Luscious lemon cake with lemon buttercream

A have a little secret - this past weekend was my birthday! Of course, I had to celebrate by making my own birthday cake. I thought for several weeks about what I should make. My college roommate told me about her dad making a lemon cake many years ago, and for some reason, that just stuck in my mind. Having a fall birthday usually means that I am surrounded by lots of fall flavors like apple, pumpkin and cinnamon. Well, I wanted to change that and decided to make a lemon cake.

This cake has a lot of bright lemon flavors since the cake and buttercream frosting both have fresh lemon juice. If you are a fan of lemon-flavored things, then this is the cake for you!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (I don't have cake flour and removed 5 tablespoons of flour and replaced it with 5 tablespoons of corn starch)
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 TBSP meringue powder
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 extra large lemons, washed thoroughly then zested and juiced separately
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 egg whites, beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F and prepare two cake pans.

In bowl of electric mixer, sift and add flour, sugar, baking powder, meringue powder, salt and zest of one lemon (I mixed this by hand so the dry ingredients wouldn't fly everywhere).

Add milk, oil, juice from two lemons, beaten egg whites and extract.

Beat on medium to combine thoroughly, about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.

Remove from mixer and stir with silicone spatula to thoroughly combine. Make sure there is no flour mixture left unincorporated at the bottom of the bowl.

Fill prepared pans 2/3 of the way full and bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 25-28 minutes for 8 inch pans).

Remove from oven, let cool 15 minutes in pan and then turn onto wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 TBSP meringue powder
• Tiny pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 extra large lemon, juiced

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combined shortening, butter, and half of extract and lemon juice, stirring on low until relatively combined.

In a separate bowl, combine sugar, meringue powder and salt.  Then add to mixer while sitll on.

Stir, scraping down sides of the bowl until thoroughly combined, adding more lemon juice as needed.  Add water if needed to reach desired texture.

Once cakes are completely cooled, even out tops of cakes if needed. Spread frosting in between the cake layers and frost the cake with the remaining buttercream.

Source:  Little D Down Under, who adapted it from Good Things Catered