. Add pinch of salt, cover, and bring to a boil over high. Boil lemons, partially covered, until very tender, 15 minutes. Drain in a colander and transfer to a food processor, along with lemon juice; process until smooth. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium, 2 minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
• With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions buttermilk. Beat in vanilla, then fold in lemon mixture.
• Transfer batter to pan and bake until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack, 20 minutes. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely on rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve with raspberries and cream, if desired.

WHOLE LEMON LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Place Meyer lemons in a 2-quart saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and cover; simmer lemons until soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and lightly grease the parchment paper.
• Remove any stems from the lemons. Slice into quarters and remove all seeds.
• Place the lemon quarters in the work bowl of a large food processor and process until fairly smooth, about 30 seconds. Add flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt. Pulse about 10 times, just until the batter comes together into coarse crumbs with flecks of lemon rind. Pour in eggs and limoncello with the motor running; process until a thick, slightly grainy batter forms, 10 seconds or less.
• Divide batter between the prepared pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are light gold and spring back lightly to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on baking racks.
• Place 1 cake layer on a cake plate and cover with lemon curd. Top with the second layer and frost just the top, or top and sides, with cream cheese frosting.

OLD-FASHIONED LEMON POUND CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans.
• Combine sugar, flour, eggs, shortening, whole milk, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and baking powder in a large bowl; pour into the prepared pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

LEMON CAKE FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour.
• Whisk flour, lemon zest, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a bowl.
• Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat eggs and egg yolks, 1 at a time, into creamed butter mixture on low speed, beating well after each addition before adding the next. Beat lemon juice into butter mixture. Beat flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, into butter mixture until batter is just combined. Divide batter between the prepared cake pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cake pulls away from sides of pan, 32 to 35 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of pan and invert cake onto a wire rack to cool.

LEMON LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottoms of 2 greased 9-in. round baking pans with parchment; grease parchment., Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in lemon zest and juice. In a small bowl, mix sour cream and milk. In another bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream mixture., Transfer to prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 24-28 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to wire racks; remove parchment. Cool slightly., For syrup, in a small saucepan, combine sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is reduced by half. Cool completely., For frosting, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth; beat in confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and salt until blended., Using a long serrated knife, cut each cake horizontally in half. Brush layers with warm syrup; cool completely., Place 1 cake layer on a serving plate; spread with 1 cup frosting. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost top and sides with remaining frosting. If desired, top with lemon slices or edible flowers. Refrigerate leftovers.