Printable Recipe: A Luscious and Lemony Recipe for Easter Cake- Recipe

A Luscious and Lemony Recipe for Easter Cake

This is such a beautiful cake! The cake itself is moist, buttery, and intensely lemony. It tastes like spring on a plate. And the frosting is smooth, creamy, and mild-- the perfect combination.

The cake pictured is decorated with Easter peanut M&M's and some ultra-cute egg-shaped Easter cookies. You can decorate this recipe for Easter cakes the same way, or get creative and do your own thing with it. Even left plain, it's a very pretty Easter cake! And the scent of this lemon cake cooking will have even the Easter Bunny drifting into your kitchen!

Serves 10-12.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 C. sugar, divided
4 lg. eggs, (should be at room temperature)
1/3 C. lemon, grated zest of
3 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
3/4 C. buttermilk, (should be at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting:
2 C. confectioners' sugar
1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease and flour 2 8" cake pans, place parchment paper in the bottom, then grease and flour parchment.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and two cups of the sugar on medium speed until creamy and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed between each addition. Beat in lemon zest.

4. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

5. In a third bowl stir together the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.

6. With an electric mixer on medium speed, gradually add flour mixture and lemon juice mixture to the butter-egg mixture, alternating between adding the flour and the liquid. You'll want your first and last additions to be the flour mixture.

7. Pour batter equally into the two pans. Smooth out the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake about 50-60 minutes, or until cake tests done with a toothpick. Invert on a wire rack and let cool completely before removing from the pan.

8. Meanwhile, prepare the recipe for Easter cakes frosting: In a medium mixing bowl, combine sugar, butter, and cream cheese over low speed until fluffy and well mixed. Add lemon and vanilla and beat on high speed until fluffy.

9. Frost cooled layer cake with frosting. Decorate with Easter candies, etc., as desired.