Lemon Celebration Cake!
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This Lemon Celebration Cake combines a light, citrus-infused sponge with a warm lemon drizzle, pockets of tangy lemon curd, and a beautifully whipped lemon buttercream frosting. With a 15-minute prep time and 35 minutes in the oven, it’s a foolproof, elegant crowd-pleaser perfect for any summer gathering or tea party.
Notes from The Patisserie
After posting the recipe for my Victoria sponge celebration cake, I figured it would be so much fun if I experimented on this and produced different flavours. When I asked on my Facebook and Instagram page recently if anyone had any suggestions, and to my joy many of you suggested a lemon celebration cake!
I feel a lemon flavour for a celebration cake is always a safe flavour as (usually) everyone likes lemon. I also find its perfect for after dinner as the zesty and fresh lemon cleanses your mouth leaving a refreshing aftertaste.
The secret to a truly moist citrus sponge is all in the timing of that drizzle. Pouring a warm liquid sugar mixture over the cake layers the second they come out of the oven ensures it sinks deep into the centre. If you wait until the cake cools, the surface seals up, and the drizzle will simply pool on top, leaving you with a sticky exterior and a dry middle.
Lemon drizzle sponge
While a massive multi-layered cake looks stunning, a reliable two-layer sandwich cake is much easier to bake, handle, and slice. It allows you to simply slather a thick, luxurious layer of buttercream and tangy lemon curd right in the centre without worrying about the cake shifting, collapsing, or leaning on display. For the perfect sponge I use:
- Butter – unsalted butter at room temperature or baking spread works perfectly
- Sugar – I use caster sugar here to create the smooth creamy texture with the butter
- Eggs – as usual I am using medium eggs
- Flour – self raising flour provides the perfect lift to your sponge
- Zest of lemons – natural lemon zest provides that non-synthetic flavouring along with the juice
- Lemon juice – enhances the flavour even more
How to keep your lemon buttercream from splitting
Adding real fruit juice to a fat-based buttercream can be intimidating, and many comments are souly around the fact that their buttercream is splitting. But, with a little patience this will prove to be the saving method for perfect buttercream.
Always start by whipping your real block butter completely on its own for a few minutes until it is perfectly smooth and pale. Sifting and adding your icing sugar slowly builds a sturdy structure that can easily lock in the liquid lemon juice at the end without curdling or weeping. Take your time.
FAQs
Absolutely! While homemade lemon curd is simple to whip up, a high-quality, luxury shop-bought lemon curd works beautifully and saves you extra prep time.
If you don’t have enough fresh lemon juice left to finish the buttercream frosting, you can easily substitute it with 2 teaspoons of high-quality lemon extract instead.
Yes, easily! Because these 8-inch sponge layers bake up thick and sturdy, you can carefully slice each cooled sponge horizontally in half using a long serrated bread knife to create a gorgeous, towering four-layer showstopper.
Caster sugar has a fine grain that dissolves perfectly into warm lemon juice without making it overly thick or gummy, allowing the liquid to run deeply into the baked cake crumbs.
Lemon Celebration Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 350 g unsalted butter
- 350 g caster sugar
- 7 medium eggs
- 350 g self raising flour
- zest of 2 lemons
- 75 ml lemon juice
Drizzle
- 75 ml lemon juice
- 75 g caster sugar
Decoration
- 2-3 tbsp lemon curd
- 200 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 400 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- spare lemon curd
Instructions
Cake
- Grease & line two 8"/20cm deep cake tins and preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan.
- Beat together the unsalted butter & caster sugar until smooth – this will take a couples of minutes!
- Once combined add the self raising flour, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice and beat until combined – try not to over beat!
- Pour the mixture evenly into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Drizzle
- Towards the end of baking – in a bowl, mix together your 75ml lemon juice and 75g caster sugar together.
- Once the cake is baked, drizzle this over the cakes, whilst still in the tin. Let the cakes cool fully.
Decoration
- Beat the unsalted butter for a couple of minutes using the whisk attachment with a stand mixer – doing this will make it nice and smooth!
- Once smooth, start gradually adding the icing sugar until it’s all fully mixed in.
- Add the lemon juice, and beat for about 5 minutes on a medium-high speed until super light and whipped.
- Pipe some buttercream in a circle round the edge of the top of your first sponge, and then add the lemon curd into the middle.
- Place the other cake on top, and pipe on the rest of the buttercream however you wish.
- Drizzle on some spare lemon curd, and add some sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3-4 days – probably longer as it has so much moisture.
You can freeze it for up to 3 months. - If you don’t have any lemon juice for the decoration, use 2 tsp lemon extract instead.
