This 6 inch sunshine citrus cake cures the cold weather blues with bright flavor, a light and springy cake crumb, and creamy whipped frosting. This whipped frosting is lightly sweetened, so it doesn’t overpower the cake’s tangy citrus flavor. Use lemon, orange, and/or lime juice and zest in the cake batter and don’t forget the homemade lemon curd!
This is Sunshine on a Cake Stand
I endlessly tested this cake recipe during a week of freezing rain and ice, taste tested the final version with a few friends as snow fell outside, and photographed the cake on a cold day with 40mph wind slamming against my window. And so we’re calling it sunshine citrus cake because nothing is more fitting as we yearn for warmer, brighter days ahead!
Sunshine Citrus Cake Details
- Flavor: If you love the sweet, sour, and refreshing flavor of fresh citrus fruits, you will fall in love with today’s cake recipe. Cream butter and sugar together for a minute before adding fresh orange, lemon, and lime zest. In this creaming step, we’re infusing flavor right into the base of the cake. Add fresh-squeezed juice into the batter when you add milk. We’ll also prepare fresh lemon curd which you’ll mix with whipped frosting to fill the cake. You have control over the citrus used, so if you want to skip the orange—go right ahead! You can also add grapefruit, use blood orange, or stick with plain lemon.
- Texture: The crumb is light and springy, but still holds up nicely to the creamy whipped frosting.
- Size: This is a 6-inch 3 layer cake. 6 inch cakes are massively popular right now because they’re a more manageable size. If you have a small family or gathering, there’s not as much leftover plus the smaller size makes for easier assembling, decorating, and serving. If you don’t have 6 inch cake pans, they’re a wonderful size to consider. I use and love (affiliate link) these 6-inch pans. And if you visit my 6-inch cake recipes page, you’ll find dozens of recipes to try!
- Ease: Even though the round layer cake is a smaller size than a traditional 9-inch cake, there are a few steps requiring your focus including making the lemon curd, carefully whipping the frosting, and applying a crumb coat.
Three Parts to Sunshine Citrus Cake & Why This Recipe Works
This recipe combines citrus cake layers, a lemon curd-infused whipped frosting filling, and plain whipped frosting around the exterior.
- Lemon Curd: Have you ever made lemon curd before? If you’ve prepared lemon bars or lemon meringue pie, you’ve tasted something like it. Lemon curd is a deliciously tangy, creamy, and sweet topping you make on the stovetop that you can pair with scones, quick breads, crepes, and so much more. Homemade lemon curd tastes approximately 1,000x better than store-bought and you only need 5 ingredients to make it. (And all of those ingredients are also needed in the cake! How convenient!) Prepare the lemon curd first because it must cool and thicken. Do you want to use other citrus in the curd? See recipe note below. The pictured cake has orange zest in the curd.
- Citrus Cake Layers: The cake recipe comes from my perfect lemon cupcakes and lemon blueberry cupcakes. The batters are nearly identical except today we’re using a little more flour, plus a combination of citrus and infusing citrus zest into the creamed butter/sugar mixture. Most cupcake recipes yielding 12-15 cupcakes make the perfect amount of batter for a 3 layer 6 inch cake. One dozen cupcakes usually takes about 3-4 cups of cake batter, which divides perfectly between 3 6 inch cake layers.
- Whipped Frosting: Have you tried this not-so-sweet whipped frosting yet? Now is your chance. We’re mixing some of the frosting with lemon curd, which will be the cake’s filling.
For Anyone Interested in the Recipe Testing!
I started with my lemon layer cake recipe. This is an older recipe published on my website and over the past year, I modified it by using smaller cake pans (for thicker layers), more leavener (for fluffier, taller cakes), and whole milk instead of buttermilk (less acidity). You can see those changes in the recipe now. But once I started substituting some lemon zest/juice for other citrus, the flavor disappeared. I find that cake is best as lemon. Period.
