This lilac cake has all the things I love in a cake: It’s dense, buttery, rich, and scented with edible flowers and bright citrus. It’s also a very simple cake. There’s only one layer, drizzled with a five-ingredient glaze.
I spent many years as a cake decorator and wedding cake maker, and I used to make all my cakes overly complex. They had all the layers and fillings and frostings. Every cake was a piece of art and a flavor-combining masterpiece.
Then, something changed. Maybe I got older and lazier. But I also realized I wanted to develop cake recipes that anyone could make at home. Cakes that don’t take too much of your precious time and energy, but that still look and taste amazing. Cakes that don’t require a bunch of special equipment and hard-to-find ingredients.
Along the way, I fell in love with simple cakes. I still occasionally make a more complex layer cake (like Chocolate Chili Cake with Passionfruit Curd and Lemon Blueberry Ombre Cake). But I’ve really come to appreciate a one-bowl cake. I swoon over a good single layer cake. And does anything really beat a bundt cake?
Making lilac sugar
Ok, let’s get back to our lovely little lilac cake. Before you make this cake, you’ll need to make lilac sugar. The lilac sugar is what is going to infuse the flavor of fresh flowers into our cake. You can either follow this recipe for lilac sugar, or make some fresh for this cake.
If you’re making lilac sugar fresh for this recipe, you’ll need ¾ cup plus one tablespoon of sugar and about ¾ cup fresh lilac flowers. Be sure to clean and dry the flowers first! Then, blend the sugar and flowers together in a food processor until the flowers are completely broken down.
Edible flower tip
Pluck the lilac flowers off their stems before using. You want to avoid any stems, twigs, or green bits! You can use any color of edible lilacs for this recipe.
Set aside one tablespoon of this lilac sugar for the cream cheese glaze. The rest of it will go into the cake batter.
Making the lemon lilac cake
Once you have lilac sugar ready, the next thing you’ll want to do is butter an 8-inch cake pan and line the bottom of it with parchment paper. The parchment isn’t completely necessary, but it will guarantee that your cake pops right out of the pan without sticking.
Make sure your cream cheese is super soft so it doesn’t leave behind any lumps when you beat it with the butter. Cream the butter and cream cheese with lilac sugar and fresh lemon zest.
Next, alternate adding in your dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, leaveners, and salt) with your wet ingredients (egg yolks, sour cream, milk, vanilla). Fold everything together gently until just blended. Pour the lilac cake batter in the prepared pan and bake it until just finished. The cake should be lightly golden and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Allow the cake to cool completely before glazing. For the glaze, beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth and lump-free. Then, add sugars and lemon zest. Slowly add in the milk, stirring as you go.
The glaze should be smooth and pourable. You may need to add a pinch more milk or powdered sugar to achieve the perfect consistency. More milk will make the glaze looser while more powdered sugar will make it thicker. Drizzle this over the cake and you’re done!
I hope you enjoy this lovely spring cake 🙂
Lemon Lilac Butter Cake
Equipment
- 8-inch cake pan
Ingredients
Lemon Lilac Cake
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 3/4 cup lilac sugar*
- zest of 1 lemon
Cream Cheese Glaze
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lilac sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2-3 tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
For the lemon lilac cake:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sour cream, milk, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a third bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and well combined. Add the lilac sugar and lemon zest; cream until fluffy.
- Add about one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend until almost incorporated. Then add about one third of the wet ingredients and fold in. Repeat alternating the dry and wet ingredients until all ingredients are just blended.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake until lightly golden and center springs back when touched, about 35-40 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely. Invert and remove from pan, removing parchment paper from bottom. Place on a cake plate.
For the cream cheese glaze:
- Beat cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth and lump-free. Add sugars and lemon zest; beat until combined. Slowly add milk, stirring in until blended. Mixture should be smooth and pourable – you may need to add more milk or more powdered sugar to achieve the perfect consistency.
- Drizzle over cooled caked.
- Slice and serve!
Notes
Did you try this recipe?
Be sure to leave a comment below!
