Lemon Cake - Soft, Moist & Stays Fresh for Days

This classic Lemon Cake is light, tender, intensely lemony and stays wonderfully moist for days! Two layers of soft lemon cake are sandwiched with creamy vanilla buttercream, then finished with fresh lemon slices, blueberries and basil. I've included all my baking tips for a moist cake, including why cake flour, buttermilk and a low oven temperature make such a difference.

About This Lemon Cake

This is a classic double layer Lemon Cake that is light, lemony and stays moist for days! This classic butter cake is layered with vanilla buttercream for a simple, no fuss lemon cake, with clever tips and tricks to making a moist, zingy lemon cake. I decorated it with a cute but easy decorating idea with lemon slices, fresh blueberries and basil leaves! If you are in a citrus baking mood, I have more lemon recipes too.

Video How To Make Lemon Cake

Ingredients For Lemon Cake

Cake flour - Cake flour can be bought at the supermarket. You can also make it at home. To make 1 cup/150g/5.2ozs of cake flour replace 2 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with cornflour/fine cornstarch and whisk well. I usually mix up a big batch of this and keep it in a container ready for baking cakes as it produces a softer cake texture.

Baking powder - To help the cake rise. Check that the baking powder is still in date if you don't bake often.

Milk - Whole or full cream milk.

Lemon juice - Fresh lemon juice.

Yellow colouring - This is totally optional and feel free to omit this!

Sugar - Use caster or superfine sugar as this is designed to melt into the batter easier.

Butter - As a salt fiend, it's always salted butter for me! The extra tiny bit of salt never goes astray especially for sweet baked goods that need a bit of balance.

Oil - Use a neutral oil like canola oil or avocado oil.

Lemon zest - Always wash lemons well before zesting them. Then juice them after you zest them.

Eggs - Large eggs, at room temperature (see tips below on how to quickly warm eggs up without cooking them).

Icing sugar mixture - Icing sugar mixture is pure icing sugar but with a small amount of cornflour/cornstarch or tapioca flour mixed in to prevent lumps. It is best for buttercream frosting as it is much easier to sift. We don't need this buttercream to set hard or stiff so icing sugar mixture is best.

Vanilla - Use vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste or essence. The first two are expensive as they use real vanilla but essence still works even as an artificial flavouring.

Blueberries - Fresh blueberries! These are just for decoration as this is a lemon cake but if you have blueberries and lemons you want to use, try this blueberry and lemon upside down cake.

Lemon - Ideally use a Meyer lemon if you can as they are sweeter and more fragrant.

Basil leaves - Fresh basil leaves, small ones are best. Mint can also be used.

Tips For Making Lemon Cake

• I use buttermilk or acidulated milk in all of my cakes as the acids in buttermilk break down the gluten strands to produce a more tender cake. To make buttermilk add 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar to milk. We use more as this is a lemon cake but 2 tablespoons is all you need for a neutral flavour. There's no reason to keep actual buttermilk in the fridge for cakes when you can make a quick sub for it.

• Similarly, overmixing can strengthen the gluten strands which leads to a tough textured cake. Stop mixing as soon as the batter comes together. A combo of buttermilk, cake flour and a low baking temperature all helps to give you a moist, tender cake.

• To avoid your butter, sugar and egg mixture from curdling, make sure that the butter and eggs are not cold. I always place my eggs in hot water for 10 minutes to allow them to come to a warm room temperature. For my butter, I microwave it on the lowest heat in 30 second increments. You want it soft enough so that a butter knife can pass through it.

• A chef friend taught me many years ago to bake cakes at 140C/284F as this avoids the cake drying out and makes cakes more moist.

• You can make this a single layer round cake using a 20cm/8inch round cake tin and halve the cake and buttercream quantities.

• This cake is soft, moist and very tender so I don't recommend baking it in one high sided tin as it can be hard to slice in half.

• I prefer baking this cake in a round cake tin rather than a square as the centre can sink with square baking tins (their corners trap heat and promote uneven cooking so the corners cook faster but the centres cook slower).

• I have made this cake with vanilla and lemon frosting and vanilla frosting is definitely my pick. The cake is intensely lemony already and doubling the lemon up in the frosting doesn't balance it enough. With a lemony cake base and a vanilla buttercream frosting, this is balanced between warm and aromatic (vanilla) and zingy (lemon).

