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Learn how to make this unique and light and fluffy lemon rosemary cake with lemon cream cheese frosting complete with step by step pictures. This is my favorite fluffy yellow cake recipe that always comes out tender and moist! 

Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I made a cake this weekend. That sounds like a small statement. But listen to me when I say: this is a big statement!

Cake is my baking arch enemy. I have just had so many failures with cakes. If you saw my last post, you know that this was the cake I had planned to make for my birthday.

I decided to make a giant cookie instead because I knew it would be far less stressful and much more enjoyable for me to eat. But I was determined to make this cake anyway. And man, am I proud of it!

Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting with a slice taken out

We bakers are known for our patience. Well, let me tell you this: I am not patient! Not at all. And this cake took me all freaking morning to make so it also took all my energy to keep myself in the cake baking game. To keep myself from taking any shortcuts and to just plain finish.

I give those wedding cake bakers mad cred. They deserve it.

A slice of Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I kept the look of the frosting on this one simple. The reasons for this is 3-fold.

#1: I wanted it to look a little old fashioned.

#2: I pretty much only like cream cheese frosting and it’s not the easiest to work with as far as decorating.

#3: Let’s be honest, I don’t have any cake frosting skillz (with a z). This is the best I could do. One challenge at a time, folks! One challenge at a time.

The cake turned out really light and fluffy! I am pretty pumped about the success! So I wanted to try something different for this post. I did step-by-step photos to help your cake turn out as light and fluffy as mine did!

Let me know how you feel about me doing my posts like this for the future. Helpful? Annoying?

Click here to skip all the way down to the recipe!

All of my ingredients measured out and set in place

Everything is going to go a lot more smoothly if you get all your mise en place (getting everything in it’s place) before you start.

Trust me. Then you know you need to run out in the ice to get more sugar before you actually start mixing anything (not that I had that problem or anything).

Hopefully you also put those eggs and that buttermilk out in enough time to come to room temperature too! You want a fluffy cake right? Okay, then. Let’s do this right!

2 cake tins buttered and floured to prevent sticking

Preheat your oven to 350F! (not really sure why that deserved and exclamation mark)

Spray two 8″ or 9″ cake pans and dust with flour. Tap out the excess flour and set pans aside while you get your batter together! (things are getting exciting! more exclamations!)

Dry ingredients being sifted together

Gather up a large bowl, a sifter, the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar and set aside for later. Sift together everything (minus the 1/4 cup sugar).

Dry ingredients being sifted together with a whisk and colander

I like to use a whisk to speed things along since I don’t have a hand crank sifter. Baker’s trick!

Dry ingredients all together in a bowl being whisked

Give it all one more quick whisk to combine everything and set the dry ingredients aside.

All wet ingredients measured out and ready to go

Moving on to the wet stuff! Grab your egg yolks, melted butter, oil, vanilla, buttermilk, lemon zest, and chopped rosemary.

Wet ingredients whisked together in a bowl

And give them all a quick whisk together and set aside.

Whew! This is hard work.

Egg whites after being whipped until fluffy in a mixing bowl

Now whip your egg whites in the mixer with the whisk attachment. Stream in the 1/4 cup sugar you reserved earlier with the mixer on high just until stiff peaks form. Like those ^ up there!

You just made simple meringue yo! Good for you!

The fluffy meringue in a bowl

GENTLY move the meringue from the mixing bowl into a clean mixing bowl and set aside. GENTLY! Capiche?

The wet ingredients being poured into the dry ingredients

Finally, we can start making the batter! Add that dry ingredient mixture to the mixing bowl and with the mixer on low speed gradually pour in the wet ingredients.

Dry and wet ingredients being mixed together in stand mixer

Mix for only about 10 seconds then shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Mix for about 20 more seconds on low speed and shut off. We don’t want to over develop the glutens here! We took all this time to get everything together let’s keep things light and tender!

Meringue being gently folded into the mixing bowl of combined wet and dry ingredients

GENTLY fold 1/2 the meringue into the batter being very careful not to deflate the meringue.  GENTLY fold the rest of the meringue into the batter.

Fully mixed batter in the mixing bowl

You will have a few white streaks in the batter. They will bake out. You want to fold as little as possible to keep the cake light and fluffy!

Batter after poured into 2 cake tins

GENTLY divide the batter evenly between your prepared pans. Are you noticing a trend? GENTLE!

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through.

Cake layers after being baked and cooling on a rack

Cool on a wire wrack. Ignore the imperfections! The top will become the bottom!

All frosting ingredients measured out and ready to go

Make your frosting while the cake cools! Lemon cream cheese frosting!

Now frost your cake, take some pictures, and share with someone special!

