Super soft and velvety lemon cake with homemade lemon curd, lemon ganache drip, and a truly delicious lemon cream cheese frosting! This lemon cake literally melts in your mouth it is so soft and tender. You won't ever need another lemon cake recipe after trying this one!
This lemon cake is a reader favorite and always gets rave reviews! If you're not familiar with making a layer cake, then you should check out my video on how to make your first cake to get the basics and terminology down.
When I make this cake, I make my curd one day in advance so that it has time to cool down in the fridge. You can also bake your cakes in advance if you want, and then wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them until you are ready to decorate.
What's in this blog post?
Lemon cake ingredients
This lemon cake has tons of natural lemon flavor thanks to lemon juice, lemon zest, and some pure lemon extract. If you plan on making the lemon curd (which you TOTALLY should,) make sure you have at least 8 large lemons for the cake and curd combined or you can buy lemon juice to use in the curd if you don't want to juice a bunch of lemons.
We will also be making a lemon ganache drip but instead of cream, we are using lemon juice! Did you know you can make ganache with lemon juice? Mind blown!
You will also need cream cheese and unsalted butter for the frosting. See the full list of ingredients in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
What makes this lemon cake so moist?
This lemon cake recipe, much like my vanilla cake and white velvet buttermilk cake recipes, has some key ingredients for maximum moistness and melt-in-your-mouth velvet texture.
- Buttermilk - breaks down the gluten in cake flour and reacts with acidic ingredients to create a very light and fluffy cake that is extremely tender! No buttermilk? No problem, you can make your own buttermilk substitute.
- Cake flour - cake flour has less gluten in it than AP flour, resulting in a very tender cake crumb. **Note, you can't do that trick where you replace AP flour with cornstarch or you'll end up with cornbread. If you live in the UK, try searching for Shipton Mills soft cake and pastry flour, or any flour that has a protein content of 9% or less.
- Reverse mixing method - The reverse creaming method is the process of coating your dry ingredients with butter before you add the liquids. This butter "shortens" the gluten strands and gives the cake its velvet crumb.
- Oil - Very important in butter cakes to keep your cakes from drying out. When a cake is cold, the butter in the cake get's hard and can make the cake taste dry. Cakes should always be consumed at room temperature for the best results.
Lemon curd step by step
Once you make your own lemon curd, it's hard to ever go back to buying it. Nothing compares to that pure, bright, fresh lemon flavor. I prefer to make my lemon curd one day in advance and then have it ready to go the next day.
- Zest your lemons then slice then juice them. Make sure you strain out any seeds or lemon bits.
- Place the egg yolks, cornstarch, and salt in a medium-sized heatproof bowl and whisk together until smooth.
- Add your lemon juice, sugar, and lemon zest to a saucepan and bring to a simmer while whisking occasionally.
- When your lemon mixture reaches a simmer, scoop out one cup of the hot liquid (carefully) and pour it into the egg mixture while whisking at the same time so you don't curdle your eggs.
- Now add the tempered egg mixture back into the lemon mixture in a slow stream while whisking constantly to prevent over-heating the eggs.
- Continue cooking over medium heat while mixing constantly until it thickens or reaches 170 - 180ºF on a thermometer.
- Remove the lemon curd from the heat and add your butter. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour the finished lemon curd into a heatproof container and cover it with plastic wrap (make sure the wrap is touching the surface of the curd) and refrigerate. Let it cool down completely before you use it.
Lemon cake step by step
- Bring all your ingredients to room temperature or even a little warm (eggs, buttermilk, butter, etc) to ensure your batter does not break or curdle.
- Use a scale to weigh your ingredients (including liquids) unless otherwise instructed (Tablespoons, teaspoons, pinch etc). Metric measurements are available in the recipe card. Scaled ingredients are much more accurate than using cups and help ensure the success of your recipe.
- Preheat your oven to 335º F/168º C Prepare your cake pans with cake goop or another pan release. For square pans or cakes over 12", I also use parchment paper.
- Combine the 4oz of buttermilk with the oil and set aside.
- To the remaining 6oz of buttermilk, add your eggs, lemon zest, lemon extract, and lemon juice. Whisk lightly to break up the eggs and set it aside.
- Place the cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment attached.
