Classic Lemon Layer Cake
Hey guys! We’re back in it for the week, but hopefully with cake, amirite?
Today I’m sharing a recipe for a classic lemon layer cake that I really love, and it’s perfect for Spring!
You guys may have seen me talking about ermine frosting a lot lately, and it’s really my new favorite frosting. For one thing, on a pretty regular basis I forget to buy powdered sugar, which means no American buttercream. And I also don’t always have all the eggs needed to make a Swiss meringue (although I do LOVE those!). Ermine solves all the problems you guys. It’s a basic frosting, but kind of old fashioned and not as popular these days.
You start by cooking flour and milk to make a thick paste. This needs to cool completely, and I’m being serious here- if you don’t let it cool completely, the frosting will not work! Meanwhile, you need to beat butter and sugar for a LONG time, be patient guys. You want the butter to have fully lightened through and through, and for the sugar to be mostly dissolved. This takes about 5-10 minutes of beating!
Then, you blend ’em together and beat the mixture for several minutes until it becomes very fluffy. This frosting is the texture of whipped cream somehow, but its lightly sweet! For the lemon version, we’re putting a generous amount of lemon zest into the paste mixture!
Fluffy lemon cakes are filled with a big glob of lemon curd- you can use homemade lemon curd or buy a jar for this cake!
This time around I went for a classic two-layer 8-inch cake for this one. I think pretty much everyone should have 8-inch cake pans in their pantry, and it’s got that classic look. It’s super easy to put together, and it tastes fresh, bright, and lemony! Enjoy this one guys, you deserve it!
Classic Lemon Layer Cake
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 tbs. lemon zest (from about 4-5 lemons)
- 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 4-5 lemons)
For the frosting:
- 6 tbs. flour
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tbs. lemon zest (from about 4-5 lemons)
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup lemon curd
Instructions
For the cakes:
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and generously grease two 8-inch cake pans. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Then add the sour cream.
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Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and beat until combined. The batter will be very thick. Slowly beat in the lemon juice and lemon zest, and beat until a smooth batter forms. Pour evenly into your cake pans, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
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In a small saucepan, cook the flour, milk, salt, and lemon zest until a thick paste forms. You'll want to stir the mixture constantly while heating over medium heat. Remove from heat, and cool the mixture COMPLETELY before continuing.
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In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar for 5-10 minutes, or until the mixture is noticeably lighter in color, and the sugar has mostly dissolved.
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Beat in the flour mixture, and beat until it becomes light and fluffy. It will separate during this process, just keep beating.
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To frost the cake, place one cake on your plate, and pipe a ring of frosting around the edge to act as a barrier for the lemon curd. Spread the lemon curd in the middle of the cake evenly. Top with the second cake, and frost as desired. Enjoy!
Mother’s Day Recipes
Hey guys! Today I’m doing something a little different and giving you one place to find a ton of great recipes to bake for your mom this Mother’s Day!
I’m sure it’s absolutely no surprise that I really love homemade food as gifts, and I rarely show up anywhere without something. Mother’s Day is no exception! This will actually be my first year celebrating with my own daughter, but I’ll still be baking up something sweet for my mama.
I’ve made a ton of beautiful springtime recipes, and whether you want to make a big ol’ cake this Mother’s Day, or you just want to whip up a batch of cookies, I’ve got what you need. Here’s my favorites:
- Chantilly cake: This is a recent recipe for me and it’s packed with fresh berries and sweetened whipped cream. If you’re having a big get-together with you family this year, this is a perfect show stopper!
- Strawberry Angel Food Cake: If you’re afraid of making angel food cake from scratch, don’t be! I’ve got all the tips and tricks you need to get it right the first time, and this recipe is the prettiest pink!
- Buttery Shortbread Cookies: If you’re in a bit of a rush, these buttery little gems are super quick, and really simple. They’re also incredibly delicious- do it up.
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars: Who doesn’t love a good sugar cookie? These are packed with sprinkles and topped with a fluffy buttercream. Make the frosting any color you (and your mom) would like!
- Blackberry Buckle: This is the perfect breakfast cake. It’s packed with fresh blackberries, and topped with a beautiful crumb. If your mom loves her morning cup of coffee, this will go with it perfectly.
- Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake: Chocolate cakes are the absolute best to be perfect honest, and if you can find a pretty bundt pan to make this one, you’ve got yourself a beautiful gift cake.
- Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes: This is another great Spring recipe, and I love cupcakes because you can frost them any way you’d like. Feel free to top them with more fresh raspberries, a slice of lemon, or some pretty sprinkles!
- Morning buns: This one is a little more labor-intensive, but this is for our moms, right? We can work a little. This uses homemade puff pastry, and the end result is a batch of flaky, cinnamony, sweet buns that will really impress.
- Creamy Lemon Bars: These have to be one of the most addictive recipes I’ve ever made. They come together super quickly, and really taste incredible!
There’s officially no excuse, bake for your moms guys!!
