Lemon Hydrangea Cake

I made this cake for my Grandma for her 75th birthday party this week. She loves to garden and always has beautiful flowers every spring and summer so I decided to make her a cake full of pink and lavender hydrangea flowers. The cake itself was lemon, with blueberry preserves in the middle, and decorated with a buttercream icing with a hint of lemon. Happy birthday Grandma, I love you!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Zest of 2 large lemons
Juice of 1 large lemon (approx. 2-3 Tbsp.)
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line the bottom of two 8x8" or 9x9" round cake pans with a circle of parchment or wax paper and spray the pans with a non-stick cooking spray.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Fill the prepared cake pans with the batter and spread out the batter evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cake comes out clean with a few crumbs attached. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.

Once the cakes were cooled I mixed about 3 Tbsp. of blueberry jam with 1 Tbsp. of water and spread that over the bottom cake layer. Then I placed the top cake layer over the blueberry jam and iced the entire cake with the white lemon buttercream icing recipe below. To make the hydrangea flowers I dyed the buttercream cornflower blue and pink and piped flower petals onto the iced cake using a leaf tip. To finish it off I placed a silver sprinkle ball in the centre of each blue flower. Store the iced cake in the refrigerator.

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Lemon Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups butter, room temperature

3 and 1/2 cups icing sugar

Juice of 1 large lemon (approx. 2-3 Tbsp.)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy (about two minutes). Add one cup of icing sugar, and continue beating until well incorporated into the mix. Repeat with the remaining icing sugar until smooth. Add the lemon juice and vanilla, and continue beating until smooth. Add food colouring if desired and mix until combined. Spread out or pipe onto cooled cakes.

*Recipe by Brooke McMillan