I continued testing white cake batters with cake flour and egg whites. (Ingredients I love using in my fluffy white cake.) Results were disappointing. I do NOT want you to use cake flour in this recipe because somehow—and I learned this from multiple rounds of testing—cake flour cannot hold up to the fresh juice unless you add more chemical leavener than you think you need (which can affect the taste) or use less liquid (which produces a thicker batter and denser cake). Using only egg whites dried out the cake and overall, I couldn’t get enough citrus flavor into such a large cake. I guess I have high citrus standards!
Lemon cupcake batter and 6-inch cake pans to the rescue. What a triumph.
Step-by-Step Photos
Make the lemon curd and then let it cool and thicken completely:
I like this cake flavored with a variety of citrus. You will have between 3.5 – 4 cups of batter and it will be slightly thick with some small lumps:
Prepare your 6 inch cake pans by lightly greasing them, lining each with parchment paper rounds, and then lightly greasing the parchment paper. I just use nonstick spray.
After the cakes bake and cool, prepare your whipped frosting with just 4 ingredients—cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. You will have about 3.5 cups of frosting. Stir 3 Tablespoons of your lemon curd into just under half of your frosting:
The lemon curd portion of your whipped frosting is the cake’s filling. If you have leftover lemon curd frosting, use it on the exterior of the cake. Apply a crumb coat, which is a thin layer of frosting that “catches” any crumbs, and then refrigerate the cake. Chilling the filled crumb-coated cake establishes its structure. Without time in the refrigerator, your filled and frosted cake will fall apart.
Add the remaining frosting on your chilled crumb-coated cake and if you have any leftover, feel free to pipe some on top. You can even tint the frosting yellow, green, or orange with gel food coloring. The cake pictured above does not have those details, but you can see the piping here with a Wilton 1M tip:
Helpful Tools for Citrus Cake
These are products I use and love and the links below are affiliate links. Most (but not all) of these tools are optional, so you can still make the recipe without them.
- Double Boiler: Cook the lemon curd over indirect heat using a double boiler on the stove. Lemon curd may have a metallic aftertaste if you cook it in a metal double boiler. It’s a result of the eggs and lemon reacting with the pan, but is easily avoidable! Use a non-metal double boiler (this one has a porcelain insert) or the glass bowl option I mention in the recipe notes (but make sure it’s heatproof glass, like Pyrex).
- Silicone Whisk: You can get away without many of the items in this list, but I do strongly recommend a silicone whisk for the curd. Metal whisks can leave an aftertaste.
- 6×2-Inch Cake Pans: I use and love these 6-inch round cake pans. If you do not have 6 inch pans and still want to make this recipe, turn the cake into cupcakes. See detailed notes below.
- Citrus Zester or Grater: A good portion of flavor comes from the citrus zest in the lemon curd and in the cake batter, so this tool is a necessity. I use and love this citrus zester. A cheese grater on a fine grating setting or a microplane work too.
- Citrus Juicer: Of course you can just squeeze out the juice by hand, but if you love baking or cooking with citrus or enjoy fresh-squeezed juice, a citrus juicer is convenient!
- Cake Turntable: A cake turntable makes it easy to frost the sides of a cake when applying the crumb coat and final layer of frosting. You can watch me use it in the video below. The green one I use is no longer available.
- Bench Scraper: I like to run a bench scraper around the sides of the cake to smooth out the frosting. This works for any size cake. If you’ve never used one before to decorate a cake, you can watch me use it in the video below. They’re very handy!
- Icing Spatula(s): Use a small icing spatula for spreading the frosting between the layers and on top of the cake. I also use a larger flat icing spatula before using the bench scraper. Icing spatulas are optional, but if you decorate cakes and cupcakes often, they’re great tools.
- Small Cake Stand: I bought the pictured yellow cake stand from Home Goods a few years ago. Look for a cake stand that’s about 8 inches in diameter so it can fit the 6 inch size with a little room to spare.
That was a lot of information to prep you! If you made it down this far, you’re completely ready to begin this recipe. I hope you love this drop of sunshine.
