Published: · Modified: by Jacqueline Bellefontaine ·
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Three layers of lemon cake sandwiched together with raspberry jam and lemon buttercream. Covered with more buttercream and topped with raspberries, this cake is a realshow stopper.
I'm celebrating. And what better way to celebrate than with cake!
Welcome to my very first post on Only Crumbs Remain. My name is Jacqui and I recently took over the Only Crumbs Remain recipe blog from my friend Angela. Angela started Only Crumbs remain at about the time I started my own blog Recipes Made Easy and we soon became friends as we supported ourselves through our blogging journey.
Last year Angela, who is a very talented lady, discovered a love of making ceramics. As a result she reluctantly had to decide to give up the blog because there just are not enough hours in the day to do both. I have already succumbed to buying a few of her lovely ceramics from her Etsy Yorkshire Ceramics Etsy shop .
The Future of Only Crumbs Remain
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, I had a chance conversation with another friend, Sabrina about how sad I was that this lovely blog with the fabulous name was soon going to be gone forever.
She suggested I took it on and although at first I thought it would be mad to take on a second blog, but as anyone who reads Recipes Made Easy knows, I love baking and I decided to see what Angela thought of the idea. I'm delighted to say she thought it a great idea too and so here I am.
I am the daughter of a baker and have been a cookery writer for many years. A brief history about my journey from magazines to blogging is on my about page.
I am so excited to take on this fabulous blog as I have so many baking and sweet recipes I want to share with you and what better place than a whole blog dedicated to just such recipes. From classic recipes to more contemporary bakes, I love sharing my love of baking.
My plan is to keep almost all of Angela's recipes and to add my own on a weekly basis to build a really comprehensive site full of new and classic, sweet and savoury bakes. The first stop whenever you want to bake.
A New Look Only Crumbs Remain
Angela posted on a web platform called blogger and I transferred it over to WordPress which I use for Recipes Made Easy. For the last few weeks, I have been working on the nuts and bolts of the blog to give it a whole new look. I hope those of you who knew the Old Only Crumbs Remain will like the changes.
Over time I will be generally updating the exsisting posts so they all fully fit with the new style Only Crumbs Remain.
In the meantime, some of the recipes are not in Recipe Cards, a bit of software which makes them stand out more but also give you the functionality of being easy to print etc.
My priority will be putting all the recipes into cards as soon as I can and I hope you will bear with me while this is done.
But no one wants to spend all their time at their desk, so I shall be in the kitchen baking and sharing a new recipe with you each week as well as working on Recipes Made Easy.
Which brings me to where I am now, celebrating because while not all of the back end work is done yet, it is time for my first recipe and I hope you like it.
How to Make Lemon and Raspberry Layer Cake
This lemon and raspberry layer cake is basically a pimped up Victoria sandwich. For the cake itself I've used a classic Victoria sandwich mixture flavoured with lemon zest and juice. As its a celebration, I have decided to add an extra layer.
The layers are sandwiched together with a layer of raspberry jam and lemon buttercream. Now, much as I love buttercream I do find that sometimes it can make a cake far too sweet.
To avoid this I have counteracted the sweetness by making the jam especially for this cake. This “jam” has a lot less sugar than usual, and a much fruity and sharper flavour. However, it will not keep as long as a traditional jam. That said, any leftovers – and you probably will not use it all – can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week. It's yummy on bread or drizzled over ice cream or yogurt.
You can make the jam with fresh or frozen raspberries. I used frozen for the jam as they tend to be cheaper and fresh ones on the top to decorate.
The buttercream itself is flavoured with some lemon juice, zest and lemon curd giving it just the right amount of lemony tang.
Step by Step Lemon and Raspberry Lemon Cake
Lemon and Raspberry Layer Cake
Three layers of lemon cake sandwiched together with raspberry jam and lemon buttercream. Covered with more buttercream and topped with raspberries this cake is a realshow stopper.
Course Cake
Cuisine British
Keyword celebration cake
Prep Time 1 hour hr
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins
Servings 12
Calories 750
Author Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g butter softened plus extra for greasing
- 300 g golden caster sugar
- 5 large eggs beaten
- 300 g self-raising flour sieved
- 1½ lemons finely grated zest and juice
for the raspberry jam
- 350 g fresh or frozen raspberries
- 150 g golden caster sugar
- ½ lemon juice only
for the lemon buttercream:
- 300 g butter softened
- 600 g icing sugar sieved
- 1 lemon finely grated zest and juice
- 4 tablespoon lemon curd
to complete
- a few fresh raspberries
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190℃ (170℃ fan)/375°F/gas mark 5. Lightly grease and line the base of 3 x 18cm (7in) sandwich tins.
Beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture is very pale and creamy. Gradually add the egg beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle beat in a little flour with the egg.
Beat in the lemon juice and zest, then carefully fold in the flour. Divide the mixture equally between the prepared tins and level the surface.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until pale golden and springy to the touch. Turn out and cool on a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the jam
Place the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat gently stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for about 5 minutes until reduced and thickened slightly. Allow to cool completely.
To make the buttercream
Beat the butter until softened then beat in about half the icing sugar. Add the lemon zest, juice and lemon curd and beat to combine. then add the remaining icing sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.
To complete
Spread a generous layer of jam over one of the cakes and buttercream over another turn the buttercream cake upside down and place on top of the jam. Repeat with the remaining cakes.
Spread a thin layer buttercream around the sides of the cake. Roughly spread the remaining buttercream over the top of the cake. Dot with a little jam and spread level to give a marbled effect.
Pile some fresh raspberries onto the top of the cake and drizzle with a little more of the jam.
Transfer to a serving plate and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Equipment
- 3 x 18cm (7in) sandwich tins
- palette knife
- electric mixer
Cook's Tips
- If you do not have 3 tins you can save one third of the mixture and cook two. As soon as they are cooked transfer to a wire rack. Wash, dry and grease one of the tins and add the remaining mixture and cook.
- Spread the jam right up to the edge of the cake so that some combines with the buttercream when covering the sides.
- Save money by using frozen raspberries for the jam.
Store
In an airtight container in a cool place for up to 3 days
Freeze – undecorated for 2 months
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice (1/12) | Calories: 750kcal
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment or mention @OnlyCrumbsRemain or tag #OnlyCrumbsRemain!
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About Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Jacqueline is a member of the Guild of Food Writers and has been a cookery writer and food stylist for over 25 years. She has written over 15 cookery books, in addition to writing for several major magazines. She likes to champion good basic home cooking and as the daughter of a master baker, she is passionate about home baking.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Juanita Fan
I had friends over for dinner to celebrate my birthday so I wanted a dessert that my friends would say “wow”. The recipe was very straightforward & all my friends loved it! If you can bake a Victoria sponge, this is the same but with homemade raspberry jam (super easy) and a ton of buttercream. Honestly the hardest part was sifting 600g of icing sugar - it is a lot & the dust goes everywhere but it sure does taste good! As it is a three layer cake, I managed to get 16 slices.
I will attempt the cake again with fresh whipped cream rather than buttercream.
Thanks Jacqui for the recipe!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Belated Happy birthday Juanita. Im so glad you liked the cake. You do have a point about sifting the icing sugar ha ha but theres no way around that. Im sure a version made with fresh cream would be delicious!
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ella
is it possible to only have 2 sponges(8inch) instead of 3?
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Yes of course. If you have a bit too much mixture (fill shallow tins ½- ¾ full) then just make a couple of cupcakes with the remainder. You might not need all the buttercream.
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Clare Bird
Hi is this using salted or unsalted butter?
ThanksReply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
I prefer to use salted butter in my bakes as I do not additional salt. If I require a recipe to not use salted butter then I will state that. ps apologies for taking a while to reply.
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Kimberly
Can you use 3 8 inch pans? I see you used 7 inch. Thank you
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
If you use 8-inch pans with the same quantity the layers will be thinner and they will also qcook quicker. I would be tempted to up the quantity and use 6 eggs plus 350g of butter sugar and flour. You may also want to up the lemons to 2.
Whether or not you increase the quantity you will likely need to increase the amount of buttercream as the surface area of your cake will be greater.
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Sarah
Made this for my child’s 3rd birthday and it’s delicious. Looks gorgeous and tastes wonderful. I didn’t level my layers off (didn’t want to waste the cake!) so the sides aren’t as neat but overall it was easy to follow the recipe and make, with great results. My little one had seconds.Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
I'm so pleased that you and your little one liked the cake so much. I hope she had a lovely birthday.
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Maurits Kalff
This is firmly on top of the list of cakes to bake.
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
I hope you do make it and do pop back and let me know what you think.
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Sylvia
My sponge cake is too soft and breaks when I lift it. What did I do wrong?
