This weekend we celebrated my friend Abby’s 29th birthday, and I leapt at the chance to try making a two-tier cake. Her husband Nathan requested something “blueberry and limoncello, and not too heavy,” so I set about developing stuff. I landed on this Blueberry Layer Cake with Boozy Lemonade Frosting, and I must say, it is GOOD. Rull good. The blueberry sponge was fluffy and tender, the homemade lemon curd filling was sharp and tangy, and the limoncello buttercream was light and creamy. Please get in your car, go buy some lemons and bake this beauty ASAP. You will not regret it.
Also, I know these aren’t cupcakes, but they have limoncello, so we’re going to go ahead and call this recipe Boozey Bakes Volume 2.5.
This cake was extremely fun to make, but it was also educational and not without its moments of comedic errors. If you’re here from pinterest looking for a recipe and justifiably uninterested in this comedy of errors, just keep scrolling. If you want to have a laugh at my expense (who doesn’t?), read on.
Uh oh moment number one: the blueberry cake batter that was so big it ate my kitchen.
Listen. I always thought I was smart. I mean, I got good grades in school. But apparently I’m not smart enough to understand that if I need enough batter to make six layers of sponge, it will be such an enormous amount of batter that I should probably just go ahead and use the big mixing bowl. If you want to avoid scooping egg whites off of your counters and scraping it off of your shoes, please learn from my mistakes and use your biggest bowl. This will help you avoid having to cracking and separating nine MORE eggs after cleaning the entire kitchen and getting two extra mixing bowls dirty.
*Note: If you want to just make a single tier cake, just make 2/3 of this recipe. The math for that SHOULD be easy, and a 7-inch layer cake will easily serve 12 people
This sponge recipe is a little bit weird, but for good reasons. I wanted it to be light and fluffy, but it also needed enough structure to keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom. So, I started with my lemon blueberry cupcake recipe and subbed in AP flour for the cake flour so that it would have some structure. I also separated all of my eggs and whipped up the whites separately to add some air before folding everything together. You will be folding A LOT because there is just so much mixture. It is probably best to divide the mixture in two before folding. I did do it all in one, so it is definitely possible, but my arm was sore, I had to use a huge bowl, and it took about ten minutes.
Uh oh moment number two: ….how am I supposed to transport this?
After consulting with my bestie Katie’s mom, affectionately called Mama B, I now understand that most professional bakers finish assembling their cakes AFTER delivering all the tiers to their final destination. This allows them to drive the cake all over town without worrying about it turning into a mess of frosting or falling into various hard-to-clean crevices in the vehicle. I, of course, did not do this. I gleefully watched a bunch of youtube videos about using cake dowels and stacking tiers, and put all the finishing touches on the cake in the comfort of my own kitchen.
After letting it chill for a while, I took pictures, admired it, and sent photos to my mom and my friend Jake for validation, all while feeling quite self-important. (I made a TWO-TIERED cake, look how special I am!). I then realized three things: I didn’t have a cloche anywhere CLOSE to big enough to cover this cake. Matt and I had to drive thirty minutes across town using multiple highway loopedy-loop thingies. And I was going to have to travel in our tiny prius with this massive cake balanced on my lap while the bright sun slowly melted the lemonade buttercream.
It was an adventure, let me tell you.
I really hope that bright blue buttercream comes out of my favorite shirt.
The other elements of the blueberry layer cake with boozy lemonade frosting:
The blueberry sponge is infused with lemon zest (and blueberries of course), and is a great base for the other elements of this cake.
I can’t resist showing off my newfound ability to make lemon curd, so of course I had to use it in this recipe. You can absolutely use store-bought curd, however, so you do you. If you want to make homemade lemon curd, my recipe can be found here.
I only included the curd in one layer of each tier because I was a little worried the lemon flavor would be overwhelming, so I did a straw poll to figure out if it should have been in all four filling layers. 3 people told me it was perfect, three people said something along the lines of “what’s lemon curd?” and two people said they wanted more. Helpful, guys. So, who knows? Better to go with your own preferences. If you love lemon, there’s definitely enough in this recipe to put in every layer.
I also brushed only one of the three sponge layers in each tier with limoncello, but I wished later I would have brushed all of them to reflect the limoncello flavor in the frosting, so my recipe now says to soak all of them. However, use your best judgement. Baking for kids? Maybe skip that step.
The frosting is an Italian Meringue Buttercream, which is sort of a mash-up between marshmallow frosting and traditional American buttercream. It is a little time-consuming to make, but it is definitely worth it. This cake needs something light and airy, and this creamy frosting delivers. It is also a great vehicle for the limoncello.
A Celebration Cake: I’m ready to get back to my life.