See Your Sunshine Citrus Cakes!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
Print
Sunshine Citrus Cake
- Prep Time: 1 hour (plus lemon curd cooling)
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours, 20 minutes (includes cooling)
- Yield: serves 8
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sunshine citrus cake cures the cold weather blues with bright flavor, a light and springy cake crumb, and creamy whipped frosting. Be sure to set aside enough time to prepare the lemon curd in advance.
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 cup (134g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Cake
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons citrus zest (combination of lemon, orange, and lime or other, see note)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80ml) freshly squeezed citrus juice (combination of lemon, orange, and lime or other, see note)
Whipped Frosting
- 6 ounces (170g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (90g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream (very cold!)
- optional: sliced citrus fruits or citrus twists to garnish
Instructions
- Make the lemon curd: Fill the bottom pot of your double boiler with 1-2 inches of water. (Or use the DIY double boiler method listed in the notes.) Place on high heat. Once the water begins to boil, reduce to low heat to keep the water at a simmer. Place egg yolks, egg, granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt into the top pot of your double boiler. Using a silicone whisk (avoid metal because it leaves an aftertaste), whisk until completely blended and then continue to whisk as the curd cooks. Whisk and cook until the mixture becomes thick and is the consistency of hollandaise sauce or a really thick soup, about 10 minutes or when an instant read thermometer reaches 160°F (71°C). If curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk. Remove pan from heat. Cut the butter into 6 separate pieces and then whisk into the curd until butter has melted and combined. Pour curd into a jar or bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top so it is touching the top of the curd. This prevents a skin from forming on top. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Place in refrigerator to speed up cooling. Once cool, the plastic wrap can be removed. Refrigerate the curd for up to about 10 days or for longer storage, you can freeze the cooled curd for up to 3-6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before enjoying. Makes 1 heaping cup.
- Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease three 6-inch round cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. (If it’s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video & post.)
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula and then add the citrus zest. Beat on medium-high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Add half of the flour mixture (just eyeball it), half of the milk, and half of the citrus juice. Beat on low speed until mostly combined, and then add the remaining flour mixture, milk, and citrus juice. Beat on low speed until combined. Do not over-mix. You may need to whisk it all by hand to make sure there are no large lumps at the bottom of the bowl. The batter will be slightly thick with some small lumps. You will have between 3.5 – 4 cups of batter.
- Divide and pour batter evenly into cake pans. If batter appears to have bubbles, give the pans a light tap on the counter to pop them. Bake cakes for 18-21 minutes or until baked through. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done.
- Allow cakes to cool completely in the pans set on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove cakes from the pans and set them on a wire rack to cool completely. The cakes must be completely cool before frosting and assembling.
- Make the whipped frosting: In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed until creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract, and then beat on medium speed until combined and completely smooth (absolutely no lumps), at least 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to smooth out. Switch to a whisk attachment (if you haven’t already been using it). Turn the mixer to low speed and with the mixer running, carefully pour in the cream in a slow and steady stream. After all of the cream has been added, turn the mixer up to high speed and whip until thick and stiff peaks form, about 1-2 minutes. Do not walk away during this time and do not be concerned if your frosting takes longer to whip. You’re looking for a thick, airy consistency with stiff peaks. If your frosting appears soupy now or at any point you are working with it, it needs more whipping to introduce more air. If your frosting appears chunky or curdled, it’s over-whipped. To fix, stir 1 Tablespoon of heavy cream into the frosting by hand to smooth out again. You will have about 3.5 cups of frosting.
- Make lemon curd frosting filling: Spoon 1 cup of frosting (about 240ml) into a separate bowl. Stir in 3 heaping Tablespoons of cooled lemon curd. This will be your filling for the cake. Enjoy remaining lemon curd drizzled on the cake slices or as a topping on other baked goods.