- Turn the mixer onto the lowest speed. Add in your softened butter in small chunks and mix on medium until the flour mixture resembles coarse sand. About 1 minute.
- Add your oil/milk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and mix on medium (speed 2 on a bosch, speed 4 on your KitchenAid) for two full minutes to develop the cake's structure.
- Slowly add in the milk/egg mixture in 3 parts, letting the batter mix for 10 seconds between additions. Stop to scrape the bowl once more halfway through. Your batter should be thick and not separated. If it is separated, some of your ingredients could have been too cold or you added your liquids too quickly.
- Fill your cake pans ¾ full with cake batter. You can also weigh your cake pans to ensure that each pan has the same amount of cake batter.
- Bake your cakes for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out from the center cleanly.
- After removing your cakes from the oven, I give them a quick tap on the countertop to release air and prevent shrinking.
- After cakes have cooled for 10 minutes or the pans are cool enough to touch, flip the cakes over onto a cooling rack and let cool until barely warm. Wrap your cakes in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator before frosting so they are easier to handle. You can also put them in the freezer if you are in a hurry for them to cool down.
- Once the cakes are chilled you can now trim, fill and decorate your cake as you wish.
Cream cheese frosting
- Make sure your butter and your cream cheese are both softened but not melted. Cold butter or cold cream cheese will not cream together properly and you'll get lumps in your frosting. You can soften by cutting into chunks and leaving at room temperature or you can microwave for 15 seconds until softened.
- Place your butter into your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and cream until smooth (you can also do this by hand or with a hand mixer).
- Add your cream cheese and cream on low until smooth and combined.
- While mixing on low, start adding in your powdered sugar one cup at a time until its all in and everything is smooth.
- Then add in your extract and salt. Cream until just combined and you're done!
Lemon cake assembly
Now that we've got our curd, cream cheese frosting and lemon cake baked, it's time to assemble! If you need more basic instructions on how to make your first cake, you can watch my beginners cake tutorial.
- Trim the domes off the tops of your cakes to level them and trim off the brown edges if you wish.
- Place your first layer of cake onto a cake board or cake platter. Add a dam of buttercream around the outside edge of the cake and fill the center with about ¼" of lemon curd.
- Place your second layer on top and repeat the process and add the third layer on top.
- Apply a thin coat of buttercream to the whole cake (crumbcoat) and place into the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Apply the final layer of buttercream and smooth it out with a bench scraper and offset spatula.
- Place the cake in the fridge to continue chilling while you make the lemon water ganache.
- Microwave your chocolate and lemon juice in 30 second increments (or place on a double boiler) until melted. Add a drop of yellow food coloring and white food coloring and whisk until smooth. Let the ganache cool to 90ºF before you use it or it might run down the sides of the cake too much.
- Pipe the lemon ganache on top of the cake using a piping bag. Smooth out the top with an offset spatula.
- After the ganache sets (about 10 minutes) add some more swirls of buttercream on top of the cake using an open start tip and some lemon slices.
This lemon cake is literally bursting at the seams with so much lemon flavor! I love this cake so much! The cake is so so soft and fluffy but combined with the lemon curd and the lemon ganache, this cake is far and above the best lemon cake ever.
Lemon Cake FAQ
Lemon juice actually does not have a lot of lemon flavor and adds a lot of water to the recipe. If you don't have lemon extract, it's better to use more lemon zest to add lemon flavor.
You can turn most cake recipes into cupcakes but leave out the oil since it makes the cupcakes too greasy. Not all cake translates into cupcakes well. These are the steps I use to test a cake recipe out for cupcakes.
Preheat your oven to 400ºF.
Fill your liner ⅔ of the way full (about 3 Tablespoons of cake batter). Over-filling your liners can cause them to overflow and collapse.
Bake cupcakes for 5 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350ºF. This helps set the dome.
Continue baking the cupcakes for an additional 12 minutes and check the centers. If they are still soft and not set, continue baking. Most cupcakes are done between 18-25 minutes.
Once your cupcakes are done baking, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before taking them out of the cupcake pan.
Inspect your results. If the cupcake didn't rise enough, put more batter in next time. If it over-flowed, put in less. Take note of how long it took for the cupcakes to bake.
Use grease-proof liners to help combat the liners becoming transparent after baking.
