Lemon cake with Buttercream Icing

Once again I had an abundance of lemons. I decided to make a lemon layer cake with a new buttercream icing recipe that I've wanted to try. The buttercream recipe was from my new Amy's Bread cookbook. The secret ingredient in the icing is "poured fondant". I purchased the container of Ateco powder mix for making the poured fondant. The recipe on the back of the container is specifically for petit fours. The Ateco container cost me about $8.00 and it sure did not result in a lot of poured fondant!!! It was a lot of money for a little amount. I will probably get about 3 batches of buttercream out of it. I followed the icing recipe exactly and it really did not taste that much different than regular buttercream icing (American buttercream). But don't get me wrong, it's absolutely delicious icing. It might be a tad bit smoother than regular buttercream but not worth purchasing an $8.00 container of poured fondant for. The lemon cake recipe is from Joy Of Baking online. It is a "good" recipe for lemon cake but not excellent. Not very lemony.












Lemon Frosted Lemon Cake Recipe

1 cup

(226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Zest of 1 large lemon

2 cups (280 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) springform pan and then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale in color (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and then add to the batter along with the lemon juice. Mix only until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool, then gently remove the sides of the pan.

Buttercream Icing
adapted from The Sweet Side of Amy's Bread

Ingredients

• Confectioner’s sugar 7½ cups
• Unsalted butter, slightly softened 1⅓ cups
• Poured fondant generous ⅓ cup
• Milk, whole ¼ cup
• Vanilla extract 1 tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon
• Kosher salt ⅛ teaspoon
• Red food coloring 1 to 2 drops

1. In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat 600 g/21 oz./5½ cups of the confectioner’s sugar, the butter, fondant, milk, vanilla, and salt in the bowl until they are smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes; start out at low speed and increase the speed to medium when the powdery sugar has been moistened. Gradually add the remaining sugar 1 cup at a time until the frosting is of good spreading consistency, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl often. You may not need to use all of the sugar. The frosting should be stiff enough to hold its shape but not so stiff that you’ll be unable to spread it easily on the cake. Add 1 or 2 small drops of red food coloring and continue beating the frosting on medium-low speed until you have a uniform pale pink color. This frosting is heavy but it should still have a fluffy quality.
2. The frosting can be used immediately or stored in an airtight container at room temperature, but it should be used within 3 days. You may have to stir it briskly to re-fluff it if it’s been sitting for a long time.