Matt and I have really been cautious throughout the entire pandemic. We went months without seeing our friends. We cancelled our wedding. (Twice.) I didn’t see my parents for maaaaany months because my Mom is just so high risk. We continue to wear our masks and social distance because we want to help keep other safe. HOWEVER, we are very thankful because most of our friends are teachers, and we are all now eligible to be vaccinated! Almost everyone at this birthday party has had at least one shot, and it was SO GREAT to feel like we had some part of our past happiness back.
One of the primary reasons I love to bake is because I like to feed the people I love. I can’t wait to have more reasons to bake celebration cakes soon.
Interested in ordering this cake or any other recipe from Kelly Likes to Bake? Drop my an email at kellylikestobake@gmail.com
I hope you all enjoy this recipe and have reasons to bake (safely) for the people in your life soon!
Recipe time: Blueberry Layer Cake with Boozy Lemonade Frosting
Blueberry Layer Cake With Boozy Lemonade Frosting!
Course: Dessert24
servings1
hour30
minutes30
minutesIngredients
- Blueberry Lemon Sponge
2 2 Cups butter
450 g granulated sugar (for cake mix)
1.5 t salt
9 eggs, whites and yolks separated, room temperature
Vanilla paste from 2 vanilla beans
Zest of 2 lemons
725 grams AP flour
4 t baking powder
360 ml whole milk, zapped in the microwave until room temperature
225 g granulated sugar (for egg whites)
2-2.5 cups blueberries (to bake into the cake)
- Limoncello Italian Meringue Buttercream
9 egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
600 grams granulated sugar, divided into two equal portions
1 cup water
½ cup limoncello
2 t lemon extract
Pinch of salt
4 cups of butter
50 g (about ¼ cup) powdered sugar
Food coloring if desired
- For Assembly
1 cup lemon curd, either homemade or store-bought
1 cup blueberries
¼ cup limoncello
Sprinkles if desired
½ cup yellow candy melts
¼ cup cream
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- First, make the sponge. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, a few at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla from the vanilla beans (or sub in 2 t of vanilla extract) and the lemon zest.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour and baking powder. Measure out your milk and zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixer, and stream in half of the milk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the milk. Mix until just combined. Your mixer will be FULL. If you need to finish this mixing by hand, that’s ok.
- In a separate bowl, use a hand whisk to whisk up the egg whites to very soft peaks. Keep whisking, adding the rest of the granulated sugar one tablespoon at a time. It will slowly become stiffer and shiny.
- Fold together the cake batter and egg whites. You have some choices when baking this. If you have the right size cake pans, you can bake three six-inch cakes and three eight-inch cakes. Most people only have 8-inch pans, though. So, prepare your three 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray and parchment paper. Prepare a half-sheet pan with cooking spray and parchment paper. (You will cut your six-inch cake rounds from this.) Fill all four vessels with the cake batter, smoothing out and trying to keep everything about the same level. Sprinkle the blueberries across the top of all four cakes, pressing them lightly into the batter.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, let sit ten minutes. Take the rounds out of the cake pans. Cool everything completely. When the sheet cake is cool, cut three six inch rounds from in, using a cake ring or a knife.
- While the cakes are baking, start making your frosting. Pour the egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Put half of the sugar and the water in a saucepan and heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. When it starts to bubble, turn the stand mixer on medium high. When the egg whites are frosty, add the cream of tartar. When you have soft peaks, start adding the rest of the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. It should start to get stiff and shiny.
- When you have added all the sugar, remove the sugar syrup from the stove. Pour it into your meringue, very slowly and steadily, aiming for the side of the bowl. Do NOT pour it directly on the whisk. Keep whisking until the meringue is cool; this could take as much as thirty minutes. Don’t worry, your meringue now has so much sugar that it will not over-whisk.
- Start adding your butter, one tablespoon at a time. This is a scary step. The frosting could start looking soupy and weird. Just have faith and keep adding the butter, whisking the while time. It will eventually form a nice smooth buttercream, but you have to go through the soupy phase and a strange broken-looking stage first. When it starts to look well-formed, add your limoncello, lemon extract, and powdered sugar. Add food coloring if desired.
- Assemble your cake, using the method in the video above. The order should be: cake layer, brush with limoncello, buttercream, lemon curd, cake layer, brush with limoncello frosting, lemon curd (if desired), blueberries, cake layer, brush with limoncello, cover the whole cake. Do that process to both tiers. Let the two tiers chill COMPLETELY in the fridge. Stack your tiers using cake boards and dowels. If you want to add a yellow drip, put your candy melts in a microwave-proof bowl. Heat them until melted, thirty seconds at a time, stirring between every microwave interval. Add the cream until it has reached drop consistency. You can test this on the side of the bowl.
- You can decorate however you want. Consider using blueberries, candied lemons, buttercream flowers, sprinkles, and lemon drops. The sky is the limit!
Recipe Video
Let me know: what is the first thing you are going to bake for a post-vaccination gathering?