Yes you sure can! If you want to make this lemon cake into a lime cake, just replace the zest and juice with lime. I haven't been able to find lime extract so I just used lemon. Call it a lemon lime cake.
Other Lemon Recipes You'll Love
Moist and fluffy lemon raspberry cake
Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.
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Cups of Batter Needed
8 cups
Cups of Frosting Needed
5 cups
Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
Lemon Cake Ingredients
- 13 ounces Cake flour
- 13 ounces granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 8 ounces unsalted butter Softened but not melted
- 10 ounces buttermilk Or regular milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar added
- 3 ounces vegetable oil Or canola oil
- 3 Large Eggs 1 large egg weighs about 1.67oz
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest About one lemon
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Extract
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice Fresh or bottled is ok
Lemon Curd
- 8 ounces Lemon Juice Fresh or bottled is ok
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest About one lemon
- 6 ounces Granulated Sugar
- 5 large Egg Yolks
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces Unsalted Butter
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 ounces cream cheese softened
- 8 ounces Unsalted Butter Softened but not melted
- 36 ounces Powdered Sugar sifted
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
Lemon Juice Ganache
- 1 ounce lemon juice + 1 Tablespoon
- 6 ounces white chocolate I use Ghirardelli candy melts
- 1 drop white food coloring optional
- 2 drops yellow food coloring optional, I use Americolor lemon yellow gel color
Instructions
Lemon Cake Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 335º F/168º C Prepare three, 6"x2" or two, 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another pan release. For square pans or cakes over 12", I also use parchment paper.
- Combine the 4oz of buttermilk with the oil and set aside.
- To the remaining 6oz of buttermilk, add your eggs, lemon zest, lemon extract, and lemon juice. Whisk lightly to break up the eggs and set aside.
- Place cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment attached.
- Turn the mixer onto the lowest speed. Add in your softened butter in small chunks mix until the flour mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add your oil/milk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and mix on medium (speed 2 on a bosch, speed 4 on KitchenAid) for 2 full minutes to develop the cake's structure.
- Scrape the bowl. This is an important step. If you skip it, you will have hard lumps of flour and unmixed ingredients in your batter. If you do it later, they will not mix in fully.
- Slowly add in the milk/egg mixture in 3 parts, letting the batter mix for 10 seconds between additions. Stop to scrape the bowl once more halfway through. Your batter should be thick and not separated. If it is separated, some of your ingredients could have been too cold or you added your liquids too quickly.
- Fill your cake pans ¾ full with cake batter. Give the pan a little tap on each side to level out the batter and get rid of any air bubbles. You can also weigh your cake pans to ensure that each pan has the same amount of cake batter.
- Bake at 335º F/168º C for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly from the center of the cake and the top of the cake bounces back when you touch it.
- After cakes have cooled for 15 minutes or the pans are cool enough to touch, flip the cakes over onto a cooling rack and let cool until barely warm. Wrap your cakes in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator before frosting so they are easier to handle. You can also put them in the freezer if you are in a hurry for them to cool down.
- Once the cakes are chilled you can now trim, fill, and decorate your cake as you wish.
Lemon Curd Instructions
- Zest the lemons, then slice them in half and juice them into a measuring cup. Use a small colander or a lemon juicer to keep out any seeds.
- Place the egg yolks, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk well to combine and set aside. (You will be adding more to this later, so make sure it's a large enough bowl.)
- Add your lemon juice, granulated sugar, and lemon zest to a large, shallow sauté pan.
- Stir constantly with a whisk and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- When it has reached a simmer, scoop about 1 cup of the lemon juice mixture and slowly add it into the egg yolk mixture while whisking.
- Add the tempered egg mixture back into the lemon mixture while whisking constantly. Keep an eye on it and keep whisking, if you walk away for even a minute, the eggs can curdle.
- Whisk constantly and cook over medium heat until desired thickness. I cook mine for about 2 minutes because I like thick lemon curd. Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the lemon curd. Removing the curd at 170ºF (76ºC)will yield a thinner consistency while removing at 180ºF (82ºC) will be thicker.
- Add your butter in chunks to the lemon curd and whisk until the buter is melted and combined. Remove the lemon curd from the heat. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Pour the finished lemon curd into a heat-proof jar or bowl. Cover the curd with plastic wrap so that it is touching the surface of the curd without any air bubbles in between, this will prevent a skin from forming on the top of the curd. Store it in the fridge for up to one week or freeze it for up to a year.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place softened butter in the bowl of your stand mixer with whisk attachment and cream on low until smooth. Or you can use a hand mixer!