- Assemble & crumb coat the cake: First, make sure you have enough room for the cake inside your refrigerator because it must chill at the end of this step and briefly in the next step as well. If the cake layers aren’t flat on top, carefully and slowly level them off using a large serrated knife. Discard (or crumble over ice cream!). Place 1 cake layer on your cake stand, cake turntable, or serving plate. Evenly cover the top with 1/2 of the lemon curd frosting. Top with 2nd cake layer and evenly cover the top with remaining lemon curd frosting (if you have extras, just use it on the exterior of the cake). Top with the third cake layer. Spread a very thin layer of regular whipped frosting on top and all around the sides of the cake to create a crumb coat. A bench scraper and small icing spatula are handy for this. Refrigerate uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Add remaining frosting on chilled crumb-coated cake using a small icing spatula or a larger flat icing spatula. Use a bench scraper, if desired, to smooth out the sides. Refrigerate the decorated cake uncovered for at least 30 minutes to help set the frosting. After that, if you used a cake turntable, you can carefully transfer the cake to a cake stand or serving plate using a couple flat spatulas.
- After 30 minutes in the refrigerator, the decorated cake is fine to slice and serve or sit out at room temperature for a few hours. Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: To make the lemon curd ahead of time or to freeze it, see end of step 1. The cake layers can be baked, cooled, and covered tightly at room temperature overnight. Making the frosting ahead of time can be tricky because it doesn’t sit well in the bowl overtime. Instead, make the frosting and use it immediately on the cake. After you finish decorating the cake in step 9, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes as instructed. You can extend this time up to 1 full day. After 2 hours, though, I recommend lightly covering the cake. (Note that covering this frosting can get messy and I haven’t found a workaround for that.) Let cold cake sit at room temperature for about 1 hour before serving.
- Freezing Instructions: Frosted cake or unfrosted cake layers can be frozen up to 2-3 months. To freeze the frosted cake, refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set the frosting, and then cover and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw your cake at room temperature.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Double Boiler | Silicone Whisk | Citrus Zester or Microplane | Citrus Juicer | 6-inch Round Cake Pans | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cake Turntable | Bench Scraper | Small Icing Spatula | Large Flat Icing Spatula | Cake Carrier (for storage)
- Eggs & Citrus in the Lemon Curd: I typically prepare lemon curd using 4 egg yolks, however I find the final consistency thicker when using 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg—that is reflected in the recipe above. You can make the lemon curd as written, but if you’d like to switch citrus flavors, I recommend a 1:1 substitution with lime juice and zest. If you want to make grapefruit or orange curd, I recommend only substituting half of the lemon juice/zest. Make sure you use fresh-squeezed citrus.
- DIY Double Boiler for Curd: If you do not own a double boiler, you can simply place a small heatproof glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water—you will cook the curd in the top pot/bowl.
- Best Citrus to Use in Cake: This cake is best with just lemon, just lime, or a combination of both or either of those with another citrus such as orange, blood orange, or grapefruit. I don’t recommend skipping the lemon or lime because other citrus flavors don’t come through very much on their own. I like using an equal combination of lemon, lime, and orange.
- Cream Cheese in Frosting: Do not use cream cheese spread and do not use the entire 8 ounce brick—you only need 6 ounces. Make sure it is full fat. I have best luck with Philadelphia brand cream cheese in this frosting.
- Amount of Cake Batter & Other Size Cakes or Cupcakes: This recipe yields between 3.5 – 4 cups of batter, which is helpful if you need it for different Cake Pan Sizes & Conversions. Because of its light yet moist texture, this cake is best as a layer cake or as cupcakes. I have not tested this as a 1 layer 9-inch cake. For a 3 layer 8-inch cake, I recommend making this lemon layer cake instead and scaling up the frosting by using one 8-ounce (225g) block cream cheese, 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 1 and 3/4 cups (420ml) heavy cream. Keep the lemon curd amount the same since this recipe makes plenty. Feel free to use a combination of citrus in that cake, but be warned that no flavor comes through quite like lemon. I strongly encourage you to keep that cake as a lemon flavored cake. For 1 dozen cupcakes, fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 18-22 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean when they’re done. After cupcakes cool, carve a hole in the center (like I do for these chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes) and fill with 1 heaping teaspoon lemon curd. Top with whipped frosting. Feel free to mix some lemon curd into the frosting, too.
