Lemon Velvet Cake
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Lemon Velvet Cake. Our most popular cake to date, for its real lemon flavour and incredible light, airy texture, while still staying moist and delicious.
Before this Lemon Velvet Cake, it all started with me trying to develop the best Red Velvet Cake recipe I could.
It was such a success and I loved the moist, tender texture of that cake so much that I just had to try a White Velvet Cake and then an Orange Velvet Cake.
Those turned out to be a couple of the most popular cake recipes ever on Rock Recipes so I couldn't stop there. Keeping the lemon lovers like me in mind, a luscious lemon version was inevitable.
The creamy, tangy lemon buttercream frosting goes particularly well with this beautiful lemon cake too.
Am I done with Velvet Cake recipes yet? Maybe not, I have an idea that might work out for yet another version. Here's a clue... think pink. 🙂
Update: That pink version is now posted as Raspberry Velvet Cake!
Looking for more Velvet Cakes?
Be sure to check out all of the other recipes in the Velvet Cake Collection too!
I generally bake this cake in round 8 inch pans or 9 inch Aluminum Cake Pans but the recipe can also be made as a sheet cake in a 9 x 13 baking pan
I've found that the 9 inch pans may bake up a little quicker so be sure to check it 5 minutes early.
Depending on whether you use glass or not, the 9x13 size could take a few minutes longer. Just let the toothpick test be the final judge.
Lemon Velvet Cake as a birthday cake, anniversary cake or wedding cake.
2018 update: Since this recipe was first developed several years ago, I have heard from countless people who have made this cake for every possible occasion from an Easter Cake to a Mother's Day Cake. Wherever you find lemon lovers, this cake is sure to to be a hit.
However, I'll give one word of caution about fondant and wedding cakes. This is a very light textured cake, so if using fondant icing on a celebration cake be sure to use the thinnest layer you can.
Minimal stacking is also recommended unless you are using a weight supported stand. Too much weight can compress the light airy crumb structure of this cake.
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Lemon Velvet Cake
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.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups sifted all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups sifted cake flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- zest of two small or one large lemons, grated and finely chopped
For the Frosting
- 4 cups icing sugar, powdered sugar
- 1 cups unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon minced lemon zest, optional
- 2 tablespoon milk, approximately
Instructions
- 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.
- 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
- Beat the eggs in one at a time.
- Fold in the lemon zest.
- Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
- 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.
- 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.
To prepare the frosting
- Mix together the icing sugar, lemon zest and butter until it becomes sort of crumbly.
- Add the lemon extract and a little of the milk.
- Beat until smooth and fluffy, adding only enough milk to bring the frosting to a creamy spreadable consistency.
- Fill and frost the cake. Garnish with candied lemon zest if desired.
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.
- Bring one cup of water and one cup of sugar to a slow boil.
- Add the pieces of lemon zest and boil for about 15 minutes. Drain the lemon zest on a wire rack.
- When cool, cut them in strips and roll in fine sugar.
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Notes
Previous versions of this recipe have included twice the amount of frosting. In this recent update I've halved that to provide enough frosting for the middle and top as many people seem to prefer. If you want to frost the entire sides of the cake as well. please feel free to make one and a half or even two times the recipe. It depends on how much frosting is your personal preference.
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Recommended Products
Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
gAmount Per Serving Calories 538Total Fat 26gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 69mgSodium 278mgCarbohydrates 73gFiber 1gSugar 54gProtein 4g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
I made the lemon velvet and it stuck to the pan. It did not say in the recipe to grease the 9" cake pans but I did anyway. Do you think that is why it stuck? The cake is very moist and tasty. I would like to make again, but not sure what I did wrong.
The FIRST instruction says to grease and flour 2 nine inch pans.
Hi, I want to try out the recipes, I live in the uk so I am not sure what your cup measurements equate to, can you please provide measurements in grams or ounces
There are online convertors to help with this.
I am british and live in canada
Most uk kitchen shops sell a set of cup measures
Or pyrex jugs have cup measures on one side
Google it and you'll get the millilitre equivilent too
I live in the UK and have a lot of Canadian cookbooks. It's useful to note that the ml equivalent in a cup measure is volume, NOT the same as mls on a scale (weight), so it's worth using either cup/ml or scales with grams/mls and not mixing them up.
I dry cup = 8 ounces, or 250ml.
Grease the two pans with shortening. Then use a piece of round cut parchment paper on the bottom. If you grease the entire pan well with the parchment the cakes will come out a lot easier.
Love the recipe. For the icing/frosting I swapped the butter for cream cheese and I squeezed the lemon (pulp and all) that was left over from zesting into the mix...OMG
When in doubt, it's a good rule of thumb to grease your pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. You will never go wrong with that.
