This lemon layered cake with lemon curd is the perfect vegan lemon cake. Four layers of soft, moist lemon sponge is stacked with sweet, light lemon buttercream and zesty lemon curd. If you are a citrus fan (like me!), this is absolutely the cake for you.
I think that Lemon is such a good cake flavour. The zestiness of lemon cuts through a sweet sponge to make a perfect combo. This recipe reminds me a lot of the components of a lemon drizzle cake. It has a similar level of moist sponge and sweet sugar. However, this recipe is elevated with the use of lemon curd. The curd adds a super decadent flavour and texture which, in my opinion, makes this cake even better than a lemon drizzle cake!!
Lemon Curd
You can easily buy lemon curd from the shop but if you fancied making it it isn’t hard! You will need white sugar (½ cup), cornstarch (1 tbsp), lemon zest (2 tsp), lemon juice (¼ cup) and tumeric (for colour- ⅛ tsp). You will combine all of this on a medium heat in a saucepan until it is thick. Ensure you whisk consistently to ensure a smooth curd. Then add to a container and cool! The lemon sugar is super simple to make, by massaging lemon zest into sugar it releases the oils from the peel which makes the sugar zesty and delicious – see the ingredients below to get exact measurements for this!
Servings
This cake serves around 8-10 people. It is smaller in width but quite tall, which looks beautiful! To make this cake, I use silicone cake tins which are 5.5 inches. If you want a bigger cake to serve more people, you could increase the ingredients to whatever sized cake you want.
If you fancy having a go at another flavour, try some of my other layered cake recipes. Here are the links to my Biscoff Cake recipe, Carrot Cake recipe, Chocolate fudge cake recipe, White Forest cake recipe and Victoria sponge recipe!
I hope you love this lemon layered cake with lemon curd as much as I do. Let me know how you get on with this recipe in the comments section below.
G x
Lemon Layered Cake with Lemon Curd
Ingredients
- 400 ml Milk almond, unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
- 300 g Sugar caster, super-fine
- 1 ½ teaspoon Lemon extract
- 150 ml Vegetable oil
- 350 g Flour plain, white, all-purpose
- ¾ teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- ½ teaspoon Salt
For the Icing
- 300 g Butter
- 350 g Icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon Lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon Salt
For the filling
- 3 tablespoon Lemon curd 1 tablespoon per cake layer - see text above for recipe if you want to make
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/ 365F and line the bottom of your baking tins with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the milk and the apple cider vinegar. Put this to the side and allow it to curdle for a couple of minutes. Then add the oil and sugar. Mix it in until combined. In another bowl, sieve the flour, salt, baking powder, soda + salt and combine with a wooden spoon. Using a large spoon, add the dry mixture to the wet, whisking as you go.
- Pour your cake batter into two 6 inch tins, evenly (the exact ones that I use are linked in the text above this recipe). Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife comes out of the centre clean. Leave the cakes to cool completely.
- Once your cake is completely cool, slice the cake into four even layers. Before I do this, I cut the top off of the cake (which would have grown above the tin). Use a sharp knife to cut the top of the cake off whilst it is still in the cake tin. Use the edge of the cake tin to guide you, making this a super even cut. Once the top is off, I use a cake leveller to cut the four sponge layers. Using a leveller is WAY easier than using a knife. You can buy one here https://amzn.to/3bwXZdd (or via the link in the text above the ingredients). To use this, set your leveller to the height you want your cake to be, and then use it to cut your sponges.
- In a standing mixer, mix the butter for around 2 minutes, until creamed. Add the salt and extract and mix again for another 30 seconds. Then, add the icing sugar and mix on a low speed for around 30 seconds and then increase to a high speed, until combined and fluffy (around 4-5 minutes). If you think your icing is too soft you can always add more icing sugar. Equally, if you think your icing is too thick, add a tablespoon of water.
- Using a cake plate, layer all of the sponges up evenly with icing. Within each icing layer, create an icing barrier around the edge and place approx 1 tablespoon of lemon curd in the middle. Piping bags make this step easier.
- Using the piping bag with icing in, spread the icing around the edge and the top of the cake. Use a cake spatula to smooth it all out. If you don’t have these, you can do more of a rustic pattern with a knife. Place the cake in the fridge to cool for as long as possible after this step (ideally at least a couple of hours).
- Decorate the top of the cake in whatever way you want. I did icing swirls and then placed lemon and lemon biscuits on top. ENJOY!
Preeti
A very beautiful sponge 10/10.I added lemon zest too ,in love with the cake
georginaeliza
Ah thank you so much for this feedback! I am so glad that you like it. I love this cake so much too! 🙂