Lemon Buttercream Cake w/Sprinkles: A Baby Shower Baked Good

“You don’t really have a baby shower for your second baby” Ellen explained to me one girly movie night as she rubbed her belly.

I don’t know much about baby etiquette or how the proper parental world works, but I still couldn’t believe the words coming out of Ellen’s mouth.  A baby and no shower? This madness had to stop.  Who wouldn’t want to celebrate Ellen’s second child with some kind of party? I promptly volunteered to host Ellen’s second baby “celebration” (note the switch in jargon) despite only knowing that babies use diapers, drink milk, and having formerly been one, they turn into rather interesting human beings with an affinity for food.

Plus, I really wanted an excuse to bake Ellen another cake.

It’s spring in Baton Rouge and everything is turning green, certain fruits are coming into season, and it all feels so seemingly perfect that Ellen would be having her second child right now.  Sensations like these inspire the best of recipes and wanting something fresh, light, and spring-like, I jumped on the opportunity to make a basic vanilla lemon cake with buttercream icing (one of Ellen’s favorites) with a citrus aftertaste.  Lemon seemed just right for this occasion as it spreads coolness in our increasingly warm weather, and is the perfect combination of tart and sweet.  I got to squeezing a batch of lemons and zesting their rinds.

Many thanks to Katie, one of Ellen’s good friends, for the shower came and went without a hitch as she warded off chaos with a pen and pad of paper.

On the day of Ellen’s shower, babies and children were abundant.

But so were the presents.

And many laughs were had.

Although I feel that this particular cake goes best on such springy, warm, family occasions, I think that a lemon buttercream cake would do well at wedding showers, kids birthdays, or just to treat yourself on a warm summer day.  Try this easy, basic vanilla cake recipe infused with lemon juice and lemon rind for a clearly delicious baking experience!

Lemon Buttercream Cake with Sprinkles

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite food and cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen, and the original can be found here.  I added the juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup lemon juice) to a basic homemade buttercream icing and the zest of an entire lemon to the cake batter with 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

A Word on Sprinkles: I was first inspired by this cake from an awesome recipe over at Sprinkles Bakes.  Checkout her design here.

Ingredients:

–Cake–

* 4 cups + 2 tablespoons cake flour (non self-rising)

* 2 teaspoons baking powder

* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

* 2 cups sugar

* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

* 4 large eggs, room temperature

* 2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

* zest of one lemon

* 2 tablespoons lemon juice

–Icing–

* 4 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

* 3 sticks butter, room temperature

* juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup lemon juice, add more if consistency is too dry)

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch baking rounds.

2.) In a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs to mixture with vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon rind, and buttermilk.  Mix to integrate.

3.) Slowly add dry ingredients: salt, baking powder, baking soda, and then flour last.  (Remember, the flour should be added in gradual increments, not all at once!)

4.) Pour batter into greased cake pans (this recipe can easily be two layers, but I went with three layers, so pour into cake pans with enough batter left over for the third layer).

5.) Bake for 25-30 minutes per layer (it will be longer if you’re going with 2 layers, such as 35-40 minutes).  Remove cake from oven when golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow cakes to rest in their pans for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (you don’t want the cakes to sit in the pan too long as they’ll both continue to bake and potentially get soggy on bottom because of built-up condensation).  Bake 3rd cake layer if you are making a 3rd layer.

6.) Allow cakes to cool completely.  Meanwhile, cream together butter and confectioner’s sugar in a standing mixer.   Add lemon juice until you have the right consistency (this step is based on personal preference) and the frosting is as tart and lemony as you would like.

7.) Plate bottom layer of cake and frost.  My technique is to add a big lump of frosting and smooth evenly.  Cakes are highly prone to crumbling, so if you start off with a lot of frosting, you’re less likely to upset the cake and get those nasty crumbs in your frosting.  Plus, you can always scrape off excess frosting easily.

8.) Add second layer of cake and repeat.  Add third layer of cake and repeat.

9.) Finally, frost the tops and sides making sure to use enough frosting all the way around and on top so that you don’t run into the “crumbs in frosting” problem many at home cooks do.

10.) Decorate cake.  I love sprinkles, I think they’re so much fun, so I created my own combination of 5 sprinkles for this occasion.  But, if you have less resources in your kitchen, you should check out sprinkle variations here.

I decorated the top with a swirl:

Enjoy! Makes 15 servings.

–Helana Brigman

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