I have tried this cake and it is delicious! Since I have never found a strawberry cake that I like, I was thinking about trying to make this strawberry. Have you ever tried this? Maybe put in vanilla where it calls for lemon extract and strawberries in place of the lemon zest?
Get frozen strawberries. Thaw and strain to remove all liquid. You may press them thru a stainer. Add strawberries to cake. You can usr the liquid to flavor your icing.
Take a pound of fresh strawberries, puree them, then cook the puree down to almost a paste consistency. This intensifies the strawberry flavor without adding the moisture. All natural, no artificial flavors, and tasts great!
It says 11st grease & flour pan.
Do you need to measure the flour before or after you sift it that always confuses me
I spoon flour into the proper sized measure, level the top with the back of a knife. I sift after measuring most times.
Did you put parchment paper in the pan. That’s what the instructions said to do
Sorry, It should have read grease and flour the pans. I always add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of the pans as well. I've made the instruction more clear at the beginning of the recipe. Glad you liked it.
Why do you have to use parchment paper if you're greasing and flouring the pan? curious....
Usually at least in the bottom for easy release.
Yep easy release - I watched a baking competition and these bakers were asked to bake a cake. All of the bakers but one baker - greased, floured and used parchment paper - the aprchment paper was greased as well. The one baker decided not ot use the parchment paper - he said he was in a hurry - his result - when he attempted to release the cake it stuck. Instead of using two 9 inch round pans - how about a 9 x 13 inch cake pan. I wonder what the baking time - I plan on making this recipe for my husbands bday. I may have to do some research for the answer. Thank you so much Barry for sharing your recipe!
A 9x13 should be fine. Might be a bit longer baking. Rely on the toothpick test for best results.
OmGoodness!
This cake baked beautifully and I am so happy to have made this Lemon Velvet Cake! Delicious, light and moist!
I made this and it was delicious. I did cut the butter and powdered sugar in the icing recipe in half. It just seemed nuts to use a whole pound of butter for a 2 layer. Still worked great.
CAN I USE ALL SWEET BUTTER IN PLACE OF THE OIL?
No that will affect the unique texture of this cake.
This cake is amazing!!!! It was very easy to make and I didn't have any problems with it. It stays moist and fresh for several days.
Have you ever played around with a dark chocolate cake? I was wondering if I could use your white velvet cake and add melted dark chocolate baking squares?
An experimental chocolate version using cocoa is in the oven this morning. Stay tuned!
I did this cake and it's did not come out yellow it was a white cake with lemon flavor
I'd say the color will vary naturally as it does with the color of the lemons.
I used a few drops of yellow food coloring.My cake was yellow as a lemon! Just wonderful!!!
Barry, I think your answer should've read: The darker your egg yolks, the more yellow your cake.
I'm not a baker but want to try this cake. Do you measure the flours before sifting, or sift them first to yield 1 1/2 cups each?
Sounds delicious.
Sift then measure if the flour is not presifted. For presifted flour I measure, then sift to make sure it is well aerated.
I'm thoroughly confused. .. I could swear in a different review you said to use cups and not pack the flour but measure before sifting. Now in this review you say sift then measure. when do u do it one way and / or the other? And what's your technique plz for sifting then measuring ? That seems awkward and many dirty bowls..lol or it's probably just me.
Is that a typo or does it call for 1 full cup of vegetable oil? It is listed twice!
I made this cake last night and it was PERFECT. Absolutely perfect. I used parchment circles to line the bottom of my cake pans and the cakes popped right out. THe only thing I did differently was made a lemon cream cheese frosting instead of buttercream. Thank you!
Do you happen to have the lemon cream cheese recipe on the website? I'm gonna check right now since I have a block or cream cheese in my fridge waiting to be used sometime.
I'd just add regular cream cheese icing and add a little finely minced lemon zest to it.
That's fantasic. This recipe really has taken off in popularity.
Read it again Sibyl, you are misreading. It uses part oil & part shortening.
I really want to try out this recipe for all the rave reviews but can I use another substitute for shortening? Many thanks.
Try it with butter instead of shortening.
Can I just use butter alone, instead of the oil & shortening?
You ca but I find the shortening does contribute to a softer cake texture.
,I agree Barry , not only does it yield a lighter texture it also makes the cake super moist. I find no fault in this recipe.
I would like to know how to get my layers to come out the way the picture shows of this cake. Everytime I make layers the. Always has a hump in the ;middle. Is there a trick or method to this besides cutting the top of the layer. Please help!
I find thicker batters are the ones that tend to dome. I don't really have that issue with this recipe but I will slice the tops off the dome if I feel it's necessary on any cake recipe.