If lemon desserts are your thing, you are going to love this Lemon Chiffon Layer Cake. The cake itself is light and tender, as chiffon should be, then layered with a creamy and tart lemon curd and piped with vanilla buttercream.
What Makes This Lemon Chiffon Layer Cake So Good?
I used the recipe for this lemon chiffon cake from King Arthur Baking. They are a reputable source and I have always had success with their recipes. This cake is perfect, light, and fluffy!
The cake is filled with a creamy and slightly tart lemon filling. This pairs perfectly with the fluffy lemon chiffon cake.
I used vanilla buttercream to hold the layers of lemon curd in place. The combination of the cake, the lemon curd, and the buttercream are the perfect combination for this cake.
Chiffon is usually made in a tube pan, but I decided on layers for this one. I used 3,6-inch round cake pans.
What Makes Chiffon Cake Different Than Regular Cakes?
The main difference is that a bulk of the leavening comes from the beaten egg whites. A chiffon cake is very similar to a sponge cake or even an angel food cake in that the leavening comes from beaten egg whites.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder- generally chiffon cakes do not have any chemical leavening, but as this recipe from King Arthur Baking turned out perfect I am going with it.
- Granulated sugar- I wouldn’t vary from granulated sugar in this recipe, it really does turn out so much better with white granulated sugar.
- Vegetable oil
- Water
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Grated lemon zest
- Lemon juice
- Cream of tartar
- Strawberries
Method For Making The Lemon Chiffon Layer Cake
- Sift your dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and then add the oil, water, egg yolks, vanilla, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Mix all these together.
- Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar.
- Fold in your egg whites carefully into the batter.
- Pour your batter into pans. I use 6-inch pans for mine.
- Bake the cake.
- Remove the cake from the oven. If you are baking this in a tube pan make sure to let it cool upside down.
- Once it’s cool, remove the cakes from the pans.
- Level the cakes. Layered cakes are always easier to stack if they are level.
- Pipe a ring around each layer of the cake with the buttercream. Fill the inside of that ring with lemon curd.
- Stack the layers together.
- Top with fresh strawberries.
Making Creamy Lemon Curd
Lemon curd is very simple to make, but there are a few tips and tricks to making it turn out well. So add your eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest to the pan.
Cook on medium heat until it is combined, and then add in your butter and keep whisking until the butter has melted and the mixture has thickened.
Strain your curd to remove any large pieces. Allow it to cool before using it in the cake.
Make sure when you cool it, you cover the surface with saran wrap. Lay it directly on the surface, this keeps skin from forming.
Lemon Curd is so easy to make ahead of time as it holds well in the fridge for about 2 weeks!
Notes On Chiffon Making
- You must sift your dry ingredients well. You don’t want to have clumps of dry ingredients when you are making this cake.
- Make sure that any utensils and tools you are using to beat your egg whites are completely clean. Otherwise, the egg whites won’t beat to the stiff peaks that you want.
- When making the lemon curd, I always strain it before I use it. Inevitably, you wind up with cooked egg whites in there, and you don’t want that to end up in your creamy lemon curd.
- The lemon curd is easy to make ahead of time, and you can totally make it the day before! This will save some time when you are making the cake.
How To Assemble A Layer Cake
Are you ready to try and assemble a multilayer cake? 2 layers isn’t a big deal, but when you get more than 2 layers, things can get a little tricky.
Here are a few things to remember- Start with level layers. The cakes with dome when they are baked. Nothing wrong with that, it is what they are supposed to do. The stack much easier when they are level. So, carefully cut across the top to remove the dome.
It doesn’t need to be perfect, but just more level than the dome.
I use the buttercream not only to hold in my lemon curd, but also to stabilize the cake.
When you aren’t serving the cake, keep it chilled! This will also help the layers to hold together.
If you will be holding the cake at room temp for more than an hour it might be a good idea to stabilize the cake with dowel rods.
Cut dowel rods, you can purchase them in the cake decorating section, to the height of your cake. Once it is assembled, push 2 or 3 rods through the cake, top to bottom.
This will keep the cake from wanting to slide from side to side and fall apart.
FAQ Lemon Chiffon Layer Cake
I feel like the cake holds well for 2-3 days, but not much longer than that. It has to be refrigerated and make sure to wrap it tightly, otherwise, the cake will dry out.
