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-
How to Make Pretty Spring Cake {Vanilla Cake with Lemon Filling}
Pretty Spring Cake {Vanilla Cake with Lemon Filling}
Ingredients
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
Lemon Filling
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice usually requires 1-2 lemons
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest finely grated
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Lemon Frosting
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks, salted or unsalted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract best quality available
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream half and half or milk
Instructions
Vanilla Cake
- 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.
Lemon Filling
- Combine all ingredients in the top of a double boiler (or in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water).
- Heat, while stirring (almost) constantly with a whisk, until mixture thickens. It is done when it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate until cool.
- Store in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
Lemon Frosting
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).
- Add salt (if needed).
- One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
- Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
- Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
- Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick. Continue to beat another minute or so. The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.
Nutrition
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!
Hi
I am fan of your site and have recently tried the Vanilla cake recipe. This has been the worst I have ever baked. Cake just sank in the middle. I am not a novice so I am in shock that I could bake a disaster like this one. I think the culprit is the amount of leavening.
Don’t u think it’s too much. Please advice where I could have gone wrong.
The only thing I didn’t do by the book is mixed my sugar and eggs for longer than u mentioned.u think The mixing incorporated too much air
So sorry to hear you didn’t have success. I have made the recipe several times as listed, but please feel free to experiment. Yes, over-mixing the mixture at any stage could add too much air. Also, sometimes a cake sinking is due to it being under-baked. Without being with you in the kitchen it’s hard to know for sure. I hope you experiment and find a variation that works well for you. Happy baking!
Hi every time I use this recipe to make cupcakes, they always turn out perfect! However when I try to use the same recipe for a 6″ inch cake the inside of the cake goes slightly yellow in colour and doesn’t taste the same as the cupcakes! I use sunflower oil or sometimes vegetable oil. Could it be because I’m using the wrong oil?
It is soooo hard to chose just one cake recipe. Next best thing…make them all!
Thank you for posting the recipes.
Hi. I was searching for the Vanilla cake recipe by using oil instead of butter from a long time. I’m glad I found your blog on pinterest got this perfectionist recipe. Tried this cake recipe everyone on my side loved it. I frosted my cake with fresh whipped cream and pineapples. Thank you.
Hello,
I allow to put you this link because this blog published your recipe and photo.
http://www.recette-gateau.eu/recette-gateau-a-la-vanille-avec-creme-au-citron/
Hi, how did you achieve this beautiful color? Thanks :0)
No worries! I filled two 8″ pan with water (about 2/3 full) and calculated about 8 cups of batter, but I’ll confirm when I make the cake later his week… Thank you for getting back to me, though!
Beautiful cake! I love your page and have used your recipes often. I’ve made your vanilla cupcakes on several occasions, but have not used the recipe to bake a cake. I’m planning on baking a cake, but in a larger pan. I was hoping you could tell me about how many cups of batter does one of the recipes above yield (double the cupcake recipe). From what I’ve read in some of the comments someone asked you the same question about how many cups of batter, but that was a few years ago so I thought I’d give it a shot. Thank you for showing us your wonderful creations! I hope to hear from you soon 🙂
Hi Jocelyn, I’m sorry to say I’ve never made note of the exact amount of batter. I have been able to make a 6″ round (3 layer) or 8″ round (two layer) cake with a double batch of the cupcake recipe.
I love your cakes and the tutorials! Thank you for sharing your talent to everyone who adores your recipes! God bless!
Is this cake four layers, or two layers cut in half? On your cupcakes page it says the recipe makes one 6″ cake, but here you say to double the recipe for the same. Which recipe would you reccomend for a two-layer 6″ cake? Thanks very much.