Sorry it has been over a week since my last post! Traveling makes it difficult to find a kitchen to cook, but I hope to be able to make more food this week while I am at my parent’s house. Last week I was in Missoula, Montana visiting Jeremy’s family. We had a wonderful time, and even got to see herd of buffalo up close! It was pretty amazing. I didn’t cook much, but I did make a cake for Jeremy’s parents’ 25th anniversary. I wanted to do marionberry frosting because we were in the northwest and marionberries are the big berry of Oregon. They’re a type of blackberry, so any sort of blackberry can work as a substitution for marionberries. I thought a light lemon flavor would go well with the berries, so I put just a teeny bit of lemon juice and grated lemon zest into the cake. The frosting came out really fluffy, and the cake was nice and airy too, very moist and sponge-y. I just really loved the textures of this cake, so whipped and lovely! And the flavors were delicious together.
Lemon Cake with Blackberry Buttercream
This light and airy cake is sure to become a party favorite! Please note, though, that the hydrangea flowers decorating the top of this cake are *NOT* edible and are for decoration only.
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
- 2 and 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon flake kosher sea salt
- 1 and 2/3 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 Egg Whites and 1 Whole Egg
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest finely grated
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup blackberries for garnish
Blackberry Buttercream
- 3 tablespoons crushed blackberries
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher sea salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups unsalted butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Instructions
Blackberry Buttercream
-
Bring the crushed blackberries and the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in the granulated sugar and salt, lower the heat, and allow the syrup to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer contents to a small bowl, and place in the refrigerator until the syrup cools to room temperature.
-
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium low speed until smooth. Reduce the speed to low, add the powdered sugar and the cooled blackberry mixture, and continue beating until the mixture is just incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the buttercream becomes light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Lemon Cake
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two 9-inch cake pans, lining the bottom of each one with a circle of parchment paper. Set them aside.
-
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
-
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar at medium low speed until fluffy and smooth. Add the egg whites and egg, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the honey, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest and mix until combined.
-
Mixing at low speed, add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then add half the milk. Repeat once more so that all of the flour mixture and milk are now in the batter. Mix until the batter just smooths out. Evenly distribute the batter between the two cake pans and place in the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of each one comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes.
-
Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting the cakes onto a wire rack to remove them from the pans and allowing them to cool completely. Peel off and discard the parchment paper.
-
Once cooled, use a long bread knife to cut the cakes in half horizontally so that you now have 4 layers instead of 2. Layer and frost the cake with the blackberry buttercream. Garnish with the fresh blackberries and serve.
-
NOTE: The hydrangea flowers on top of the cake pictured are for decoration ONLY. They are *NOT* edible flowers.
Recipe Notes
The hydrangea flowers on top of the cake pictured are for decoration ONLY. They are *NOT* edible flowers.
Ah! So nice to have you back. I always look forward to your goregeous posts! And this is no exception 🙂 Stunning cake, it looks very good! Enjoy your holiday!
I love whipped frosting! This cake is amazing, a true piece of art! You make me proud to be an LMU grad. haha
Beautiful! I have a question, are marionberries the same as blackberries?
Mmm, looks delicious! I love the color of the frosting, too. Good ol' berry stains. 🙂
How pretty and yummy! I love the color of your frosting!
Thanks everyone!
@Veronica: Yes, marionberries are a type of blackberry.
I recently discovered your blog.. I think through the Pioneer Woman's web deliciousness links, and just wanted to pop in and tell you how much I love your blog. All your photographs are beautiful, and your food looks so delicious. I always leave feeling ridiculously hungry and itching for my camera.
Such a pretty cake! I am loving the colour of your icing 🙂
Thanks you guys!!
@Jessica: I am so happy to hear that you're enjoying the blog, your kind words are much appreciated 🙂
This screams spring/summer dessert! Lovely! 🙂
What a gorgeous color for frosting! That cake sounds amazing. I'm not a super lemon fan, but lemon zest in cake batter is just so, so good.
MArvellous and elegant cake, looks stunning..
I have some frozen mationberries in the freezer but hust haven't found an evenue to use them, as yet. Someday I would love to try this fresh Oregon berry.
Wow! This is gorgeous and sounds absolutely delicious. I am bookmarking it. Not sure I can make it look as pretty as you did,though:)
What a beautiful, kind of unique cake!! Perfect for spring 🙂
Sues
I would never have thought of combining marionberry and lemon cake. It looks delicious. I'll have to try this sometime.
Eva, that's one gorgeous cake there. I LOVE the colour and how you used marionberry AND lemon together!
Wow! Beautiful!
Gorgeous cake! I wish I could lick the beaters!! The color is stunning.
What a huge success! The cake definitely looks incredibly fluffy and the hue of that icing – gorgeous!
Thanks everyone! It was quite fun to put together 🙂
The cake itself was absolutely delicious. The icing was a bit over-powered in taste by the butter, in my opinion. I would have liked to taste the blackberries a bit more. Also, the recipe yielded way more icing than was necessary. Overall, a tasty and unique combination. Thanks for the recipe!
I am glad you liked the cake! You could definitely add more blackberries to the frosting, the moisture would change the texture though so it would be less fluffy and buttercream-y and more dense and shiny. Sorry the frosting is a bit much, I'm always paranoid about not having enough frosting to frost a whole cake so I tend to make more than necessary, but I think there is definitely enough so I will cut down the ingredient list a bit. Thanks so much for the feedback 🙂
That is one gorgeous and light lemon cake…the berries and the beautiful pink butter frosting give it such a happy, and summery effect. YummQ
Also again…no marionberries here to find…looks like it's in the family of blackberries, which is abundent here!
I am new to your blog… how do I print your recipes out?
@Elisabeth: Thanks so much! Blackberries will taste just as good 🙂
@ Lori: You can print it out here https://sites.google.com/site/adventurescooking/lightly-lemon-cake-with-marionberry-frosting I don't have it available for all of my recipes yet, but am going through them to create printable versions. Hopefully they should all have a printable version within the next month.
The cake looks so tender, I can see it from the photo! And lemon and berries are a match made in food heaven – beautiful!
Let's Be Penpals!
from my homestead to your inbox