Collage of finished cake photos and the frosting in a bowl

The cake is not overly sweet and I am obsessed with the herbaceousness that the rosemary brings! You’ve probably noticed the thing I have for rosemary in baked goods.

There were those one cookies and those one cinnamon rolls and those waffles too! If you aren’t down with it, leave it out! The cake with just lemon would be awesome too!

Hey! I baked a cake! And it doesn’t look terrible! And it tastes pretty darn awesome! Don’t worry, it will probably only take me like a year and a half to do another one.

One Year Ago: 
Cheddar Jalapeno and Thyme Quick Bread

Two Years Ago: 
Peanut Butter Banana Bacon Cake

Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting with a sprig of rosemary and lemon wedge as decoration on top

A slice of Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Fluffy Lemon-Rosemary Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting with a sprig of rosemary and lemon wedge as decoration on top
Yield: about 20 servings

Fluffy Lemon Rosemary Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Cooling Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 5 minutes

Learn how to make this unique and light and fluffy lemon rosemary cake with lemon cream cheese frosting complete with step-by-step pictures. This is my favorite fluffy yellow cake recipe that always comes out tender and moist! 

Ingredients

For the cake

  • 288 grams (2 ½ cups) cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 350 grams (1 ¾ cups) granulated sugar, divided (you need 300 grams/ 1 ½ cups for the dry ingredients and 50 grams/ ¼ cup for the egg foam)
  • ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
  • 70 grams (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 113 grams (½ cup, 120 milliliters) neutral oil, canola, vegetable, or avocado
  • 240 grams (1 cup, 240 milliliters) buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 105 grams (about 6 large) egg yolks, room temperature
  • 95 grams (about 3 large) egg whites, room temperature

For the Frosting

  • 452 grams (16 ounces, 2 blocks) full fat cream cheese, room temperature
  • 113 grams (8 tablespoons, 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 840 grams (7 cups) powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

PREP

  1. At least 1 hour before making the frosting, take the cream cheese (452 grams/ 16 ounces) and butter (113 grams/ 8 tablespoons) out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature.
  2. At least 30 minutes before preparing your batter, take the eggs (6 total) and buttermilk (240 grams/ 1 cup) out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. Separate the eggs.
  3. Measure out the rest of the ingredients.
  4. Position an oven rack to the center position. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. 
  5. Prepare 3- 8 inch (20 cm) or 2- 9 inch (23 cm) round baking pans by spraying with non-stick spray and lining with parchment paper.

Make the cake

  1. Sift the cake flour(288 grams/ 2 ½ cups), baking powder (1 teaspoon), baking soda(¼ teaspoon), and granulated sugar(300 grams/ 1 ½ cups) into a large bowl and then whisk together to combine. Whisk in the salt(¾ teaspoon) and the minced fresh rosemary(1 tablespoon). Set aside.
  2. Into a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter (70 grams/ 5 tablespoons), oil (113 grams/ ½ cup), buttermilk(240 grams/ 1 cup), vanilla extract(2 teaspoons), lemon zest(1 tablespoon), and egg yolks (105 grams/ about 6 large). Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites (95 grams/ about 3 large) on medium speed until they start forming soft peaks. 
  4. With the mixer still running, very slowly stream in the granulated sugar (50 grams/ ¼ cup) and keep beating until you reach stiff peaks.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and stir together with a rubber spatula just until the dry ingredients are saturated. 
  6. Start by adding about a quarter of the egg whites into the batter and stir it in completely to lighten the batter. Next add in half of the rest of the egg whites and gently fold them in being careful not to deflate. Add in the rest of the egg whites and fold gently until completely combined.
  7. Transfer the batter into your prepared pans dividing the batter evenly.
  8. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean about 20-25 minutes.
  9. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a thin bladed knife around the sides of the pans to loosen cakes then invert on a greased wire rack. Allow to cool completely (about 1 more hour) before frosting.

For the Frosting

  1. Place the room temperature cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer. Mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides. 
  2. Add the powdered sugar (840 grams/ 7 cups), lemon zest (2 tablespoons), vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), and salt (½ teaspoon) into the mixing bowl and start mixing on low until the sugar starts to combine with the cream cheese mixture. Turn the mixing speed up to medium-high and beat for about 3 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Assemble

*(view this article for more detailed instruction on assembling layered cakes)

  1. Stack and fill the cake layers with frosting in between.
  2. Cover the outside of the cake on all sides and top with frosting. Use an offset spatula to smooth the frosting or use the back of a spoon to create a swirled pattern.
  3. Optional: Add lemon slices and fresh or sugared rosemary for decoration.

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© Bettie
Category: All Recipes