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.
This Recipe is so amazing Jane, im looking to do it for a Wedding cake bottom tier 10″ 3 sponges please please could you tell me the equivalent measurement changes, ill add 75g of Plain Flour too to make it more Madeira like cake.. Thank you so much x
I love this cake but was wondering if you could add fresh raspberries to the cake mix and if so how much? Thanks
Hey! Yes, have a look at my lemon and raspberry cake for guidance x
making this cake for my friends 22nd birthday next week, perfect flavour in this heat!
When using the 400g/8 egg method for 3 tiers/8 inch tins, what is the bake time? thank you!
Hello! About 30 mins xx
Hiya,
Just curious what measurements you used to do your 3 8inch layers? I’d love to be able bake this for my birthday ☺️.
Many thanks,
Amy.
Do you think this would work in a 6 inch form but Cover the whole cake in the icing.? How would I work out measurements for cake ? Many thanks
Hi Jane
I love this recipe! I’ve seen your recipes for lemon and poppyseed cupcakes and the bundt cake. Do you think I could add poppyseeds to this recipe and if so, how much should I add? Thank you!
Hello! Thank you so much. Yes you can, I would try adding 40g xx
Hi Jane – I have made this cake loads of times and it always goes down really well! I wanted to ask if you think it would be ok if I added poppyseeds to it? I know you have a recipe for lemon and poppyseed cupcakes so I wondered if this one would be ok as well? If yes, what quantity would you recommend? Thank you!
Hi Jane, if I was to make this as a top tier of a cake in a 6 inch pan 3 layers, what quantities of ingredients would you suggest.
Thanks for your help, love your bakes.
A 6 inch of a cake is usually 2/3rds of an 8 inch cake x
Hello, was just wondering how I could make this into a lemon and lime cake ? Would I just replace the lemon Zest with lime Zest and keep the lemon juice? Or replace one Zest? Or is there a better way? Thanks 🙂
Hey! Either of these would work!xx
Hi Jane. Love this recipe! If I was to do a drip cake with this using lemon flavoured white icing for the drip, what quantities would you suggest would be enough to cover the cake and make the drip effect? Thanks in advance! X
I’m going to make this at the weekend for my mums birthday, I’m going to slice the cakes in half to create four layers and would like to buttercream the whole thing to create a drip cake. What quantity of buttercream would I need to cover and fill it?
Thanks x
Hey! At a guess, at least double if not double and a half. You can always freeze the left overs!xx
Perfect! Thanks for your quick response x
Hi Jane I love and always use your recipes when baking 😋😋 , I’m making a piggy bank cake and wondered if this recipe would work in a 8 inch sphere tin ? Or should I do a smaller amount , If so would I still cook it for 30 – 40 minutes , thank you for sharing your amazing recipes with us all x
Hello! Unfortunately I have never made a sphere cake so I am unsure of this! x
Hi Jane,
Just wondering what measurement I would use for a 9″ cake just 2 layers.
Thank you x
Hiya! Increase the recipe by a third and this should work!x