This delicious and easy Lemon cake with Marmalade frosting is one of the best desserts you can make with leftover marmalade or jam. A perfect fruit dessert for parties and holidays.
I prefer it with blueberry jam, but you can make it with lemon or orange marmalade too!
What kind of recipe is this
This is a very easy celebration cake made of two spongy layers and delicious cream cheese frosting with blueberry jam. In fact the kind of jam is not really important since almost all fruits go well with the lemon layers.
This recipe was inspired by a similar one from the blog Searching for Spice.
What ingredients you need
This recipe calls for simple, easy to find ingredients.
For the layers you would need: eggs, yogurt, all purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, butter and some salt.
The frosting is made with cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, jam of choice, vanilla and optionally again some lemon zest.
Tips for making the layers
The layers are very easy to make, starting first with the eggs and the sugar. The key for fluffy layers is to b them for at least 4-5 minutes in order to increase their volume.
The second important step is to add the wet ingredients one by one and at the end - the dry ones, mixed very well in advance.
This cake can be made in one single 7 inch/ 18 cm pan but for faster baking you can divide the batter between two pans.
How to make the frosting
Simply whip the powdered sugar and the butter and then add the rest of the ingredients: cream cheese, flavors and the marmalade. The more you beat them with the mixer, the fluffier the frosting will become.
What is the best marmalade for this recipe
Blueberry jam is my favourite but you can also try with a lemon or orange marmalade. Strawberry and raspberry jam would work equally well.
It is important though the consistency of your jam if including whole fruits to be smooth like a marmalade. So you may need to use a food processor to puree it.
Is this recipe easy
Like many other desserts in my blog, this cake is also quite easy to make.
It takes about 20 minutes to prepare the batter, another 45-55 minutes to bake it and then it's only a matter of waiting it to cool down.
The frosting is made literally in 5 minutes.
If you prefer a simpler cake, you can just spread the frosting on top without cutting the cake in layers. In this case just use a slightly bigger pan like 23-24 cm / 9 inch.
If you liked this recipe, I am sure you would also like the following ones:
📝 Recipe
Lemon Cake with Marmalade Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup/ 230 g yogurt
- 2 cups/ 240 g all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1,5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup/ 200 g sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract , or zest of 1 large organic lemon
- ¼ cup/ 60 g butter, melted
- ⅓ teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
- ¼ cup/ 60 g butter, soft
- 6,1 oz/ 175 g cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract , or zest of 1 large organic lemon
- 1 ⅔ cup/ 200 g powdered sugar
- ¼ cup/ 60 g jam, or marmalade by choice (see notes)
Instructions
Cake:
- Remove the eggs and the yogurt from the fridge 30 minutes before making the cake. Melt the butter.
- Preheat oven to 360° F/ 180° C. Line a 18-20 cm (7-8 inch) cake pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease well the pan.
- Combine flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.
- Beat sugar and eggs in a large bowl until the mixture thickens and becomes pale (5-6 minutes).
- One by one add yogurt, vanilla and lemon extract and beat until smooth. Add melted butter and beat shortly, until combined.
- Gradually add the flour and mix gently with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes. Make sure that a wooden skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean or just with a few crumbs. Let the cake cool until room temperature before frosting it.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl beat the soft butter and powdered sugar for 2-3 minutes until fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
Assemble the cake:
- With a serrated knife cut the cake horizontally into 2 or 3 layers. Place one layer on a cake stand and spread some frosting on top. Repeat with the remaining layers. Spread the rest of the frosting all around the cake. Decorate with lemon slices and basil leaves.
Notes
- You can bake the cake in two 7 inch/ 18 cm pans. This will decrease the baking time to 35-40 min. In this cake you can try cut each layer into two or simply assemble just the two together.
- This cake can be made in a larger pan (up to 9 inch/ 23 cm) and frosted just on top.
- You can use any kind of jam or marmalade but it has to be smooth, without whole fruits inside. If your jam has chunks of fruit, blend it in a food processor before using it.
- Adapted from Searching for Spice
Corina says
I'm so pleased the cake turned out well and you liked it. I'll have to try it again with lemon!
Daniela says
Thank you so much for the inspiration, Corina! Your blog is so wonderful!
Corina says
Aww thanks Daniela!