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Elderflower Lemon Cake is a light and fluffy lemon cake topped with a floral-tasting buttercream frosting made with elderflower liqueur. Inspired by the Royal Wedding, this cake is perfect for any occasion! It’s simple to make and is delicious paired with a Summer Rosรฉ Sangria!
I’m always in the mood for cake! You can keep them plain and simple or make them more complicated (like it did with these roses!). In any case, they will ALWAYS be amazing! Whether you are making a cake for a wedding or just need something for a party this Peach Maple Yogurt Cake, Zucchini Chocolate Cake, or this Lemon Coconut Cake will be a perfect choice!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Elderflower Lemon Cake
- Flour – You can use regular all-purpose flour for the cake layers!
- Lemon – We’ll use the zest from 1 lemon and a tablespoon of juice to give the cake a bright lemon flavor.
- Butter – Used in the cake to give tons of richness and flavor and to make the buttercream frosting. Use unsalted sticks so you can easily adjust the salt level to your liking.
- St. Germain elderflower liqueur – This will give the buttercream frosting a light and delicious elderflower flavor.
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card below!
How To Make Elderflower Lemon Cake
- Prepare your ingredients. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then grease and flour two cake pans. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt, then set aside.
- For the lemon cake. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together sugar with lemon zest to bring the lemon flavor out more, then add in butter beating until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, lemon juice and vanilla. Lastly add in the flour mixing until just combined. Divide batter between prepared cake pans. Bake for 15 – 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on wire racks while you make the frosting.
- For the elderflower buttercream. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter, powdered sugar and salt together until smooth and fluffy. Pour in elderflower liqueur beating until smooth.
- Decorate. Frost and decorate the cake as you like!
Tips and Tricks
- Decorating ideas. You can leave your buttercream frosting white or you can add a few drops of red and brown food coloring gel to give it a dusty rose color. Try your hand at making buttercream rosettes to decorate the cake. Make sure to pipe them onto parchment paper then wait until they are super frozen before adding a tiny bit of frosting to the back of the roses and pressing them onto the frosted cake.
- Mix the lemon zest with the sugar. This REALLY helps to bring out the lemon flavor from the zest into the cake.
- Elderflower flavor. I used St. Germain liqueur, if you want a non-alcoholic option use homemade or store-bought elderflower cordial.
Recipe FAQs
I love to mix the freshly grated lemon zest with the sugar first. This helps the oils from the zest infuse with the sugar giving the cake a stronger lemon flavor. You could also add a few drops of lemon extract or extra lemon juice into the cake batter!
Elderflower has a light, fruity and floral flavor. It pairs really well with other light natural flavors like berries, lemon, pear and honey.
More Cake Recipes
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Elderflower Lemon Cake
Equipment
- 2 (8-inch) cake pans with rounds of parchment paper
- Stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment or electric hand mixer
- Microplane to zest the lemon
Ingredients
Lemon Cake Layers:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, white granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Elderflower Frosting:
- 2 sticks of butter, or 1 cup
- 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoon St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
Instructions
To Make the Cake Layers:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans. I also lined the bottom of my cake pans with rounds of parchment.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer, with the paddle attachment (alternatively, you could use an electric hand mixer), add the lemon zest and sugar. Mix on low until the lemon zest is mixed throughout the sugar (this really brings out the flavor in the lemon zest!). Add the butter and beat until fluffy, about 1 minute. Crack in the eggs and add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Mix until completely incorporated. Add the flour mixture and beat just until the ingredients are combined.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans. Transfer to the oven to bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, until inverting them onto cooling racks.
To Make the Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and salt; beat until smooth and fluffy, about a minutes. Pour in the elderflower liqueur and beat again until smooth, about 1 minute.
Notes
Tips and Tricks
- Decorating ideas. You can leave your buttercream frosting white or you can add a few drops of red and brown food coloring gel to give it a dusty rose color. Try your hand at making buttercream rosettes to decorate the cake. Make sure to pipe them onto parchment paper then wait until they are super frozen before adding a tiny bit of frosting to the back of the roses and pressing them onto the frosted cake.
- Mix the lemon zest with the sugar. This REALLY helps to bring out the lemon flavor from the zest into the cake.
- Elderflower flavor. I used St. Germain liqueur, if you want a non-alcoholic option use homemade or store-bought elderflower cordial.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
help! it sunk in the middle ๐
I can’t wait to make this for my birthday! I’m going to start practicing my buttercream rosettes today. How do you get them to stick to the sides? A dollop of frosting on the bottom? And if you freeze them do they stay firm so you can handle them better?
I put a teeny bit of frosting on the sides of the cake in order for the flowers to stick. Also I found that the biggest thing was to make sure they were super frozen, that way I could handle them and they wouldn’t melt. Freezer is your best friend!
I did it, and it was lovely! The flowers are a breeze after a few practice runs. (It is really hard to remember to keep the narrow end of the tip facing up!) I added a bit more elderflower to the frosting because I quite like the floral taste, and also a bit of lemon zest. It was a big hit!
Fabulous cake, thanks for sharing the post.
it is delicious look to see and really I am very excited to bake this cake. Thanks for the recipe! The drizzle of balsamic looks like a very nice touch and makes for beautiful presentation.
cakes are always a good idea, no matter what season it is.
Your elderflowers looks gorgeous as usual and I can see the difference here is that the flowers from Harry Prince’s wedding cake are fresh and real. But anyway both kind of flowers are so amazing!!
LEMON?! I LOVE any dessert that has lemon in it!
What a cute and delicious looking cake Adrianna…..LOVE it!
This cake, I can honestly say, I would have a hard time sharing it….LOL!
I hope that one day my buttercream flowers will look like yours, so perfect!
Have a nice day!
Hi Adrianna, thank you for the recipe, we made the cake and it was delicious! We used edelflower syrup and 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and it was really great. It made our royal wedding tv watching experience even better!
Love the cake! I wish I had your talent with the rosettes! And yeah, I’m planning on watching coverage of the wedding. I can’t help it, I’m just curious about the whole to do!
Waitโhow do you make the flowers for the top?! Wow!!!
Beautiful cake! And yes, I’m planning to watch the wedding!