Hi Sally and team. I do not have access to AP flour where I live, only cake and bread flour. Could I still make this work? Do you have any sub for AP flour?
Thank you!
Hi Ali, Though we weren’t fond of the results (see blue box about Recipe Testing above), you can absolutely try this recipe with cake flour instead of all-purpose flour (same amount). Hope you enjoy the cake!
This cake is amazing! The cream cheese frosting is not overly sweet but just right to compliment the zest and juices from the lemon, lime, and orange. Even though the centers of my 3 cakes collapsed (I needed a little more bake time), I went ahead and used the lemon curd frosting between the layers and frosted the outside of the cakes as directed. I will definitely make this cake again (and bake it a little longer next time!l
Can these layers be stored in the fridge for a day? Love this cake
Hi Annam, yes, they can be baked, cooled, wrapped tightly, and stored at either room temperature or in the fridge for a day. See the recipe Notes section for more make-ahead instructions. Glad you love the cake!
This is my favorite cake recipe ever! I would like to make this as a two or three tier cake for a friend’s wedding later this year.
(1) Would this work as a layer cake?
(2) Would it be okay for me to finish and freeze the frosted cake 3 days before the wedding? How long would it take to thaw out?
Thank you!
Hi Hannah, this batter would produce a lovely tier cake. You’ll have to scale up the recipe if you want to make a 3 layer 9-inch cake though. Check out my lemon layer cake. Now I do use 8-inch pans for that, but I’m sure you could 1.5x that recipe to make 3 thick 9-inch layers. I worry about the whipped frosting in this recipe, though. It’s not sturdy enough to support a tiered cake. It may be fine in the top tier, but for the bottom tier, something like Swiss meringue buttercream would be better.
This cake had amazing flavor! You have to like citrus (especially tart lemon) to enjoy this cake. If you want just a hint of lemon, or do not like tart, then this is likely not the cake for you. It was a bit dense for my preference (not like a pound cake, but still a tad dense), but I modified the recipe a bit (in an effort to make it less dense) so it’s possible that adding the cake flour made the cake less able to hold up to the juice. (I did 1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4tsp baking soda, and substituted 1 cup of flour for cake flour). Next time I won’t change anything and I’ll see how it goes. The whipped frosting was amazing , but Adding the lemon curd to a cup of it was out of this world delicious (my mouth is literally watering right now thinking about it).
I’d add lemon curd to the entire frosting, but it does think it out a bit and I’m afraid it wouldn’t hold up. But man would it be delicious!
I did a relatively equal mix of orange, lemon, and lime juices for the cake and I could really taste the citrus flavor in the cake.
This is hands down one of the best cakes I’ve ever made.
Took this to work and it was a hit!! Used the buttercream from the lemon layer cake and put some curd and buttercream between the layers.
How could I scale this to make a 10 incc cake? Is it possible??
Hi Ana! So glad you enjoyed it. Here is everything you need to know about converting recipes to different Cake Pan Sizes.
Thank you!!!!
The filling was underwhelming. I would probably would have enjoyed using the lemon curd as filling rather than adding a few tablespoons to the frosting. The citrus flavor from the lemon curd was muted by the frosting making the cake itself quite plain.
Furthermore the recipe makes way more frosting and lemon curd than the cake requires.
I might try the cake again substituting cake flour for all purpose the frosting and filling missed the “Sunshine Citrus” mark.
Fantastic cake, made it this past weekend for my sons birthday party. We were going for an orange creamsicle theme, so I just used orange zest and orange juice, no other citrus fruits. Instead of the curd and whipped frosting, I combined the orange cakes with your vanilla buttercream, it was delicious. Your cakes are always my go to, they’ve never failed me!
I made this recipe and did everything ahead. The frosting, cake and the curd made a day earlier. Frosted the cake the next day. However I could only get two 6 inch cake because that’s all the cake pans I have lol! The cake is thick, citrusy and moist! It still works! I love how it look stacked together. My daughter requested a lemon cake and we bake together. The lemon curd is just so dreamy and lemony! However I made swiss meringue buttercream because we prefer less sweet buttercream. The cake also freeze nicely. We are so happy with our cake and isn’t it wonderful the recipe can be viewed in cook mode so my phone screen won’t go dark every 30 seconds? :)) Thank you so much!
