Lemony Cream Butter Cake

I saw this cake online somewhere right before memorial day weekend…..and it sounded so good. I had been craving cheese danish lately and this seemed like cheese danish plus lemon – who wouldnt love that?

Ingredients

It seemed easy enough and chock FULL of lemon – both zest and extract! Look at this plate of zest!!!

Zestalicious

This cake would be excellent for a brunch or light dinner accompaniment. It’s so fresh and simple, but yet still elegant. I would garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

Here is the filling and then the cake batter:

Filling

Cake batter

And the finished product – notice how you leave 1/2 inch or so around the border of the cake when pouring the filling:

Ready to bake

I totally goofed when I made this the first time. I made the entire cake and had it in the oven and then I saw that I had forgotten the melted butter in the batter!!!! How could I have done that? I had to scrap the entire cake, clean everything up, get out all the ingredients again, and run to Wawa for more cream cheese. What a mess.

Done!

Thank god it turned out amazing!

First piece….

Slice of goodness

Lemony Cream Butter Cake

Ingredients for the cake:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (heaping)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (which was about 1 lemon for me)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• zest of two lemons

For the cream cheese filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease or spray a 9″ springform pan with vegetable spray.

Make the filling — In a large bowl or bowl of a standmixer, beat the cream cheese on medium-high to high speed for about 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.

Add confectioners’ sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg and beat until completely combined, about 1 minute. Add butter, both extracts and lemon zest. Beat until completely combined, about 1 minute. Set aside.

Make the cake — In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk in melted butter, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest until combined. Do not overmix.

Pour batter evenly into springform pan. Carefully pour filling mixture evenly over the cake batter to within about 1/2 inch of the edge of the pan. (The filling should cover all but the outer 1/2 inch, at which point the cake batter will be visible.)

Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake has puffed up and toothpick inserted near edge of cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully remove springform sides and allow to cool on rack for 1 hour. Transfer to refrigerator and chill completely before serving.

Serve chilled, with a little sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar.

Tags: Cake, Lemon