Lemon Velvet Cake

One of my favorites parts of being a pastry chef is the fact that using my knowledge, I get to create new recipes, perfect old ones or totally transform them. And this is exactly what happened with this recipe. Using my Red Velvet Cake recipe as a base, I created this Lemon Velvet Cake – a dense and yet fluffy sponge, filled with the most delicate lemon curd and vanilla whipped cream. It sounds simple and it actually is! It’s not as complicated as my usual entremets and it tastes amazing! It’s a refreshing cake, fitted for this springy weather we are having at the moment.

The sponge will impress you with its moisture and delicate texture, I fell in love with it and I’m planning to keep perfecting it and using it in many other combinations, including as base for my entremets. I love that I don’t have to soak it up in syrup and it doesn’t go all hard in the fridge either due to having two types of fat (actually three if you count the sour cream too). The lemon curd used for filling is one of the best I ever made – and believe me, I’ve tried a few so far.

This lemon velvet cake brings out the best in lemons: their incredible aroma and their tangy, zesty taste.

Servings :1 18cm cake

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 50

Resting time 8

Total Time 9 20

Ingredients

Cake:

380 g all-purpose flour
40 g shredded coconut (unsweetened)
8 g baking powder
2 g salt
125 g butter (softened)
125 g vegetable oil
300 g sugar
2 eggs
125 g sour cream
10 g lemon zest
5 g vanilla extract
259 g buttermilk
25 g lemon juice
4 g baking soda

Vanilla frosting:

400 g heavy cream
40 g powdered sugar
8 g vanilla extract

Lemon curd:

100 g egg yolk
Zest from 2 lemons
90 g fresh lemon juice
210 g white sugar
100 g butter
0.5 g salt

Instructions

Cake:

Preheat your oven to 330F (160C).
Line 2 baking pans with baking paper or grease them with butter. I used 2 18cm diameter pans and had 4 layers of sponge in the end, but you can use bigger pans too, the only difference being that you won’t get as many layers as I did.
Mix the buttermilk with lemon juice and baking soda.
Mix the flour with coconut, salt and baking powder.
Mix the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until creamy and double in volume. Stir in the lemon zest then add the eggs, one by one.
Stir in the sour cream.
Begin folding in the flour and buttermilk, alternating them. Always start and end with flour.
Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake in for 50 up to 60 minutes. Check the cakes with a toothpick.

Vanilla frosting:

Whip the heavy cream with powdered sugar until stiff. Add more sugar if you like it sweeter.
Stir in the vanilla extract.

Lemon curd:

Pour one cup of water in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium flame.
To make the curd, prepare a heatproof bowl that fits the saucepan but its bottom doesn’t touch the boiling water.
Combine all the ingredients into the bowl and mix roughly.
Place the bowl over the boiling water and cook for 20-25 minutes, mixing often.
It is a slow process, but the final curd is well worth the result.
Cook until the mixture begins to thicken then remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve.
Let it cool in the fridge before using.

Equipment

Mixer
Kitchen scale
Oven
Spatulas
Bowls
2 18cm diameter cake pans

Notes

To fill the cake, see the picture below. One layer of whipped cream and one layer of lemon curd will yield a beautiful pattern and also a balanced taste.

Keyword Best cakes, Buttermilk, Cake recipes, Lemon, Lemon zest

Lemon Velvet Cake