- Place softened cream cheese in the bowl with butter in small chunks and blend on low until smooth and combined
- Add in sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time until combined
- Add your lemon extract and salt and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix or your frosting will separate and get watery.
Lemon Ganache
- Microwave your chocolate for 1 minute and lemon juice for 30-seconds. (Or place on a double boiler.) Pour the lemon juice over the chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth.
- Add a drop of yellow food coloring and white food coloring and whisk until smooth. Let the ganache cool to 90ºF before you use it or it might run down the sides of the cake too much. Make sure your cake is chilled as well before dripping.
Video
Notes
- Weigh your ingredients to avoid cake failure. Using a kitchen scale for baking is super easy and gives you the best results every single time.
- Make sure all your cold ingredients are room temperature or slightly warm (butter, milk, eggs, to create a cohesive batter. Curdled batter causes cakes to collapse.
- No buttermilk? You can make your own buttermilk
- Do not fall for the “just add cornstarch to regular flour” trick. It does not work for this recipe. Your cake will look and taste like cornbread. If you can’t find cake flour, use pastry flour which isn’t quite as soft as cake flour but it’s better than all-purpose flour.
- If you’re in the UK search for Shipton mills cake and pastry flour. If you’re in another part of the country, search for low protein (about 9%) cake flour.
- Need more help with making your first cake? Check out my how to decorate your first cake blog post.
- Make your own pan release (cake goop!) The best pan release ever!
- Chill your cakes before frosting and filling. You can cover a frosted and chilled cake in fondant if you wish. This cake is also great for stacking. I always keep my cakes chilled in the refrigerator before delivery for easy transporting.
Paula says
I just made your lemon cake today, but I used the recipe (I doubled the recipe) from your vanilla/chocolate (making the vanilla into lemon). It's from the printed recipe format that has the Vanilla Cake on top broken into single, double, triple recipes.
I see that the recipe above for lemon cake is different. Can this recipe be doubled? I usually make tall cakes so I often double my recipes, and I usually like to make in 6" rounds.
For lemon, which recipe is your go to?
Thank You!!
Shawnya says
I made this recipe the other day, but as cupcakes and they were absolutely delicious. Girls at working were raving about them. Light and fluffy. I did a lemon meringue butter cream that just gave it that extra hint of lemon.
Thank you for a great recipe!
Daniella says
My niece loves this cake! She requests it every year for her birthday!
Brenda J7armusz says
I am a personal fan of citrus type cakes, not to mention I absolutely love the recipes lizzo posts on here. So I tried this cake as cupcakes and filled with lemon curd with a lemon buttercream frosting with a little lemon zest for garnish and sent them to my daughters work, everyone loved them so much that I had an order for more the next day. Lol. I love it.
Jennifer Purdue says
I made this after looking for a good lemon cake recipe. I have no need to look further! This cake is AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes so that we can make them and taste a little bit of heaven! I also had a bride that wanted only vanilla almond until she came to her tasting. She then added lemon cupcakes to her order just so she could have lemon too! I’m telling you, it’s the best!!
The Sugar Geek Show says
That's what I love to hear! I'm a total lemon lover so this one is my favorite! I hate fake lemon flavor though! Zest is where it's at!
Kat says
Is the lemon curd for just the buttercream or does the recipe make enough for the filling as the picture shows. And are the oz by weight or volume or both.
Katy says
There is just oz listed for dry and liquid ingredients, is this oz by weigh or volume or both? Is the curd recipe just for the buttercream or also as a filling like the picture?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Ounces is a weight measurement. The lemon curd is for the whole cake, filling, buttercream and drip
Becca says
Depending on where you are ounces is used for volume as well. 8oz is one cup. Sometimes it gets very confusing because weight and volume don't yield the same result. Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes thats why the recipe lists ounces and not cups 🙂
Misty says
I need to make this cake today as my husband turns 50 tomorrow ? and I do not have a kitchen scale! Do you have cup measurements for this recipe to make it easier? He is a huge lemon fan.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Sorry all my measurements are by weight for accuracy otherwise the cake can fail. Kitchen scales are available at most grocery stores in the kitchen aisle
Vanessa H says
Absolutely AMAZING ? kudos my love y just added I little of poppy seeds cause my daughter requested it an wow ? just speechless! ????????????
