At this point, it should be assumed that I will bake my kid a ridiculous cake for her birthday and I will do it at the absolute last possible second.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Mila's actual birthday was Friday. I made it all the way to 7:00 pm before I realized I hadn't made her a cake, and then she went and made my life easy. I suggested we do "birthday ice cream" and save her cake for Saturday and she was all, "Ice cream? I'll take ice cream."
That's why we sang to her and had her blow out candles with a little bowl of ice cream. It was technically her choice and she was happy with the choice. But then on Saturday, I had to do some baking. Saturday was the better choice because I had told Mila she could have one friend over to play. One of her favorite classmates lives in our neighborhood and her parents are pretty on par with us in terms of how they're handling COVID-19. Basically, I knew it was safe to let the two of them play. There are others of Mila's friends that I can't say the same thing about, so it's not a "little kids are fine" thing. It's a "that family has truly been taking this seriously and avoiding other people as much as possible."
ANYWAY. Mila requested a lemon cake because she's Mila and she can't do things that other kids her age do. It worked out well because I happen to super love lemon cake. This particular recipe makes a denser cake, which was purposeful because I put lemon curd between the layers. And then there was lemon cream cheese frosting.
Basically, Mila had a really good birthday. And I had a really good weekend because I was the only person who remembered that there was leftover cake.
Lemon Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons lemon zest (approximately 4 lemons)
1/3 cup lemon juice (approximately the same 4 lemons)
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat your cake pans with butter and flour to prevent sticking. I used five really small pans - 5 inch - because I wanted a tall but small layered cake. You can use 8 or 9-inch pans as well, but you'll need to add a few minutes to your baking time.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and mix some more. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing constantly, then add the vanilla, buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Lots of mixing.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter side of the house and mix some more.
5. Fill your cake pans 2/3 full with batter.
6. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan then transfer to a cooling rack.