Maggie Monday: Lemon Velvet Cake

For many years my grandmother made Red Velvet cake and I could never tell what was in it. Only years later did I learn it was a chocolate cake with some red food dye. Maggie has a different velvet cake below. Check it out…

Miss Picky Pants daughter #2 recently celebrated her 13^th birthday. She is a lemon lover, so I was on the search for a new lemon cake recipe to try. So. Many. Options

I came across this recipe for Lemon Velvet Cake. Being in the South, I’ve had plenty of yummy red velvet cake. But not lemon. It had to be done.

I baked the cake a couple of days before her birthday and popped the layers, pan and all, right in the freezer. (I did this because I was too busy on her birthday to actually bake the cake, so did it ahead. Freezing cake actually makes them less crumby and keeps the frosting nice and firm, so this was a good option for me. I made a couple of changes- I added a lemon curd filling, and cut the amount of frosting in half. There was PLENTY.

I also went ahead and made the candied lemon peels, just because it sounded fun and looked pretty. Turned out they tasted GREAT! Even the 13 year olds loved them!

This cake was awesome. It was moist, tender, and soft. I was worried it might be on the chewy side, but is was just lovely. I may or may not have splashed extra baking emulsion and lemon zest in both the cake and the frosting. Come on. If you’re gonna have a lemon dessert, you’ve got to go all in.

I was pleased with how pretty and old-fashioned this cake looked, and the taste was superb. Barry has lots of other “velvet” cake recipes, so look him up on the world-wide internets. Yumbo. His description is below:

Developed from an outstanding Red Velvet Cake recipe, this lemon cake is a perfectly moist and tender crumbed cake with a lemony buttercream frosting. An ideal birthday cake for the lemon lover in your life.

Lemon Velvet Cake

Recipe by Barry C. Parsons
What You Need:

• 1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 2 tsp pure lemon extract or lemon baking emulsion
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• zest of two small or one large lemons, grated and finely chopped
• 1 jar prepared lemon curd or 1 cup homemade lemon curd

• FOR THE FROSTING
• 4 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 cups unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp pure lemon extract or baking emulsions
• 1 Tbs minced lemon zest
• approx 3-4 tbsp milk

What You Do:

1. Grease and flour 2 nine inch round cake pans and line the bottom with 2 circles of parchment paper. Sift together both flours, baking soda. baking powder, salt and sugar, Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the vegetable oil, shortening, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat well at high speed with whisk attachment until light and fluffy
3. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
4. Fold in the lemon zest.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
6. I always add dry ingredients in three divisions and liquid ingredients in 2 divisions. It is very important to begin and end the additions with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. As soon as it has no lumps in the batter, pour into the two prepared 9 inch cake pans.
7. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.
8. FOR THE FROSTING: mix together the icing sugar, lemon zest and butter until it becomes sort of crumbly.
9. Add the lemon extract and a little of the milk.
10. Beat until smooth and fluffy, adding only enough milk to bring the frosting to a creamy spreadable consistency.
11. Fill and frost the cake. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the bottom layer, then evenly spread lemon curd over frosting. Place second layer on top and finish frosting. Garnish with candied lemon zest if desired.
12. To make candied lemon zest, remove the zest with a sharp vegetable peeler in long strips, avoiding as much of the white pith as possible.
13. Bring one cup of water and one cup of sugar to a slow boil.
14. Add the pieces of lemon zest and boil for about 15 minutes. Drain the lemon zest on a wire rack.
15. When cool, cut them in strips and roll in fine sugar.