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.
Hi Jane, I am planning on baking your original recipe of the lemon cake (250g of each of the ingredients). Can I still use 75ml lemon juice and grated zest of 2 lemons to put in the cake mix the same as for the deeper cake (350g) or will I need to reduce the quantity of both juice and zest for the 250g cake?
I would reduce it personally – the zest is fine and I wouldn’t bother with the juice x
Hi Jane,
Planning to make this cake for my Grandmothers birthday but just a quick question: the lemon drizzle you talk about in the notes section … do you mean that I should put this on the sponges to add more flavour or to drip on top as well as the cure?
This is a drizzle to add onto the sponges as they have come out of the oven!
Hey Jane. How could I convert this sponge into a 3 layer 6 inch cake please?
Thank you x
You should be able to split the mix as it is between three 6″ tins, or reduce the mix down to a 300g mix! x
Hey! Bit of a random one.. I can see your notes say the layers are thick, are you able to say roughly how thick each layer is please in cm? Im just trying to decide how tall it will be or if to add another layer that’s all. Thanks! X
I would say they are about 1.5/2″ deep, so 4-5cm maybe?! xx
Hi Jane! Would I be able to put this recipe in 10 inch tins and just have thinner layers? Thank you 🙂
Personally I wouldn’t say so – a 10″ is about 2/3 bigger in volume so the layers would be extremely thin – I would recommend increasing the recipe x
Hi Jane
I want to make just 1 layer of the cake therefore I know I need to use half the quantity of the recipe. I was woundering will the timing to bake the cake still be the same?…..Also I know you add lemon juice on the cake but if I wanted to add the lemon drizzle as well how much do I give, is it half again and will that be too much lemon juice as there will be some on the cake mix already?…I want the cake to be moist. I saw your lemon loaf cake recipe and you mentioned to see this recipe as I want it to be a round or square cake. Thanks
For one layer I would use 150g butter/sugar/flour/3 medium eggs, and the zest of 1 lemon – wouldn’t bother with the juice – baking time will be about the same or just a smidge less! And then anything you add on top will be half the amount as well. x
Hi Jane, I’m wanting to make this cake using two 8 inch x 4 inch deep tins. I was thinking of doubling the cake mix and fillIng the tins 3/4 full but unsure on how long they would need to bake for in the deeper tins. What would you recommend?
Unfortunately I’m not sure as I don’t often bake very deep cakes – sorry!!
Thank you for reccomending this recipe (I asked about the round tin for the load version) question, can you tell there is zest in the sponge? I have a brother who doesn’t like bits like zest, but when I tried a recipe without zest and just an extract it didn’t taste lemony. any advice please? do you think with zest is best? x
I always think that zest should be as finely grated as possible, and then when it is you can’t feel the texture! I think zest is definitely better, or just use more extract xx
Hi Jane. I am going to make this cake, and I am not going to be adding buttercream to the outside or filling. Will the curd just spill out the side or shall I leave the curd to set and thicken in the fridge before applying to the cake?
Thanks
The curd may always be a bit soft, but otherwise it should be okay if you don’t add too much or spread it too far to the sides!
Hi Jane, this recipe is just what I was looking for! I just wondered if I could make the cakes ahead of time, freeze them for a couple of days and then get them out to decorate and serve? Will the cakes be OK if I do this? Do you think they will taste fresh?
Hey! Yes that should be okay – generally I find fresh cakes best, but freezing sponges is fine! x
Hi! I’ve previously made this cake but just as the 2 layer, i want to make it into a good 3 layers for my birthday without splitting the mixture between 3 tins or slicing the 2 layers in half. Can you reccomend the measurements for 3 layers please? I think my cake tins are 7.5″! Thanks!
Generally for my three layer cakes I use a 400g/8 egg mix and split between three 8″ tins so it may be the best quantities for your 7.5 tins!
Hi Jane! How much ingredients would I need to make this cake in 2 6” cake tins and cut them into 4? Thank you!!!! Love your recipes
I would use 2/3 of the recipe roughly, and then bake and split! x
Hi Jane I wanted to make this cake but as a naked buttercream round the edge would I just double the amount of buttercream?
Also I would like to do 3 layers instead of just 2 but I don’t want them as thick what size tin and quantity’s would I use?
Love your recipes they always turn out amazing!
Hey! So you could use the mix as it is, but split between three tins and bake for less time, and then yes I would double the buttercream! X