My citrus summer cake has orange and lemon cake layers and fresh blackberry Swiss meringue buttercream. This cake bursts with fresh citrus flavour! Sweetness from the blackberry buttercream, tartness, from the lemon - it’s perfect!
Why You'll Love this Easy Citrus Summer Cake
- It involves simple ingredients most of which you'll already have in your home.
- The orange and lemon cake flavour really is bright, light, and so refreshing.
- The cake is moist and and has a tender crumb.
- It's garnished with fresh blackberries which add a beautiful delicate touch.
As with many of the recipes on BAKED by Blair I’ve used my Classic Vanilla cake recipe with oil and altered the ingredients slightly to make a completely new cake! Here is my moist and flavourful citrus cake, the perfect summer cake recipe!!
How to Make this Summer Cake
This cake has simple ingredients and easy to follow step by step instructions to ensure success when making this cake!
- Cream together your butter and sugar and then add in your eggs and flavourings (lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, vanilla)
- Sift together your dry ingredients. If you don’t have cake flour, see how to make my easy cake flour substitution here.
- Next add your orange juice and dry ingredients to your mixing bowl alternately. It is crucial in this step not to over-mix your batter. This produces a dense cake. Note that I’ve completely omitted buttermilk and instead we use orange juice to bring in that delicious orange flavour.
- Bake your lemon orange cake layers.
- Allow them to cool and then frost!
Your orange, lemon cake batter will be thick and luscious. You can pour your batter into either two-8” cake pans or three-6” cake pans depending on the thickness you would like your cake layers to be.
Ensure all of your ingredients are room temperature. In order to allow your ingredients to incorporate together well, this is imperative. In the first step of the recipe, it’s especially important to allow the butter and oil to amalgamate together – and this takes time!
Cream your butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy! Don’t skip this step. It’s important to allow time for these to whip together in order to create a light and fluffy cake.
Don’t over mix your batter! We only want to mix just enough to incorporate our ingredients.
Generously spray the bottom and sides of the pan with non-stick spray. I like to use a spray that contains flour in it such as PAM Baking Spray.
Once your cake has finished cooking allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the cake pan. Next, run a butter knife around the edges of the cake. Invert the cake pans onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely inverted on the pan.
Homemade Blackberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
I’ve opted for Blackberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream and added fresh blackberries as garnish, but you could also use easy Vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, or even use my tart lemon curd recipe to put lemon curd between the cake layers for an even more tangy cake!
If you try this recipe, make sure you take a photo and tag BAKED by Blair on social media and use the #bakedbyblair. I would love to hear how you enjoyed the recipe, so comment below! If you want to pin this recipe and save it for later, go ahead and click the pin button above and save it to your favourite desserts board on Pinterest! ENJOY!
Other Refreshing Desserts to Try:
Luscious Lemon Lemon Cake Recipe
Refreshing Citrus Summer Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 5 egg whites at room temperature
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups orange juice at room temperature
For the Blackberry Buttercream
- 5 egg whites
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup blackberry puree at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
For the Blackberry Puree
- 2 cups fresh blackberries
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray two 8-inch cake pans or three- 6" cake pans with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter and oil together for 3-4 minutes until they are completely unified.
- With the mixer on low, gradually pour your sugar into the mixture and beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed add egg whites in one at a time. Allow each to incorporate before the next addition. Next, add in the vanilla, lemon zest, orange zest and lemon juice. Increase the speed of your mixer to high and beat until mixture is smooth and light in colour.
- While your sugar mixture is mixing, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed, add one third of the flour mixture into the bowl and mix until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and add one half of the orange juice and again mix until just combined. Repeat this process until everything has been added to the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the flour mixture. Take care not over mix or your cake will become quite dense.
- Distribute cake batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans or three 6-inch pans. I like to use a kitchen scale to ensure batter is divided equally.
- Bake for 28-35 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. Each oven is slightly different, so I suggest setting your timer to 28 minutes and watching carefully from there!
- Cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting and removing cakes from can pan to cool completely.
- Cool completely before frosting.
For the Blackberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Begin by preparing the blackberry puree. This needs to cool before it can be added in to the Swiss meringue buttercream.In a medium saucepan, combine blackberries, lemon juice, and sugar.
- Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Stir continuously to avoid burning. Reduce heat to medium and allow to simmer for about 6-8 minutes. The blackberries will become soft and easy to mash.
- Mash blackberries and simmer for 1 more minute.
- Remove from heat and pass mixture through a strainer to remove any large blackberry pieces. (Note, I like keeping small pieces of blackberry in my puree because I think it gives a nice texture - you can see the size in the photos above)
- Allow to cool completely before adding to buttercream.
- While blackberry puree is cooling, prepare the Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
- Wipe down your mixing bowl, whisk and paddle attachments with a small amount of white vinegar.
- Create a double boiler on your stove by filling a medium saucepan with a couple inches of water. Do not let the water touch the base of the bowl. Put your egg whites and sugar in your bowl and place on top of the saucepan. Give them a whisk to combine.
- Cook your egg white/sugar mixture over medium heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F on a candy thermometer or until you can no longer feel any sugar granules between your fingertips. The mixture will be hot.
- Transfer your egg white/sugar mixture to the bowl of your electric stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place and whisk on high until the outside of your mixing bowl is no longer hot and you’ve achieved stiff peaks in your meringue. This can take between 8-12 minutes.
- Switch to the paddle attachment. Turn your mixer to low speed. Add in your cubed butter (2 tablespoon in size) one at a time, allowing each to be incorporated before the next addition.
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl, turn mixer to low speed and add in your vanilla and blackberry puree and lemon juice. Make sure to add in slowly or buttercream may separate. If buttercream does appear to separate you can whip on high to combine again.
- Turn your mixer up to medium to high speed and mix for about 1 minutes until buttercream is completely incorporated, silky, and smooth.
Jen says
You forgot to specify how much sugar you put in the cake
Blair Braz says
Apologies it's 1.5 cups!
Jeannine says
Blair, Sugar is not listed on the ingredient list of this recipe. I assumed it was 1.5 cups based upon your other recipes.
Janice says
So it is egg whites in both cake and buttercream?
Blair Braz says
Yes!
Karen says
This sounds delicious! Do you think I can make it with gluten free flour?
Blair Braz says
Yes, I recommend using Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour.
Leanne says
This cake is beautiful and delicious! My frosting turned a much deeper pink than yours. I'm sure my aunt will love it for her birthday.
Blair Braz says
Oh I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to share your results.
Mary says
Can I make this Cake a day in advance? And refrigerate overnight? Thank you! Excited to try this recipe!
Blair Braz says
Sincere apologies for the delay. Yes! Cake layers can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter or you can freeze them for up to 3 months!