Moist Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream

Wanted to kick start my blog featuring something prepared by me and of course centered around the lemon theme and started working on it right away. While looking around the net for some inspiring lemon cake recipes, I stumbled upon The Alchemist where she had posted a really moist lemon cupcake recipe. Those babies looked marvelous and I was convinced to give it a go and plus you can just mix all the ingredients in a pan, pour it into a tin and bake it. Less washing up!

I'm planning to bake it for a family gathering this coming weekend, cupcakes are not going to satisfy the crowd. Since we are expecting quite a number of guests, I don't think so I could pull of a large batch of cupcakes, even more so on a work day! Thus, I thought I will bake a cake instead but with the cupcake recipe.

L-R Finely grated lemon zest, squeezed lemons, home made vanilla extract and melted butter with lemon juice

I was rather skeptical whether my cake will turn out well, but it did!! I'm very much happy with the outcome and the cake was super moist.  

Since we will be celebrating my uncle and aunt's anniversary this weekend, I thought why not make this an anniversary cake. Didn't do anything much, just fancied up the decoration a little.

MOIST LEMON CAKE WITH LEMON BUTTERCREAM

+PRINT RECIPE 
Ingredients for the cake

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs beaten

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp fresh lemon zest

2 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2) Sift together flour, baking soda and salt and keep aside.

3) Melt butter with lemon juice and water. Once butter has melted and the mixture starts to boil remove from heat.

4) Add sugar and stir until dissolved.

5) Add in the yogurt, beaten eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest.

6) Whisk in the sifted dry ingredients into the batter. If possible do use a whisk to prevent getting clumps in your cake batter.

7) Pour it in a baking tin and bake it for approximately 40 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Ingredients for Lemon Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter

3 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp lemon zest

2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

1) Beat the butter till fluffy and pale.

2) Add half of the icing sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice and beat well.

3) Add rest of the icing sugar.

4) You could add more icing sugar if you prefer your buttercream more stiff or add milk to thin it out.

Lemon Buttercream

Cut the cake in half using a serrated knife

Spread some of the lemon buttercream between the two layers

Once you have spread a layer of the lemon buttercream, place the other layer on top and continue icing the whole cake.

The final product! (sorry for the bad lighting)

I'm aware that the icing is not prefect and I need to work on my icing skill. But please do cut me some slack since I did the the icing in a rush before getting to work this morning. That aside, hope the cake tastes good!