Moist Lemon Cake with Blackberry Cream Frosting

By
Prerna Singh
-
Moist Lemon Cake With Blackberry Whipped Cream Frosting

“Maa” she says, “my other mommy says that lemons are good for you. You should eat them ALL the time.”
Yes, normal kids have an imaginary friend or maybe an imaginary pet? My daughter doesn’t like normal, so she just took the liberty of creating an imaginary mommy. A mommy who lets her eat ALL the candies in the whole wide world, because candies make you strong. A mommy who buys her ALL the sparkly things in this whole wide world. A top of the line mommy she is. In short the “other mommy” is everything that this mommy is not!
So like every morning after waving and kissing everyone at home for a good 15 minutes and after promising that we will see each other soon, we left for school. She and I. With my hands gently yet firmly wrapped around her tender and pillowy ones, we started walking. Down the sidewalk, kicking every single stone on our way and cuddling with every passerby dog, we kept moving.

Moist Lemon Cake

Then like every day we crossed this lemon tree outside of a house down the street. As usual we stopped under the tree, looked up and counted the lemons. Only this time the “other mommy” had a news for me and only this time she was right.
“Lets pick some Maa” she then said. “We can make yummy lemon cake”. A very intelligent girl I have.

Lemon

People say and with a very heavy heart I agree that she has taken everything after her dad. The way she looks, the way she reacts at situations and even the way she folds her hands when asleep.
On the other hand one can count in fingers the things she and I have in common. Our love for anything lemon is one of them.
So hearing her suggestion my heart yearned to just lift a hand, reach out and pick some of those unbelievably aromatic and juicy little devils. But “its not nice to take things without the owners permission”. I had to go by that principle, at least in front of her.
“How about I buy a big bag of lemons before you get back from school?”, was what I said instead. Squeezing her eyes and with a faint smile, just like her dad, she shook her head in agreement. We moved forward.

Baking with Kids

Sure enough as soon as the garage door opened in the evening and she plunged out of the car her first question was, “did you buy a big bag of lemons for a yummy lemon cake, Maa?”. “Yes, lets wash our hands and make the cake!”.
We washed our hands, and got straight to measuring, cracking, melting and stirring. “Let’s drop some blackberries in there too”, she suggested in between munching on them and so we did.

Blackberries

By the end there was flour all over my kitchen floor and she ate more sugar than what went into the cake. But the cake that came out was definitely the best cake in this whole wide world!
We have saved some for our Mothers Day celebration. A day to celebrate the best title I can ever have and a day to celebrate our love for anything lemon.

This recipe was my inspiration for the lemon cake. Although I adjusted the sweetness according to our liking and made a few tweaks. Also the original recipe is that of a cupcake and does not ask for a frosting. But the cupcake recipe by The Alchemist is a winner too if you wanna give it a try.

Ingredients:

For the Lemon Cake: Makes 2 (6 inches) cake. Recipe from The Alchemist‘s cupcake recipe, with slight changes.
1 cup butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup thick yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour (all purpose)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 baking soda
15-18 blackberries (about 3/4 cup)

For the Blackberry Whipped Cream Frosting:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup blackberries

Method:
For the Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F
Butter and dust two 6 inches cake pans and set aside.
Drop the cold butter into a large sauce pan. Over low heat melt the butter. Remove from heat as soon as the butter is melted. Mix lemon juice and water in a bowl. Pour it into the saucepan with melted butter. Mix. Throw in the sugar too. Stir. Whisk in the beaten eggs. Once everything is mixed set the saucepan aside.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda.
In a slow and constant speed pour the liquid mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients while whisking continuously. Prevent any lumps from forming.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
Drop the blackberries equally into both the pans. Spread them out evenly to keep them separate.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. My oven acts funny sometimes and heats up faster than normal so please adjust the baking time according to your oven and keep an eye.
Once the cake is one pull them out. Let the pans cool for 10 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack and let it cool for at least 30 minutes before putting the frosting on.

For the Blackberry Whipped Cream Frosting:

Using a fork mash all the blackberries. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer whip up the frosting on a medium high speed. Once the cream is whipped half way add sugar and continue whisking until it forms firm peaks.
Combine mashed blackberries into the whipped cream and carefully fold it in until just combined. Go easy while folding the whipped cream, heavy hand can pull the soft whip down.
Frost your cake and enjoy with your honey!

Prerna Singh
http://www.indiansimmer.com

65 Comments

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  5. I really want to say you it makes me feel good to be on your side, I love to read your blog every time I found something new on your site, lemon is my favorite and I love to have it, enjoy your time with your kiddos.

  11. I love both the thing, your post and especially your story, in your post you narrate the whole story great work, surely in future am going to wait for your another post, and love your pic very much.

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  19. This cake is beautiful… I would love to make something like this for my husband’s upcoming birthday but it may need to be a bit bigger of a cake…. any tips on tweaking the recipe to feed more people? I’m used to something closer to 12” but am no good at adjusting cooking times etc.

    • I love this recipe ! Reminds me of you making soap at home, Mom.
      And it’s fun to see photos of your house there and see
      Dad in that comfy chair we sat in when we visited,
      attempting to use the slow internet 🙂

      I can’t wait to hear how the soap turned out in terms
      of using it. Does it smell different since it is made with
      animal fat? Any other differences from vegetable-based soap?

      Love you!

  26. just an fyi: you’ve got the yogurt & vanilla listed as ingredients but you don’t mention when to use them in the recipe…

  27. Light lemony touch, dark blackberry intensity turned your cake fabulous, fancy but at the same time homey 🙂
    I’m madly, deeply in love with your photography !

  32. Awww what an awesome post! Your daughter sounds so sweet, and your cake is just beautiful. So happy you were able to make something so special together 🙂

  38. I love how you involve your little one in your kitchen. I do the same and I get inspired by the things he says.. the way he suddenly comes up with a creative suggestion and it’s great. Their mind is free of inhibitions and they are truly creative! Something I try to learn from my almost-4 year old son every day. Beautiful pictures as usual 🙂

  40. Happy Mother’s Day to you Prerna…I love citrus flavored bakes. But my lemon cakes usually end up being sticky n too lemony. Donno what goes wrong.
    Love the shot where ur daughter is helping …so sweet 🙂

  45. Your daughter is adorable and man, why didn’t I think of a imaginary mommy who would have let me bunk school all the time back then! 😛
    I am also a lover of all things lemon but yet to try my hands on lemon cake. I guess I will start with cupcakes. 🙂

  47. I think someday we should have girls party with everything lemony in it 🙂 You know my love for lemon! Lovely post P and the cake sounds YUM with those blackberries hidden. Gorgeous!

  52. It is beautiful. No doubt has she gets older you will see more of you in her, that is a promise.

    This is a wonderful way to build memories together. Thanks for sharing.

    Velva

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