Chantilly Cake
Hey guys! Happy Easter weekend!!
In the spirit of spring, I’ve got a Chantilly Cake for you guys today, filled with lots of beautiful berries, sweetened whipped cream, and a fluffy vanilla cake. It’s simple, beautiful, and really tasty.
You guys may have heard claims about the Whole Foods Chantilly Cake, or maybe you’re even one of the die-hard followers of this beauty. I have a confession- I’ve never actually had it. I know, if you love them you’ll be gasping right now.
So that being said, I can’t exactly promise that this cake is like that cake. But I CAN promise that this cake is super delicious. I mean, and what’s not to like?
Here’s the one thing you’ll want to be careful about here- Chantilly Cakes are frosted with whipped cream, and while I’ve added cream cheese to provide some stabilization, it’s still not the strongest standing cake ever, so be aware of that as you go. Gentle is key!
For the cakes, this is a classic vanilla cake, but we’re whipping up the egg whites and folding them to add a bit of that light, fluffiness that you’ll typically see in a cake like this.
By the way, Chantilly, as far as I’ve ever known, just means sweetened whipped cream. The addition of cream cheese here is optional, but HIGHLY recommended. Not only does it taste amazing, but it also adds a touch of stability and thickness to the whipped cream, and it really helps when it comes to stacking and frosting the cake.
I’m using strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries here, but you can use any berries you like. For the strawberries, I actually use most of them in a cooked-down, jammy, sauce thing that goes between the layers, and this also will work with any type of berry really really well, or even a mix of berries.
Alright guys, go make this cake for your friends, I think they will all truly be impressed by the homemade version, it’s a killer cake. Enjoy!
Chantilly Cake
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 tbs. canola oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 cups flour
- 2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 egg whites
- 2 tbs. sugar
For the strawberry sauce:
- 3/4 pint of strawberries (this doesn't need to be exact)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbs. cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp. salt
For the Chantilly cream:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 8 ounces room temperature cream cheese
- 1 pint assorted berries
Instructions
For the cakes:
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease three 6-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. This recipe also works with two 8-inch round pans.
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In a large bowl, beat together the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, sour cream, and egg yolks, and beat until combined. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt, and beat until combined, then beat in the milk. The batter will be fairly thick.
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In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they just start to become fluffy, and then add in the remaining sugar VERY slowly as you continue to whip the egg whites. Beat until you reach stiff peaks.
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Stir about 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lightly the base of the batter. Then fold in the remaining egg whites. This will take a bit of time, but keep folding until the whites are fully incorporated.
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Divide the batter evenly between your pans, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.
For the strawberry sauce:
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In a food processor or blender, blend the hulled strawberries until they are mostly mashed. Pour into a small saucepan, and cook over medium heat with the sugar, cornstarch, and salt, until the mixture is thick. Cool completely.
For the Chantilly cream:
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In a large bowl or stand mixer, using a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla together until stiff peaks form.
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In a separate small bowl, beat the cream cheese for several minutes until smooth and fluffy. Add the cream cheese to the beaten heavy cream mixture, and whip for several minutes to incorporate fully.
To assemble the cake:
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Once the cake layers have cooled completely, you can trim off the tops to make even layers. Using a piping bag filled with the Chantilly cream, make a thick ring around the edge of the first layer as a dam. Add about half of the strawberry sauce to the middle, and spread evenly. Cover the strawberry sauce with more cream, and spread evenly. Top with raspberries and blackberries.
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Repeat this process until all three layers are build. Then, use remaining Chantilly cream to frost the outside of the cake. Top with any remaining berries, and remaining strawberries. Keep this cake chilled until ready to serve. Enjoy!
High-Altitude Sandwich Bread
Hey guys! We’re back on the series I’m doing for Simple Recipes to Build Your Recipe Box, and if you want to see the other recipes from this series, have a look over there! Today though we’re touching on bread.
I wanted a super simple bread recipe that worked well for a classic sandwich bread loaf, but that can also be a great base for other bread recipes! What you get here is a pillowy center of bread, a medium-thickness crust, and an overall buttery, lightly-sweet flavor.
In a lot of ways, I’d totally love to be one of those moms that makes homemade bread for the homemade lunches of her children every week, but I also know that’s never going to happen for me. It’s cool, we do not have to do this actually, it turns out grocery stores really give us a hand sometimes.
BUT, it is really, really nice to have the smell of homemade bread wafting through your house sometimes, and this is a great place to start.
Baking bread at high-altitude is really tough. It’s always been one of the most-failed types of recipes for me, but often the fix is fairly simple here. The thing that is most important for high-altitude bread baking is to not let it rise to much! Where sea level recipes typically take longer to rise, you also don’t want to rise your dough as much in size- for example, if it says to double the size, you probably only want to see it rise by about 1/3 in size here at altitude.
I actually usually take a picture of my dough with my phone right when I set it aside to rise, and use it for reference to make sure I know how big it’s getting. It’s tough to remember, or maybe that’s just because I’m getting old? Anyways, my point is- don’t over-rise your doughs!
