Simple recipes have the biggest success among pastry shop clients! Easily recognizable taste and texture catch the eye and invite you to taste it. Meet our recipe of Lemon cake and feel the attractive power of basic and easy-to-make pastries!
Preparation time – 10 hours 20 minutes
Active time – 2 hours 30 minutes
Сalories – 353 calories per 100 g
A Lemon cake recipe by KICA brand chef Aleksandr Trofimenkov is here to make your day bright and special!
The recipe of the lemon cake is made with 4 textures, which will bring you a lot of fragrant lemon flavor and delicious fresh emotions.
During the preparation you will learn:
- Make a neutral glaze
- Make a poppy seed and lemon sponge
- Prepare a lemon gel
- Make a lemon cream
- Prepare a lemon mousse
- Make mixture for velour coating
- Assemble and decorate the cake
Chef Aleksandr starts the preparation of the Lemon cake with rich and moist sponge cake with lemon and poppy seeds.
Such a sponge is the base of the cake, which creates a unique combination of lemon flavor and the crunchiness of the poppy seeds. Feel free to use the recipe of the sponge for another pastry or bake it as a tea cake.
Next step of lemon cakes recipes preparation is making vibrant lemon gel.
Lemon syrup with the addition of pectin creates a special juice texture and brings the additional lemon flavor to the cake.
To make a lemon cake recipe tender in texture and seductive in cut, the chef creates a layer of lemon cream.
Thanks to the flavourful chocolate and custard base of the cream you will get an exceptionally creamy and moist texture with a fragrant lemon aroma. Lemon cake layers will be dipped in the airy mousse and after freezing, the chef will create a simple lemon cake design.
The combination of a chocolate velour coating and neutral glaze will create a realistic citrus peel coverage.
As a final touch, the chef covers the cakes with lemon mirror glaze, which catches the eye and seduces you to cut a slice.
Let’s go to the recipes for a Lemon cake!
Neutral glaze
| Total weight: 520 g |
100% |
| 210 g water | 42% |
| 5 g of lemon juice | 1% |
| 230 g of sugar (1) | 46% |
| 50 g of sugar (2) | 10% |
| 7 g of pectin X58 | 1%
|
- Mix water and lemon juice together. Gradually add the mixture of sugar (2) and pectin X58. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring it from time to time.
- Then, add the sugar (1) in portions and bring the nappage to a boil one more time.
- Take it off the heat, remove the foam and quickly cool it down to 3 °C / 37 °F. Store it at 1-3 °C / 34-37 °F.
- Before using the nappage, heat it up to 50-60 °C / 122-140 °F.
Poppy seed and lemon sponge
| Total weight: ~ 370 g for 2 cake rings d=14 cm | 100% |
| 87 g of whole eggs | 24% |
| 42 g of inverted sugar | 11% |
| 87 g of all-purpose flour | 24% |
| 42 g of icing sugar | 11% |
| 3,5 g of baking powder | 1% |
| 0,8 g of salt | <1% |
| 35 g of butter 82% | 10% |
| 35 g of olive oil | 10% |
| 28 g of milk | 7% |
| 10 g of poppy seeds | 2% |
| Zest of 1 lemon |
- Prepare the baking tray with the silicone mat and the rings 14 cm in diameter.
- Mix eggs, icing sugar, inverted sugar, lemon zest and salt, but do not whip them.
- Add the flour, baking powder and poppy seeds sifted and mixed together. Mix them with a whisk until combined.
- Then, gradually add the milk and butter, which should be melted to 45-50 °C / 113-122 °F and mixed with the olive oil. Stir till a homogeneous texture.
- Distribute the batter in baking molds, 170 gram per each, and bake at 170 °C / 338 °F for about 10-12 minutes. The ready sponges will bounce when pressed. Cool the sponges down at room temperature and do not unmold them.
Lemon Gel
| Total weight: ~ 306 g for 2 cake rings d=14 cm | 100% |
| 200 g of lemon juice 66% | 66% |
| 100 g of sugar 32% | 32% |
| 3 g of lemon zest 1% | 1% |
| 3 g of pectin NH | 1% |
- Mix the pectin with 15 g of sugar and add it to the lemon juice, constantly stirring. Bring the mass to a boil.
- Rub the remaining sugar together with the lemon zest and gradually add it to the boiling juice and the pectin.
- Cook it till 103 °C / 217 °F. Strain the mixture, then pour 80 g of it onto the surface of the cooled-down sponges in the cake rings. Freeze.
Lemon-flavored cream
| Total weight: ~ 720 g for 2 cake rings d=14 cm | 100% |
| 105 g of water | 15% |
| 105 g of lemon juice | 15% |
| 6 g of lemon zest | 1% |
| 50 g of sugar | 7% |
| 241 g of whole eggs | 33% |
| 166 g of white chocolate 34% | 23% |
| 15 g of cacao butter | 2% |
| 32 g of gelatine mass | 4% |
- Rub the sugar together with the lemon zest. Add the eggs and mix the mixture with a whisk.
- Heat the water together with the lemon juice up to 80 °C /176 °F in a saucepan on the stove and gradually pour it onto the egg mixture. Mix them together, return on the heat and keep cooking, constantly stirring till the mass thickens and reaches 83 °C / 181 °F.
- Take it off the stove, add the gelatine mass and mix.
- Strain the mixture onto the white chocolate and the cocoa butter. Process it with the hand blender until smooth texture.
- Pour 100 g of the cream over the lemon gel and freeze it. Cover the remaining cream with cling film in contact and quickly cool it down to 3 °C / 37 °F.
- Use the cream for making the mousse.
Lemon mousse
| Total weight: ~ 660 g for 2 cake rings d=16 cm | 100% |
| 440 g of lemon-flavored cream | 67% |
| 220 g of whipping cream | 33% |
- Whip the cream until soft foam.
- Heat the lemon cream up to 30-35 °C / 86-95 °F and add the whipped cream to it in portions.
- Use it immediately (315 g per cake)
Mixture for the velour coating
| Total weight: ~ 200 g | 100% |
| 100 g of White chocolate 34% | 50% |
| 100 g of Cacao butter 50% Yellow fat-soluble food colorant | 50% |
- Melt all the ingredients to 45 °C / 113 °F. Mix them, add the food colorant and process the mixture with the hand blender.
- Strain and heat it up to 40-45 °C / 104-113 °F before using.
Assembling
| for 2 cakes d=16 cm |
- Prepare the cake rings d=16 cm and h=4.5 cm. Wrap them with cling film from one side and put a border tape inside each ring.
- Pipe 315 g of mousse into each mold.
- Put in the frozen sponge with gel and cream, so that the sponge faces up, and slightly press on it, to level the mousse and the sponge. Even the layer with a spatula if needed and freeze the cake.
- Coat the frozen cakes with the mixture for the velour, heated to 40 °C / 104 °F by using a spray gun. Put the cakes back in the freezer for a couple of minutes.
- Add the water to the nappage (20-30% by its weight) and heat it up to 60 °C / 140 °F. Strain it into the spray gun cup and apply a thin layer of coating on frozen cakes over the velour, in order to create an impression of the lemon peel.
- Decorate the cakes up to your taste
