A light vanilla cake filled with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream
It’s no secret that we love cake. Cake. Cake. Cake. It is a crowd favorite and always hits the spot. With that being said, we have been trying to branch out and experiment a little bit more and this cake is a result!
Sure, it is just your basic vanilla cake but the surprise is on the inside! Lemon curd. Is lemon curd intimidating? YES.
Why do you think we’ve lived on this earth for 28 years and haven’t made it until now? Scaredy cats. If you not ready to dive into the lemon curd world, you can certainly buy pre-made curd at the store and it works just as well. It will definitely save you some time.
You can certainly omit the lemon curd and just have a vanilla cake but the lemon curd is definitely worth it.
We also topped this guy with some assorted exotic fruits. Hello $7 dragonfruit. Spoiler alert: Dragon fruit doesn’t even taste good. It strictly looks good in pictures.
Happy baking!
Vanilla Lemon Curd Cake
Ingredients
cake
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
Vanilla buttercream
- 3 sticks butter room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp milk
Lemon Curd
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp butter
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line two 6 in pans with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk and mix until all combined.
- Divide batter between baking pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Lemon Curd
- Place a glass bowl over the top of a small sauce pan to create a double boiler. You do not want the bowl to touch the bottom of the saucepan. Put a couple of inches of water in the saucepan. You don’t want the bowl on top to touch the water.
- Boil the water and reduce to simmer.
- Put egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in the bowl on top of the sauce pan. Whisk continuously. Keep whisking until it thickens up. About 10 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat and add in the butter. Whisk until combined.
- Allow the curd to cool in the fridge.
Buttercream
- Cream the butter in a stand mixer. Slowly add in the sugar and beat until combined.
- Add in vanilla
- Add milk until desired consistency is reached
Assembly
- Level your cake layers and frost with a layer of buttercream. Pipe a buttercream border around outside. Spread lemon curd inside the border. Stack another cake layer on top and repeat.
- Frost outside of cake and decorate as desired.