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A lemon cake with one slice cut out and laying on a small platter
Rachel Ballinger

Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

A light lemony cake with a zesty cream cheese icing. Beautiful and delicious!
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Servings: 24 Servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

Cake:
  • 3 cups all purpose or bread flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 eggs room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • ¾ cup olive oil
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp lemon zest
Icing:
  • 1 stick butter out of fridge for 10 minutes
  • 1 8 oz. bar of cream cheese, straight from the fridge
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • Zest and juice of one lemon
  • 4-8 tbsp. Heavy Cream or half n half or milk cream is my first choice
  • 2 lb. bag of powdered sugar

Method
 

For the Cake:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease and flour two 9 inch round baking pans. Tap out any excess flour and set aside.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt and mix to combine.
  4. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream, buttermilk, oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with beater attachment and beat together on low to medium speed just until combined. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula.
  5. Divide the batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Pick the pans up and drop them gently onto the counter a couple times to remove air bubbles.
  6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and the sides of the cake are slightly pulling away from the pan.
  7. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Turn out of cake pans and cool completely on wire cooling racks or on parchment paper. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Icing:
  1. In a mixer, blend the butter till smooth.
  2. Add the cream cheese and blend till smooth.
  3. Add vanilla, lemon zest and juice, and 4 tbsp. cream. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Add more cream if needed for the right consistency. You’ll know it’s thick enough when you can stick a spoon in the icing and it doesn’t fall over.
To Assemble the Cake:
  1. To ice the cake, smear a little icing on the cake stand and place the first layer on that. It helps it stick and not move around. Spread a layer of icing on the first cake. Place the second layer on top of that and ice the whole cake evenly.