Light Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Attention lemon lovers! This Light Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting has the most moist and tender cake topped off with a delicious cream cheese frosting!
Equipment
- 9 inch round cake pan
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 cup cake flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 whole lemon rind grated
- 1/3 cup milk lukewarm
- 3 egg whites beaten until stiff
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 8 oz package of cream cheese
- 1 16 oz box confectioners sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice fresh squeezed
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 whole lemon rind grated for the top
- 1 lemon for garnish
Instructions
Lemon Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray cake pan with baking spray with flour. Set aside.
- Mix together cake flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well.
- Drop in lemon rind and mix.
- Add milk, alternating with the flour mixture and beat until incorporated.
- In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.
- Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter until incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from cake pan and move to a wire cooling rack.
- Cool completely. Once cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat butter and cream cheese together.
- Add confectioners sugar, lemon juice and pure vanilla extract. Beat until creamy.
Frosting the Cake
- Crumb coat the cake by adding a thin layer of frosting. Move to the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- Once crumb coat is set, frost cake generously. You can use a large star tip and a frosting bag to decorate the cake if desired.
- Garnish with lemon slices and freshly grated lemon rind.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
- Note: this cake should be refrigerated until closer to the time of serving because of the cream cheese frosting.