Nancy says
When making as cupcakes, it is mentioned to leave out the oil. If I do this should I replace that amount of oil with butter?
The Sugar Geek Show says
no need to
Vanessa H says
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Jody says
Outstanding!! Beautiful and so incredibly delicious!! Thank you for sharing!!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it!
Claudia says
Could I use orange instead? I was looking for an orange cake recipe.
funmilola says
pls can i use baking margarine n remove d oil
The Sugar Geek Show says
I don't bake with margarine so I can't say for sure.
KimS says
What brand of lemon extract do you recommend?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I just use whatever is at the grocery store 🙂
Shasta says
I made this lemon cake for my church picnic dessert stand last summer, and it was a HUGE hit! It sold out almost instantly. I was wondering if I could substitute other citrus for the lemon. My dad’s birthday is coming up and he loves Oranges! Is this a possibility?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Definitely, orange is very good as well 🙂
Shasta Franklin says
Thank you so much for your reply!! I love your blog, it has really helped me!
Rachael says
How do you pasteurize your own egg whites after separating them from the shell? I’ve done this before but for meringue with sugar over a double boiler. Do you think this would work with just egg whites?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I'm not sure what the question is. Are you asking about making buttercream the traditional way? If so you can see that recipe here. https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/swiss-meringue-buttercream/
Cherie says
Hi! I was wondering if I need to brush the cake layers with sugar syrup before frosting? Thank you!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Nope, no simple syrup required
Cristina says
First off, thank you Liz for sharing your delicious recipes with us! I’m making this cake for my friends’ 40th along with the berry buttercream. Her husband is currently on deployment and we are surprising her with a few hours of girl time. Just one question, do the eggs and milk need to be room temperature? Thank you again!
Lisa says
Hi, I absolutely love this recipe! Best lemon cake I've ever made. I have tried making cupcakes twice with this recipe, but they collapsed in the middle after removing from the oven. I think I may have over filled my cupcakes. How do you convert cake recipes to cupcakes? Also, stupid question here, after the initial 2 minute mixing, at what speed and for how long do I mix in the rest of the liquids? Do I need to beat for 2 minutes after each liquid addition? Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Mix just until incorporated and for cupcakes I leave out the oil
Lisa says
Thank you! My friends loved this and asked for more last night. You are just fantastic! Happy Valentine's Day!
Rebecca S says
Hi Liz, this recipe is delicious, I am curios though, Mine never turns out thick like yours. Could mixing it on speed 5 to incorporate the remaining liquid cause that? I’m wondering if this recipe is even better when the batter is not as thin as mine usually is. I’ve been scratch baking for years, I follow the recipe exactly.
The Sugar Geek Show says
The thin batter is not a problem 🙂 Sometimes my batter is thinner
Maryam says
What if cake flour is not available? What to use instead? Or can I make the cake flour at home adding corn starch to all purpose flour?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Using AP flour will not work the same. If you only have access to AP flour then use a recipe that calls for that type of flour. I have a white cake recipe that uses AP flour and you can simply replace vanilla with lemon and add in lemon zest.
Alicia says
Hi Liz!!
Thank you for all your incredible recipes!!!
Wondering, when should I mix in the whole lemon zest in my cake batter???
The Sugar Geek Show says
I put mine in with the liquids but you can add it any time 🙂
Megan says
For the lemon curd is the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Fahrenheit
Nissan says
I can't wait to try this recipe! I would like to make this for an upcoming wedding. How would I adjust this recipe for a 1/2 sheet cake?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Unless you have a very large mixer then you'll have to make two 1 1/2 batches of cake batter for a total of 3 batches of cake batter to fill a 1/2 sheet pan
Lisa says
Hi Liz, how long can this cake with the curd and buttercream sit at room temperature? Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
4-6 hours if it's not too hot outside 🙂
Lisa says
Terrific! Thanks so much for being an awesome teacher and mentor!
Catillia says
My question is will the buttercream hold up in the heat? I am So excited to try this recipe. I have Been searching for a good lemon cake.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Depends on what you mean by heat. No cake should be outside in extreme heat for too long because butter melts.