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Ohh I'm not quite sure you did anything wrong the cake should be soft. Though I would guess if it was slightly undercooked or cooked at a slightly lower temperature so that a crust doesn't form then it might break more easily. Perhaps you just need to support it a little more when you lift it. Use a fish slice or slide a flat baking sheet under it. to help move it.
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Lesley Garden
This cake looks absolutely stunning and I love lemon and raspberry. I think I’ll bake this for my daughters birthday next week as I know she’ll love this!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Happy birthday to Your daughter and happy baking
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Maite
Hi, looks very nice. Can I make this cake the evening before and just add the decorations before serving? And if so do I keep it overnight in de fridge? Thank you!
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
yes you can make the cake the day before no problem. Once you add the buttercream you will need to keep the cake in the refrigerator. Bring up to room temp before serving. If space is tight you could make the sponges and they will keep at room temperature, either wrapped tightly in foil or cling film or in an airtight container. The buttercream can then be kept in a container in the refrigerator ready for layering and decorating the cake in the day. Again you will need to bring the buttercream up to room temperature and beat to soften before decorating the cake.
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merriatt Yeoman
This is a fabulous cake, very easy to make and tastes sensational. It has become a firm favourite with my friends and family as a birthday cake. Oh and thank you for putting measurements in grams so many are put in cups these days!!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
So pleased you and your friends like it. Your comment about thank you for grams made me smile. Usually, its can we have cup measurement please but I just don't find cup measurements accurate enough for baking so as Brit Im sticking with weighing all my ingredients as there are plenty of American and Australian websites out there that use cups for those who want them.
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Courtney
Found this cake and it looks lovely, has anyone tried this with whipped double cream rather than buttercream, to tone down the sweetness?
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Hi Courtney, I havent tried this with double cream but I am sure it would be delicious. Personally, fresh cream cakes are my favourite! You could try whisking a little lemon curd into the double cream ( I did this with great success for a recipe on my other blog) which would add the lemon flavour. for that recipe I added 6 tbsp of lemon curd (use one that is not to stiff) into 300ml double cream (Whip the cream until just beginning to hold its shape. Add the lemon curd and whisk until soft peaks form.) Now that you have suggested it I really would like to try it. If you do it before me do let me know how you get on.
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Angie
Could you put this into U. S. Measurements by chance ?? Cake looks amazing !!
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Glad you like the look of the cake. I have thought long and hard and for now at least have decided not to use US cup measurements as most of my readers are not based in the US. I also firmly believe that baking recipes are much more reliable when ingredients are measured by weight rather than volume and it is really important to me that the recipe works every time. I believe that you can buy scales quite cheaply in Walmart and would urge you to consider buying a set for baking ( it will also open you up to many more recipes on the net). I have added ppounds and onunces to most of my recipes so hopefully that will make it a little easier andat least you do not have to get your head around our metric system.
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Mallorie Young
\its a bit oily.... considering the ratios are almost equal butter to flour. all in all, a good recipe.Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Glad you found it to be a good recipe. The basic proportions of the cake are roughly equal weights of egg, butter flour and sugar which is the classic recipe for a victoria sandwich cake on which this recipe is based.
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Kathryn
Would I be able to make this into a 2 layer cake using 9 inch tins?
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Yes, I haven't tried it but looking at the quantities yes it should be fine made as two layers in a 9in tin.
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Hayley
Hi I would like to make this cake for a birthday for 20 people, what size tins do you recommend & how many tiers?
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
I haven't tested it so can not say for certain but I would probably go for an 20cm (8in) tins and three layers or 23cm (9in) tins and two layers - which maybe easier to portion.
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En_Croute
Hi, made this for an office cake - went down really really well!Timings for me were a little off, but this could be as I forgot to sift the flour, so had to really work it so it may have been overbeaten. Was still light and not dry (Well, it couldn't be with all that jam and buttercream in between!)
Definitely making this again, the lemon balance in the cake and buttercream is excellent, and the jam using frozen raspberries was stunning.
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Timing can vary and can only really be seen as a guide. Everyones oven is different and slight variations i weighing ingredients temperature of the ingredients, the ambiant temperature and whether or not the oven is preheat can all affect the time of baking. But I am so glad that you liked it and that it went down well with everyone.
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Deepa Shah
Hello, I was wondering if anyone had tried this recipe for a wedding cake and if the ingredients could be doubled or tripled for the tiers?
