Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream and Ginger cookies, a Christmassy Birthday Cake

Natacha Sanz Caballero Desserts and Sweets celebration, Christmas, cumpleaños, fiesta, Navidad, tarta, tarta de limón

Another birthday, yay! I’ve learned to embrace them, feeling blessed to be counting one more (thank you, Byron!). Because what’s better than adding one more year of experience to your biography? Spending one more year with your loved ones? Live life fully no matter what your age? So happy birthday to me, and to everyone who can count one more. To celebrate it, a super special cake: lemon layer cake with lemon curd buttercream and ginger cookies.

It’s Christmas, and I should be baking Christmas cookies, like most home bakers and nurturers. But I have a December birthday, and I bake a cake. To compromise, I decided to bake a festive looking cake, decorated with the most Christmassy of all cookies in my books, the gingerbread man. Doesn’t it look cute? I had to keep quite a steady hand to decorate the cookies, but I think it worked out.

Lemon layer cake with lemon curd buttercream and ginger cookies is a bit of an elaborated cake, like most layer cakes are. But I’ve learned to make the task more manageable by baking the cake one day, then making the frosting and putting it all together the next. this method works very well, because the cakes have to cool down completely before covering with the buttercream. Simply wrap the cakes in plastic wrap until ready to use the next day.

Also, in this case, even though I could have baked the gingerbread men cookies, I decided to go with store-bought ones, to lighten the work. The cake, surprisingly, is lemon, with a lemon curd frosting. I simply thought a gingerbread cake with gingerbread cookies was a bit too much, and since I love lemon, and it’s my birthday… I took another shortcut, store-bought lemon curd. Why not? There are some very good brands out there, and anything to make the task of an elaborated cake a bit easier. I wanted to spend more time decorating it, and the shortcuts I took were ones that didn’t lower the quality and flavor of a homemade cake. It turned out not only beautiful, but delicious —light and decadent in equal measure.

So go ahead, don’t be intimidated and make your own cakes. You’ll be surprised how fun they are to make, how much easier it is than you thought, and how hard it will be to go back to store bought birthday cakes.
I leave you with some photos of my birthday celebrations —because there were a number of them! I feel so blessed.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

LEMON LAYER CAKE WITH LEMON CURD BUTTERCREAM AND GINGER COOKIES

Tarta de Limón con Ganache de Limón y Galletas de Gengibre

Author: Natacha Sanz Caballero, Mama Ía blog

Ingredients

• Makes a 4-layer 9-inch round cake

For the cake:

• 8 Tbs unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 3 cups flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 6 large eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice approx. 2 medium lemons
• 1 Tbs finely grated lemon zest approx. 2 medium lemons

For the buttercream:

• 1 1/2 cups butter softened (3 sticks)
• 6 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup lemon curd

For decorating:

• Mini gingerbread cookies
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 Tbs water
• Rosemary sprigs

Instructions

Make the cakes:

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
• Butter the sides and bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper disks cut to size. Butter the parchment paper and dust with flour.
• Combine the butter and the milk in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat until the butter is completely melted. Set aside.
• Sift the flour and the baking powder over a medium mixing bowl.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, or a stand up mixer, whisk the eggs with the salt. Slowly add in the sugar, then the lemon juice and lemon zest, while continue whisking at medium-high speed until well mixed, about 3 minutes.
• Slowly add the warm milk and butter mixture, while whisking gently.
• Remove the bowl from the stand up mixer and add the flour mixture in a few additions, whisking until completely incorporated. The batter will be slightly liquid. Divide the batter evenly into the two cake pans, tap the pans gently on the counter to level their content, and place in the oven. Bake until the cakes have risen and their surface is golden, about 25-30 minutes (if you’re not sure of their doneness, insert a toothpick in the center and make sure it comes out clean).
• Use a small knife to detach the cakes from the sides of the pan, then invert the cakes onto cooling racks. Immediately re-invert the cakes and let cool completely.

Make the buttercream:

• Sift the icing sugar over a bowl large enough to hold it.
• In the bowl of a stand up mixer, beat the butter for about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add 1/2 cup of icing sugar, then beat on low speed first until incorporated. Continue this way until all the sugar is incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and the lemon curd and beat until all ingredients are fully incorporated and the buttermilk is smooth and light.

Decorate the gingerbread cookies:

• Mix the icing sugar with the water to make the royal icing (adjust with more sugar if necessary so the icing is not too runny). Fit a plastic icing bag with a number 1 or number 2 icing tip, fill with the royal icing, and with a gentle but steady hand, decorate the cookies to your liking.

Assemble the cake:

• Remove the paper disks from the cake bottoms. With a serrated knife, cut off the tops of the cakes until leveled. Then slice each cake horizontally into two rounds. You will end up with 4 equal cake rounds. Place one cake on a plate, cut-side up. Spread about 3/4 cup of frosting with an offset spatula. Top with a second cake, cut-side down. Repeat the process with the frosting then top with a third cake, cut-side up. Spread another 3/4 cup frosting and top with the last cake layer, cut-side down. Spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake, using a frosting blade to evenly spread the frosting over the sides of the cake. Remove excess frosting from the sides of the cake to give it the naked effect.
• Decorate with the cookies and with the rosemary sprigs.

Notes

• The cakes can be wrapped in plastic and assembled the next day
• For the trees, place the rosemary sprigs upside down
• Spread a bit of buttercream on the back of each cookie so they stick to the cake more securely