Lemon Raspberry Cake

Lemon Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Line the bottom of two 8 inch pans with parchment paper and butter and dust the sides. Set aside for later.
2. Carefully peel the yellow peel of two lemons. Try to avoid the white pith on the lemons.
3. Place the sugar and lemon peel in a food processor, and process until the peel is finely minced.
4. Place the lemon sugar in a large bowl.
5. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the same bowl with the sugar. Whisk to combine. These are the dry ingredients.
6. Place the melted butter, oil, vanilla, eggs, and lemon juice in a large jug. Whisk to combine well. These are the wet ingredients.
7. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until they are well-mixed. Take care not to over-mix the batter however.
8. Add the hot milk and stir until fully incorporated.
9. Divide the batter between the two 8 inch pans (about 18 oz / 515 g of batter for each pan).
10. Bake in the center of your oven for 25 minutes, rotating the cake pans once, halfway through the baking time. A toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean when the cake is baked.
11. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. Flip the cakes over onto a cooling rack and let them cool completely.
12. Once the cakes have cooled down completely, cut any uneven surfaces to make the cake tops smooth and evenly-tall.

Lemon Curd filling

1. Make 1 batch of lemon curd according to the recipe here. Let it refrigerate overnight.

Raspberry buttercream

1. Put 2 - 3 paper towels on a plate and spread the frozen raspberries on them. Keep the plate in the fridge overnight to let the raspberries thaw out and soften. Excess moisture will be absorbed by the paper towels.
2. Crush the raspberries (they will be soft enough for this), and measure about ⅓ cup of the packed raspberry “puree”. Transfer this into a bowl and mix the cornstarch into the raspberry. Set aside.
3. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. With a whisk attachment, whip the butter until creamy and white in color, for about 3 - 5 minutes, on high speed (not maximum speed). Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go, so that all the butter is whisked.
4. Add the salt and vanilla, and whisk further until the butter-cream mix is light and fluffy (for a couple of minutes).
5. Lower the speed and add the confectioner's sugar, a little at a time, and incorporate all the sugar into the butter-cream mix. Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go.
6. When the sugar has incorporated into the butter, increase the speed and whisk on high for about 2 - 3 minutes until the frosting is lightly fluffy and soft. In the final minute, add the raspberry-cornstarch mix, and mix it into the frosting.
7. Optional - before mixing the raspberry into the frosting, remove about ¾ cup of the plain frosting and color it with a little yellow food coloring to create an ombre look for later.
8. Place the raspberry buttercream in a large piping bag with a 1 cm round piping tip attached.

Assembling the cake

1. Place 1 cake layer on a serving tray. Make sure the top of the cake is facing up.
2. Pipe raspberry buttercream along the edge of the cake to create a "wall" of raspberry frosting. Fill the middle with lemon curd and spread evenly.
3. Place a row of fresh raspberries on the lemon curd, along the edge (optional).
4. Top with the second cake layer (with the top of the cake facing down this time, so that you have a very leveled surface on top).
5. Apply a very thin crumb coat on the cake with the buttercream. You can use raspberry buttercream or plain buttercream for this purpose (I used plain buttercream for the cake in this post). Make sure to have straight sides and a clean surface on the top of the cake.
6. Refrigerate for about one hour (or freeze for a few minutes) until the crumb coating has set.
7. Frost the cake over the crumb coating with the raspberry buttercream frosting. Using an offset spatula, make the surfaces smooth. Optionally, you can apply dots of yellow buttercream and create an ombre look as well.
8. Top the cake with buttercream swirls. Refrigerate until ready to serve.