Any baked good that gets its structure from eggs will generally use a lot of eggs. This is especially true with this recipe. The yolks add to the tenderness and color, and the whites add to the fluffy texture and structure.
Absolutely not. If you aren’t into strawberries you could add another berry instead. I recommend raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries. If you want to leave this cake strictly lemon, that is fine as well.
The lemon curd holds well for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, which makes it a very easy part of this recipe to make ahead of time.
It can be… but I don’t think the quality is as good once it is thawed. If you aren’t as picky as I am, chill your cake all the way. Then wrap tightly with saran wrap. Move to the freezer. It can hold well for about 1-2 months.
Other Lemon Dishes
- Strawberry lemon scones
- Shortbread stamped lemon cookies
- Simple Lemon mascarpone fruit dip
- Lemon chamomile bundt cake
- Lemon drizzle cookies
- Blueberry lemon floats
- Lemon swirl loaf with kiwi compote
Lemon Chiffon Cake
Equipment
- 3, 6-inch cake pans or 2, 8-inch. I used 6 inch for mine.
- bowl for mixing
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or neutral oil I used avocado oil
- 1 cup water
- 8 eggs separated room temp
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Vanilla Buttercream
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- dash salt
- Milk I am leaving this as a variable as it will depend on how thick or thin you like your icing. I used about 2 tablespoons
Other Ingredients for layering
- 1 1/2 cups chilled lemon curd Recipe Included in this post
- 1-2 cups chopped fresh strawberries or other berries of choice.
Instructions
- Grease your 6-inch cake pans, then line the bottom with a 6-inch circle of parchment. I do this by sitting the cake pan on a piece of parchment, tracing it, and cutting it out.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Sift together your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
- Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In the well, add in your water, oil, egg yolks. vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice.
- Mix to combine.
- In a CLEAN bowl with a CLEAN whisk or hand mixer, whisk the eggs whites and cream of tartar to stiff peaks.
- Fold about 1/4 of the egg whites into your cake batter. Folding carefully.
- Fold in this rest of the egg whites until they are all incorporated. Be careful not to deflate the egg whites very much.
- Divide the batter between the pans, either 3,6-inch, or 2,8-inch.
- Move to oven and bake for about 30-45 minutes. The cake will be a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow them to cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes.
- Run a knife around the edges and remove them from the pan. These cakes were small enough I turned them out onto my hand, then right side up on the cooling rack.
- If that makes your nervous, set a cooling rack on top and remove that way.
- Allow the cakes to cool.
- Once they are cooled, start the buttercream.
- Add the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla to a bowl. Start by adding 2 tablespoons milk. Mix on high speed until well blended. Check the consistency. If you want to a add more milk, do it.
- Level your cake tops. What that means is cut off the top where is had domed to level it. This makes it so much easier to stack the layers, so don't skip this step!
- Pipe your buttercream around the top edge of the bottom cake.
- Fill inside the piping with the lemon curd. I used about 2/3 cup in mine.
- Stack the next 2 layers, repeating this process with each layer.
- On the last, top layer, top with your chopped strawberries.
Notes
- You must sift your dry ingredients well. You don’t want to have clumps of dry ingredients when you are making this cake.
- Make sure that any utensils and tools you are using to beat your egg whites are completely clean. Otherwise, the egg whites won’t beat to the stiff peaks that you want.
- When making the lemon curd, I always strain it before I use it. Inevitably, you wind up with cooked egg whites in there, and you don’t want that to end up in your creamy lemon curd.
- The lemon curd is easy to make ahead of time, and you can totally make it the day before! This will save some time when you are making the cake.
Creamy Lemon Curd
Equipment
- heavy bottom sauce pan
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 5 tablespoons butter cut in 1/2-inch chunks
- dash salt
Instructions
- Combine egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a pan. Mix well.
- Turn heat on medium, cooking, and stirring contantly. I prefer to use a whisk for mixing.
- Cook for about 2 minutes, then add in the butter
- Continue to cook and stir until the sauce has thickened.
- It is easy to burn, so make sure and stir constantly.
- Once it has thickened, strain through a mesh strainer.
- To keep a skin from forming on top, place a layer of saran wrap directly on the surface.
- Allow it to cool for about 15-20 minutes at room temp, then move it to the fridge. It is good for at least 2 weeks in the fridge.