• This cake is moist without adding syrup. If you want a lemon syrup cake, try this pistachio and lemon cake. This lemon poppyseed cake is also moist and this lemon drizzle cake is one of my favourites along with this lemon crunch cake. For more baking ideas, browse my cake recipes.

Lemon Cake Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 30 minutes plus cooling time

Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

Serves: 10

Ingredients Needed

For Cake

• 270g/9.5oz cake flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 150ml/5floz milk
• 110ml/3.9floz lemon juice
• A few drops yellow colouring (optional)
• 300g/10.6oz caster or superfine sugar
• 180g/6oz butter, very soft but not melted
• 60ml/2floz avocado or canola oil
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 4 eggs, room temperature

For Buttercream Frosting

• 200g/7oz butter, softened
• 450g/1lb icing sugar mixture
• 2-4 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• A few drops yellow food colouring

To Decorate

• 20 fresh blueberries
• 1 lemon, sliced into half moons
• 6 tiny basil leaves

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREP - Preheat oven to 140C/284F fan forced or 160C/320F conventional (yes low!). Line the base and sides of 2x20cm/8inch round cake tins.

Step 2 BEAT - Sift the cake flour (270g/9.5oz cake flour), baking powder (3 teaspoons baking powder) and salt (1/2 teaspoon salt) together into a bowl and set aside. Mix the milk (150ml/5floz milk), lemon juice (110ml/3.9floz lemon juice) and yellow colouring (a few drops, optional) together to create "buttermilk". Place the sugar (300g/10.6oz caster or superfine sugar), butter (180g/6oz butter), oil (60ml/2floz avocado or canola oil) and lemon zest (2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest) into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a beater attachment and beat for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Step 3 FOLD - On medium high speed, add the eggs (4 eggs), 1 at a time ensuring that they are well mixed in before adding the next. It should look like a fluffy buttercream and should not curdle. Fold in the flour mixture in 2 lots, alternating with the buttermilk. Do not overmix. Divide the batter evenly between the two tins. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the centre springs back when pressed. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, cover with foil or a metal plate to "steam" the cake and trap the moisture in. Cool in the tin.

Step 4 BUTTERCREAM - Add softened butter (200g/7oz butter) to the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk for 2 minutes until pale, scraping down the sides halfway through. Sift in the icing sugar mixture (450g/1lb icing sugar mixture) and set the mixer to the lowest speed. Add the milk (2-4 tablespoons milk), vanilla (1 tablespoon vanilla) and colouring (a few drops yellow food colouring) in. When the sugar has been incorporated, turn the mixer to medium high speed for 2 minutes. Divide buttercream into 2 piping bags.

Step 5 DECORATE - Using a knife loosen the cakes and place one cake (I usually use the thickest cake) on a serving stand. Pipe the buttercream in a circular motion and then smooth over with an angled spatula. Place the other cake on top and pipe remaining buttercream in the same fashion. Add lemon slices (1 lemon), blueberries (20 fresh blueberries) and basil leaves (6 tiny basil leaves) on top.

Storage tip: Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can freeze the uniced cakes, wrapped in parchment and then foil, for up to 2-3 months.

Substitution notes:

This recipe also works well with other citrus fruit like oranges, grapefruit and limes.

You can find more cakes, puddings and sweet treats in my dessert recipes.

Personal Note

I was kindly gifted a bag of Meyer lemons from our neighbour Nicki whose father (who lives across their back fence) has a Meyer lemon tree that produces picture perfect lemons. I wanted to make something that would befit these photogenic, highly precious specimens and with those 15 lemons I tested this cake over and over again.

Meyer lemons are very difficult to buy in Australia and they are sweeter and more fragrant than other varieties like Eureka or Lisbon. They also have a nice supple, smooth skin and a thin pith so there's very little wastage with a Meyer lemon.

I have never seen these in shops, they're usually a gift from someone who has a tree. Truly, it is my wish to one day have a tree (alas you can't grow them from the seeds, it's a bit more complex than my nonexistent gardening skills).

So tell me Dear Reader, if you could grow one tree, what would it be?