You're my main squeeze!
This cake is super special to me because today Scotty & I are celebrating our 8 year anniversary. Our love story began in the unchartered waters of online dating. We were both very young at the time but took the chance on each other and never looked back. After so many years together I wanted to be sure to make this year unique and extra special (as if being quarantined in a pandemic isn't unique enough); and what better way to do that than with a cake!
As you may have noticed, I love lemons and Scotty loves strawberries, so I know I had to make a strawberry lemon cake. I decided to make a lemon cake with a lemon buttercream and fill each layer with a strawberry jam. To make this cake even more special, the strawberry jam I used was made fresh by Scotty's mom!
This strawberry lemon cake would not be complete without a lemon buttercream. It's light and airy and has the perfect zing of lemon flavour without being overpowering. While the cake is baking you just have to whip together butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and a splash of vanilla and voila! The vanilla is key in this buttercream as it helps balance the sweetness of the powdered sugar and the sour of the lemon juice.
Once your cakes have cooled it's time to start stacking. Place a dollop of buttercream on your cake base, this will keep your cake from sliding all over the place while you are trying to decorate it. If the tops of your cakes are rounded on top don't panic! Simply take a bread knife and evenly cut the top of the cake off. This is the perfect opportunity to taste test your cake as well!
It's assembly time! Get creative. I used a rose tip in the piping bag to pipe a border on each cake layer. This is a great technique if you cook to make a naked cake as it's not only visually appealing it adds a little drama to each layer. Then spoon your jam in the centre of the buttercream ring. The buttercream acts as a barrier to prevent the jam from dripping down the side of your cake. Repeat this step for each layer until you top off your cake.
This step is very important. Always be sure to crumb coat your cake. This is your base coat of buttercream and it helps to hold your cake nice and firm. Once the crumb coat sets it provides the perfect surface to ice and decorate your cake.
My favourite part is decorating the cake. This is where I let my creativity run wild. Not everything on your cake has to be edible, just make sure when you serve it to remove the decorative items. And a cake isn't complete without a cake topper. I bought this cake topper from the cutest Etsy Shop, Thistle & Lace Design. This Canadian based shop has a cake topper for every occasion! And there you have it, strawberry lemon cake, enjoy!
Recipe
Strawberry Lemon Cake
6-8 Servings Minutes Prep Total Minutes
Calories Per Serving
Ingredients
For The Cake
1 3/4C All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 2/3C Granulated Sugar
3/4C Unsalted Butter (Melted)
3 Egg Whites
1/2C Skim Milk
1/2C Sour Cream
Juice Of 2 Lemons
Zest Of 1 Lemons
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
For The Buttercream
1 1/2 Cups Of Butter (Room Temperature, Softened)
6 Cups Of Powdered Sugar
Juice Of 1 Lemon
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
For The Strawberry Filling
1C Strawberry Jam
For The Chocolate Drip
1 1/2C Chocolate Disks
1C Heavy Cream
Directions
For The Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 6" pans.
In your Kitchenaid stand mixer bowl (or just a large bowl), mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, lemon zest).
In a separate medium bowl beat together wet ingredients (butter, egg whites, milk, sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla extract).
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until combined.
Divide mixture in to cake pans.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until cake is nice and springy to the touch.
For The Buttercream
Add butter to stand mixer and cream the butter with the paddle attachment.
Add powder sugar, 1C at a time.
Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Transfer buttercream to a pipping bag.
For The Chocolate Drip
Place chocolates in a heat resistant bowl.
Pour heavy cream in to a small sauce pan over high heat.
Once heavy cream begins to boil, remove from heat and pour over chocolate disks.
The chocolate will begin to melt. Using a whisk combine chocolate and cream until the chocolate has completely melted.
Place in fridge to set. You can even make this a day in advance. The longer the drip can chill the better.
For Assembly
Pipe buttercream between each layer with a dollop of strawberry jam in the centre.
Pipe the buttercream around the sides and top and the cake and smooth out evenly.
Once cake has been fully iced, place chocolate drip in a piping bag and drape chocolate over the top of the cake allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake.
Using a large star tip pipe border around the bottom of the cake.
Decorate to your desire!
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