Lemon Elderflower Cake With Strawberry Jam (Happy Birthday To Me!)

When I saw that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were having a lemon and elderflower cake at their wedding, I may or may not have fist-pumped.

The second I heard that flavor combo, I was SOLD.

As I’ve mentioned before, I started a tradition several years ago of finding a recipe that seemed a little fancier and more complicated than I typically tackle, and making that for my birthday.  It’s given me absolute gems such as:

• Dark Chocolate Stout Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
• Red Wine Chocolate Cake
• Whole Lemon Tart
• Coffee Cardamom Cake with Bulletproof Frosting
• Vanilla Coke Spice Cake with Salted Peanut Frosting
• Chocolate Stout Cake with Ganache

I MEAN YUMMMM.  I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’ve got pretty great taste.

So this year I was kind of waffling, looked through tons of recipes but nothing was really jumping out to me until I saw two different recipes for an elderflower lemon cake.  I took both and kind of combined and adapted, and loved the result!  But con’t let the amount of ingredients and steps put you off, I actually threw this together pretty easily in between making dinner and pausing my TV show for a bit.  Since my birthday is in September, the actual posting of this is *even* more belated that the making of it (which was about a week behind, since I was out of the country on my actual birthday).

I mean, if it’s good enough for Harry and Meghan, it’s good enough for me 🙂

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter and flour (or use parchment paper) to prepare an 8-inch or 9-inch (at most) cake tin.

In a large mixer, cream the sugar, butter and lemon zest together until fluffy and soft.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Don’t panic if the mixture looks like it’s curdling slightly, it will be fine.  Then stir in the yogurt.

Add one cup of flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix, then add the rest of the flour, mixing gently until it’s just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until it’s golden on top and a toothpick comes comes out clean.  I have no idea why my cake domed in the middle (more like a madeira), which is part of why it wasn’t as pretty.

Once the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, carefully use a large bread knife to slice it in half (so you have two layers), using a sawing motion (it helps to go around the cake first, then saw through the middle).

Dilute the 3 tablespoons of elderflower cordial for the filling with 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl, and use a pastry brush to brush it over both halves of the warm cake to soak in.

In a large mixing bowl, make the frosting by blending the powdered sugar, butter, salt, and the St. Germain and lemon juice.  I always err on the side of more lemon juice, as the rest of it will make the frosting too sweet.

Now it’s assembly time!  Place one layer on your cake board, spread a thin layer of frosting on it, then top with a nice thick layer of strawberry jam.

Then put the other layer on top and frost the entire cake with the remaining frosting.

It was great fresh but also amazing the next day or two (at work, where my co-workers and I methodically devoured it).

Other cakes you’ll love:

• Citrus Cake with Marmalade Filling and Lemon-Orange Icing
• Raspberry Skyr Cake with White & Dark Chocolate
• Pear Hazelnut Cake with Rosemary Honey Glaze
• A Flour-less Chocolate Cake (That’s Not Too Rich)

Elderflower Lemon Cake with Surprise Strawberry Jam

As always, I find cakes to turn out better when you use a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients, but have provided both

Cake

• 150g (3/4 cup) of granulated sugar
• 160g (10 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
• Zest of 1 lemon finely grated
• 3 eggs
• 250 ml (1 cup) of plain yogurt
• 120 g (1 cup) of all-purpose flour (I threw in a couple tablespoons of cornstarch to make it more like cake flour)
• 150 g (1 1/4 cup) of white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour (using all all-purpose is fine too)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Frosting

• 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 2 cups of (sifted) powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt
• St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and lemon juice to taste—for me this was 2-3 tablespoons of each (because I really wanted the flavor to punch through and be more tart rather than sweet) but start with just a little of each and add bit by bit, tasting until it’s where you want it

Filling

• 3 tablespoons of St. Germain and 2 tablespoons of water combined, for drizzling
• Strawberry jam (or whatever flavor floats your boat)
• A thin layer of the frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter and flour (or use parchment paper) to prepare an 8-inch or 9-inch (at most) cake tin.
2. In a large mixer, cream the sugar, butter and lemon zest together until fluffy and soft.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Don’t panic if the mixture looks like it’s curdling slightly, it will be fine.  Then stir in the yogurt.
4. Add one cup of flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix, then add the rest of the flour, mixing gently until it’s just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until it’s golden on top and a toothpick comes comes out clean.
6. Once the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, carefully use a large bread knife to slice it in half (so you have two layers), using a sawing motion (it helps to go around the cake first, then saw through the middle).
7. Dilute the 3 tablespoons of elderflower cordial for the filling with 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl, and use a pastry brush to brush it over both halves of the warm cake to soak in.
8. In a large mixing bowl, make the frosting by blending the powdered sugar, butter, salt, and the St. Germain and lemon juice.  I always err on the side of more lemon juice, as the rest of it will make the frosting too sweet.
9. Now it’s assembly time!  Place one layer on your cake board, spread a thin layer of frosting on it, then top with a nice thick layer of strawberry jam.  Then put the other layer on top and frost the entire cake with the remaining frosting.

Adapted from A Cozy Kitchen and Top With Cinnamon

Other jam + cake victories:

• Chocolate Almond Tartine with Jam Swirls (gluten-free)
• Jam Streusel Coffee Cake
• Almond Vanilla Cupcakes with Peach Jam Filling
• Lemon Raspberry Cake with Raspberry Frosting

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