The other main issue here is that liquid evaporates a bit faster up here, so I usually add an extra couple of tablespoons of water or milk to my bread recipes to compensate for that. And finally, you may notice bland-tasting bread on occasion, so you just want to be a bit more generous with salt and sugar!
So here we are. The perfect sandwich bread. It’s sweetened with a little bit of sugar and also a little honey, which adds a nice touch of flavor. Plus, it’s brushed with butter both before and after baking, it’s fantastic you guys!
I hope you enjoy this one- there’s really nothing quite like fresh-baked bread, so if you’ve never done it, make today the day!
High-Altitude Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbs. sugar
- 2 tbs. honey
- 1 tbs. butter
- 2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
- 4-5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 tbs. melted butter
Instructions
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In a microwave safe bowl, heat the water, milk, sugar, honey, and 1 tbs. butter in the microwave until it reaches 110-115 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Stir in the active dry yeast, and set aside to bloom for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbly and foamy.
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Transfer the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer (or into a large mixing bowl), and add in two cups of flour along with the salt. Mix until combined with a paddle attachment, or with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be liquidy and lumpy at this point.
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Add in another cup of flour, and continue adding in 1/4 cup portions until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Switch to a hook attachment at this point. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky when you stop adding flour.
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Knead either in the mixer or by hand until the dough is elastic. By hand, this will take about 10 minutes, and by mixer it should take about 5. The dough may still be slightly lumpy, but should spring back when you touch it.
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Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise by about 1/3 in size, which takes about 30 minutes for me, but keep an eye on your dough size to avoid over-proofing.
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Grease an 8 or 9 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
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Roll your dough into a large rectangle. One side should be about the same length as the length of your loaf pan. Roll the dough, starting on the loaf-pan-length side, into a tight log, and place seam-side down into your prepared loaf pan. Cover with plastic.
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Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes. It will be just slightly puffed. Brush the top of the loaf generously with some of the melted butter, and bake for 45-48 minutes. The dough should reach a deep golden brown color, and you can use an instant read thermometer to see that the inside reaches 195 degrees.
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Brush the remaining melted butter over the top of the loaf immediately when you take it out of the oven. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Wait until the bread is completely cool to slice. Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Banana Cake
Hey guys! We’re on cake again, it’s a good ‘un. Like most banana recipes, this one came out of finding that I had some over-ripe, toasty-colored bananas sitting on my counter that needed some love.
Today I’m making a layer cake from a loaf pan cake, and it’s a revelation. I’m not going to completely take credit for this- I got the idea from a bakery in Denver called Sugar Bakeshop. I recently visited and it’s BEAUTIFUL, but also they have these amazing little loaf layer cakes on display. So here we are.
Here’s what I really love about doing a layer cake this way. One- the shape is unique, and it kind of makes the whole cake feel a bit fancier. Two- it’s small. Layer cakes often end up being this huge thing that you have tons of leftovers with, and it’s kind of a hassle all said and done. But you get everything you want out of a layer cake here, with only two layers to stack, one pan to bake in, and reasonable portions.
So, I love a good banana cake, and this is no exception. The cake bakes in a loaf pan, so it takes a bit longer to cook than normal cake layers. But, and this is a huge benefit, there’s only one cake pan to wash at the end of the day. Speaking of the pan, I’m using a loaf pan that has straight sides, but it’s not necessary. You may just need to compensate with frosting, and that’s REALLY not a problem.
We’re just slicing this bad boy in half for our layers.
Speaking of layers, we’re using a fluffy, peanut buttery buttercream here, and piling some roughly chopped peanuts in the middle as well for that added crunch and saltiness. This is an American buttercream, which means there’s a good deal of powdered sugar in it. However, we’re swapping out half of the butter for peanut butter, and adding a generous splash of heavy cream to fluff things up.
I love this recipe, I think you guys will too. And expect more loaf layer cakes from me, it’s THE BEST.
Peanut Butter Banana Cake
Ingredients
For the banana cake:
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup almond or oat flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
For the peanut butter frosting:
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural here)
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts
Instructions
For the banana cake:
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour a 9-inch loaf pan, preferably with straight sides. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until combined and fluffy. Add in the egg, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
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Add in the flour mixture and the buttermilk in alternating additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture, and beat until completely incorporated. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
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Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, and then turn out onto plastic wrap. It's okay if the cake is still pretty warm. Wrap the cake tightly, and freeze for at least an hour before slicing and frosting.
For the peanut butter frosting:
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In a large bowl, beat together the butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and salt, scraping the bowl when needed. The mixture will be thick. Add in the heavy cream, and beat until fluffy.
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To build your cake, unwrap the frozen cake, and slice it in half with a sharp knife. On the bottom half, spread a generous portion of frosting, and sprinkle on the chopped peanuts. Top with the second half, and frost and decorate as desired. Enjoy!