Hi Sally! I’m a religious follower of your recipes, but this seems to be my white whale! I can never get it right and I’ve tried FOUR times!
The frosting is perfect, the curd is perfect, but the cakes are dense and thin! No matter what I try (got new baking powder, flour, etc) nothing seems to fix it! I can’t figure out what it could be. I’m following the recipe to a T. Any suggestions to make it lighter? Thanks!
Hi Olive, thank you so much for trying this cake recipe! It can certainly be on the denser side. Though we weren’t fond of the results (see blue box about Recipe Testing above), you can absolutely try this recipe with cake flour instead of all-purpose flour (same amount). You could also adjust the baking powder and add some baking soda, which could help achieve a fluffier style cake. Though we have not tested this, you could try 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Hope this helps for next time!
I have never had a flop while using this website but unfortunately this recipe didn’t turn out well for me. I am a pretty experienced baker. The cake itself was pretty good, moist and had good flavor, but the frosting was a total flop which kind of ruined the recipe. It would not set despite following the recipe precisely! I had to throw it away and make a batch of buttercream instead. The buttercream was way too sweet with the lemon curd. My guests didn’t complain, but I did not enjoy! Not sure what happened to me but I wouldn’t try to make this one again. 🙁
Totally agree. The frosting and filling were unsatisfying for bright citrus flavor. I made a bunch of lemon curd just for 3 heaping tablespoons for the filling. 6 oz of cream cheese and 1 1/2 of cream was also too much for what was required to frost the cake. What a shame.
Delicious!! I made the cupcake version with the lemon curd inside – it was a winner. I really liked the frosting pairing where you got the flavor of a cream cheese frosting but lighter due to the whipping. In case anyone wants to know the frosting holds up to heat and humidity – no sweating melting of the frosting.
A lot of steps easy to follow well worth it. The citrus really comes thru!! I’m not the greatest when it comes to frosting/decorating a cake as you can see from pics but they will remember how good the cake tasted not how it was decorated.
Who knew I could make lemon curd? Soooo good. Thank you
Sally, I am so stumped! You are my go-to for all recipes for my baking business and none of them have ever failed me, so I’m convinced I did something wrong. This whipped frosting did not whip and never turned into frosting. I had to pivot last minute to your vanilla buttercream on the sunshine citrus cupcakes (which were AMAZING)! I know buttercreqm isn’t ideal on these but my order was due any minute and I was desperate for something I knew would work out. My frosting was very soupy after 1, 2, 5 and 10 mins. I used the whisk attachment. I used the correct measurements and temperatures. Any idea what I could’ve done wrong? I may use your lemon cream cheese buttercream if I can’t make this work. Thank you!
Hi Wendy! Were you using very cold heavy cream/heavy whipping cream, or by chance were you using something with a lower fat percentage? You’ll want to make sure it’s at least 36% milk fats in order to whip into frosting. Making sure it is very, very cold will help, too. If you wish, lemon cream cheese buttercream would also be fantastic here. Thank you for giving this one a try!
Hi Sally! Brick cream cheese is not sold in Ireland. What can I do? I am making a birthday cake today and I am not sure how to make the frosting now 🙁
Thanks very much for all your recipes, you are my go-to person!
Hi Laura! In the U.S. block cream cheese is very different than the tubs and is the only cream cheese that will work for frosting. We have been told by readers outside the U.S. that cream cheese in a tub is different from ours and can work, but we have not tested it. Please let us know if you try!
I made this for my cousin’s birthday cake and it was amazing. She loves lemon and when I saw this recipe I knew this was going to be perfect. I read the reviews and there were many comments about a dense cake but dense isn’t how I would describe it. A tighter crumb as they say on baking shows but still soft and not dry in any way. The citrus flavor is a star and the frosting and lemon curd filling are phenomenal. Also the 6 inch cake is underrated. I will make this again.