- I use these 8″ cake tins
- I use this medium 2D closed star piping tip
- I use these piping bags
Storage and freezing
Because of the incredible moisture from the fresh lemon drizzle, this celebration cake stays remarkably fresh and soft. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 to 4 days. Avoid putting it in the fridge, as the cold temperature will firm up the butter in the sponges and make them taste dry.
To freeze ahead, wrap the un-iced, fully cooled and drizzled sponge layers tightly in a double layer of cling film and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Simply defrost them on your counter overnight before whipping up fresh buttercream and assembling.
Related recipes
I love a lemon recipe and have a fair few of them on my blog, and I can tell you guys do too – for example my lemon drizzle cheesecake, lemon drizzle cupcakes, lemon bars, even my lemon and blueberry blondies.
Hiya I want to make this for my dads birthday on Saturday but I only have a 9inch tin would this work or would the sponge end up being to thin ? Thank you can’t wait to make looks amazing xx
Hi Jane I’m making this for my nephews semi naked wedding cake, but I’ve read that lemon curd should always be refrigerated? Is that right?
Obviously now it’s got me worried that this would be a problem. I’m planning on making in advance and freezing, decorating the day before.
I’d appreciate your advice please thanks.
Made with Gluten Free flour maintaining an excellent rise with 6 eggs which I weighed to match the weight of the baking spread, sugar & flour.
I used the drizzle cautiously as being a GF cake their structure can be more delicate & I didn’t want it be soggy and sink. I needn’t have been concerned & next time will experiment with more drizzle.
Super tasty, moist & a perfect cake for a celebration!
Hi Jane, I have been asked to make a lemon and blueberry cake for someone’s wedding – would this work with added blueberries?? I know you’ve got a lemon and blueberry cake too, but the addition of lemon juice in the sponge mixture itself here sounds great, so I was going to do a hybrid of the two, if you think that would work?Thanks so much!!
I am looking at using this recipe for a 4 layer 4 inch cake. Can I just half the ingredients for the sponge and do two batches?
I’m making this to have tomorrow evening. Once I’ve decorated it shall I put it in the fridge in a covered cake stand or in the fridge in the covered cake stand?
Hi, love the recipe, tried it twice now, I wonder would it still work well if I substituted butter for margerine?
You can for the sponge, but not for the frosting x
Good evening,
Do you freeze the sponges with the lemon drizzle already added??
Many thanks
Marie
Hey, did you end up doing this? I am wanting to know the same thing as I need to make the sponges the night before.
Just made this cake and I am amazed because I’m not perfect at my frosting technique but I’m proud with what I did today! Thank you so much Jane for this recipe! I’ve also purchased two of your best selling books and can’t wait to use them!
Hi, how did it work with 7 eggs? It seems a lot x
Hey did you store it in the fridge once complete ? Thank you xx
I wondered how you got on with 7 eggs too!
Hello, I will be making my daughters wedding cake of starting from 14 or 12″ . Would it be wise to put lemon curd in the middle of one of the cakes or should I mix the curd with buttercream so that it withstands the stacking an the fondant. First wedding cake . Thank you
Just make sure to properly dowel your cake and you’ll be
fine with lemon curd. Pipe a ring of buttercream around
the outside of the layer to stop the curd spreading right to
the edges. Otherwise the weight can cause it to ‘slide’.
Hi Suzie – how did the wedding cake go? I’m making my daughter’s cake in July and want to use this lemon cake recipe for one of the layers. Thinking 3 different layers starting with 14”. Any tips to pass on?
Denise
Hi Jane, I made this lemon cake today and it was delicious. I would like to make another one for a fundraising event , but would need to make it in a 9 inch tin. I would like it deep so I can cut each cake in half to make 4 layers. How much more mixture would I need please and how much longer would I need to cook it for. Many thanks.
Hi Karen
I baked this cake this weekend in 9inch tins. I multiplied the ingredients by 1.27, as I saw how to calculate for a larger tin in another site. The cakes didn’t appear to be very deep, however I carefully split each one into two, and filled with lemon curd and buttercream , and it was absolutely delicious. The overall height was around 4 inches.
Hi Jane – I’d like to make this in 2x6inch round tins – do you think these measurements will work or shall i adjust?
I cannot wait to make this for mothers day 🙂
Did you do this by any chance I’m looking at doing the same but I have , 3 round six inch tins 🙂
I’ve just made this and it fits great in 3 x 6inch cake tins 🙂 if you do it in 2 it will produce thicker, taller cakes but I expect it will work just as well, but will bake a little longer 🙂