Citrus Cake

If "Citrus Season" had to be represented by a baked good, I hope this would be a strong contender.

There’s so many types of citrus, so the great thing is if you’re not a fan of one, you can completely omit it from this recipe. In theory, you could make this cake with only lemons or only oranges. I like the idea of combining them all to get the full citrus effect.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 3 cups (354g) all purpose flour

• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (226g) salted butter, room temperature

• 1 and 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 teaspoons lemon extract

• 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk, room temperature

• 2 tablespoons citrus zest

• 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh citrus juice

• 1/2 cup orange marmalade, or your favorite jam/compote or curd

For the egg white buttercream frosting

For the frosting, I used pasteurized egg whites directly from the carton!

• 3/4 cup pasteurized egg whites

• 6 cups (700g) powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3 cups salted butter (680g), room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons citrus zest

For the candied slices

• 3 medium lemons, sliced

• 4 limes, sliced

• 3 oranges, sliced

• 2 cups (200g) granulated sugar

• 1 cup (236mL) water

Method

I recommend making the candied citrus slices first as these would need to sit overnight (or for a few hours) before they’re officially ready to used.

Make the candied slices

1. Pour the sugar and water in a pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, using a spatula to ensure the sugar gets fully dissolved in the water.

2. Add slices of citrus to the simmering water, ensuring there isn’t too much overlap.

3. Turn heat to medium-low and let the slices simmer for 40 - 45 minutes, flipping over occasionally.

4. Remove from the pan and set on a wire rack. Repeat the process until you’ve used up all the slices.

5. These should sit out at room temperature and uncovered for a few hours. Once they’ve fully set, if you want to decorate the cake like I did, I cut them in half and set aside until everything else was ready.

Make the cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and grease and line 3 8-inch cake pans. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, add your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine and set aside.

3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the sugar and butter. You should be beating this on medium speed and scraping the bowl as needed for about 5 minutes.

4. Add your eggs, making sure to mix them in the batter one at a time.

5. Next, add in the lemon extract, buttermilk, zest, and juice and mix until combined.

6. Pour in the dry ingredients and combine the batter on low speed, stopping once the flour has fully disappeared.

7. Evenly pour the cake batter into the pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes, checking with a cake tester to ensure they’re fully baked.

8. Remove cakes from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan and letting them come to room temperature completely.

Make the buttercream

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, pour your egg whites, powdered sugar, and salt. Beat on medium speed for about 5-7 minutes.

2. Add vanilla and going tablespoon-by-tablespoon while mixing on low, add in your butter.

3. Once all the butter has been added, add in your zest and increase the speed to medium and continue mixing for 10 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl as needed.

4. Set aside.

Assemble

1. On a cake plate, place on layer of your cake.

2. Add frosting to piping bag and pipe the rim of the first cake layer with frosting and then enough to cover the layer.

3. Spoon 1/2 of the marmalade and spread out. Repeat this with the next layer.

4. Top the cake with the final layer and add additional frosting to the very top. At this point, you will want to crumb coat the cake, which includes having a thin layer of frosting spread throughout the entire cake.

5. Set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

6. Remove from the fridge and continue frosting the cake with an additional coating of frosting. Use a bench scraper, butterknife, or an offset spatula to get a smooth edge throughout the entire cake.

7. With the candied slices cut in half, add them throughout the cake, with the slices poking out.

   1. You can decorate your cake however you’d like! I know I’m not the cleanest with my frosting, so I’m always excited to cover up any mistakes with garnish like this.

8. Enjoy!