Many thanksReply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Hi Deepa, I am not aware of anyone who has made this for a wedding cake but I think it would be possible. However it is worth bearing in mind that this cake uses is very similar to a victoria sandwich cake and I have found that large versions of these cake can tend to dry out around the edges a little by the time the middle is cooked, so I would not make it larger than a 23cm (9in) cake. You may get around this by soaking it with a little lemon flavoured syrup but for such a special occasion I would do a test run of the largest tier. (on the plus side it will freeze ok. so you could cut up the test cake into portions to enjoy over time.) I have written a post on how to make a semi-naked wedding cake on my other Blog Recipes Made Easy https://www.recipesmadeeasy.co.uk/how-to-make-a-semi-naked-wedding-cake which you may find useful reading and that also links to another blogger that gives lots of advice on making wedding cakes. Good luck with your cake and I would love to know how you got on.
Jacqui
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Kat (The Baking Explorer)
What a gorgeous looking cake! Loving the new look of the site too!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank youKat. Im enjoying working on it so much.
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johanna @ green gourmet giraffe
That's great you are taking over. It must be really interesting taking over a blog that has already a lot of content and having a lot of blogging experience - so different from being a newbie blogger. Good luck with it. And your cake looks beautiful.
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks Joanna. It's certainly interesting taking over an existing blog very different from starting from scratch but it also brings its new challenges.
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Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie
Congratulations Jacqui! I'm so impressed with how quickly you've gone from having that first gem of an idea to publishing your first OCR post. I love what you've done with OCR - it's like the best of Jacqui and Angela all rolled into one! It's so lovely that the world will still get all of Angela's wonderful recipes and I can't wait to see what lovely new bakes you have coming up! This cake is a real showstopper - and it sounds delicious. Definitely a fitting way to celebrate the start of this new venture! Eb xReply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you Eb, It all seems to have happened quite fast I must admit but still a ton to do not least get all the recipes into recipe cards.
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Camilla Hawkins
I so want a slice of this luscious cake, so pretty and amazing flavours:-)Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks, Camilla Sending a virtual slice your way 🙂
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Corina Blum
It's a gorgeous cake Jacqui! It would be perfect for any kind of spring/summer celebration. I love the new look too!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you Corina
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Monika Dabrowski
Wow, this is gorgeous, and I love the simple styling of this cake, Thank you for bringing it to #CookBlogShare!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you Monika
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Hannah
This is so gorgeous! I love how you frosted it too - it looks beautiful!
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you Hannah
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Cat | Curly's Cooking
Raspberries and lemon are such a fantastic flavour combination. I love the look of this cake too, definitely a show stopper! So pleased you too over Angela's blog, I look forward to seeing your new recipes alongside her previous ones 🙂Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks Cat Im looking forward to growing the blog.
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jenny walters
What a show stopper to open with Jacqui! Absolutely stunning! I adore fruity bakes and would love to have this recipe in my repertoire. I will definitely pin this for future baking. What an elegant bake most fitting for this blog. Wishing you lots of success with it. Thank you so much for sharing it with #BakingCrumbsReply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you so much for your kind words Jenny.
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Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food
Congratulations on your first post at OCR, and to Angela for her new venture! What absolutely GORGEOUS pictures! The step-by-step is so helpful. I can't wait to dive face-first into this cake!Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you Michelle I will be including more step by step pictures with the new recipes.
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Jo Allison / Jo's Kitchen Larder
And what a fantastic recipe to celebrate the beginning of another chapter of your blogging journey Jacqui! With your baking expertise I really couldn't think of better person to carry on what Angela has started!
I love the flavours in your pimped up Victoria sandwich 🙂 Lemon and raspberry - marriage made in heaven! I love the marble effect on the buttercream too! Thank you so much for bringing your delicious cake to #BakingCrumbs 🙂Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks Jo Im looking forward to taking part in your linky more often now. I totally agree about lemon and raspberry as a flavour combo I love it.
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Sylvie
Such a beautiful cake Jacqui! Excited to see what the future holds for Only Crumbs Remain 🙂Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks Sylvie – me too – Exciting times 🙂
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Janice
I absolutely love the look of this cake. Raspberries are my favourites and you have made them even better.Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thanks Janice yes raspberries are a fav of mine too which is why i have quite a few raspberry canes on my little allotment plot. Roll on Summer!
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Sabrina Sommer
That looks amazing. Can't wait to taste it when you are making it for me 🙂Reply
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Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Thank you so much Sabrina and thanks for your help getting Only Crumbs back up and running. Ill make the cake for you if you ask nicely when your not on your restricted diet 😉
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