Elderflower Lemon Cake

4.67 from 3 votes

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 Rosé Sangria!

Prep Time1

Cook Time20

Total Time1 20

Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: American, British

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings: slices or 1 (8-inch) cake

Author: Adrianna Adarme

Cost: $20

Equipment

2 (8-inch) cake pans with rounds of parchment paper
Stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment or electric hand mixer
1 Large mixing bowl
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