High Altitude Citrus Cake with Floral Buttercream
This high altitude citrus cake with floral buttercream is the most beautiful cake for spring. Three layers of moist and tender orange cake, flavored with fresh orange zest and orange juice, are filled with lemon curd. Then I flavored the buttercream with fresh citrus zest from lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit. You can frost the cake simply and decorate it with dried citrus slices, or see today's video tutorial for the piped floral design.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (x3)
- 2 16-inch Disposable Piping Bags
- 6 12-Inch Disposable Piping Bags
- Coupler and Piping Tips (1M, 104, 32)
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp freshly grated orange zest (from 1 navel orange)
- 3 cups cake flour (preferred), or all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 cup orange juice
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
- ⅔ cup lemon curd
Buttercream
- 3 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 1 tsp freshly grated lime zest
- 1 tsp freshly grated grapefruit zest
- gel food coloring ("super red", "electric/neon pink", "lemon yellow", "orange", "warm brown")
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray, line the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment paper, and lightly spray the paper, too.
- In a large bowl, use your fingers to rub the orange zest into the sugar until moist and fragrant.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, then whisk until evenly combined.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, orange juice, oil, melted butter and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk for about 15-30 seconds, until smooth.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean and the centers of the cakes spring back when lightly touched.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt and vanilla, mixing to combine. Add the citrus zest.
- Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy. If the buttercream is too thick, beat in a little milk, one tablespoon at a time.
Assembly and Decorating
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans and peel the paper off the cakes. Place one of the cake layers on a cake plate or pedestal. Frost the top of the cake with a very thin layer of buttercream, leaving a "dam" around the edge. Fill the center with half the lemon curd. Place the second layer of cake on top, and repeat with more buttercream and the rest of the lemon curd. Place the third layer of cake on top.
- Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Chill 30 minutes.
- Frost with a final coat of buttercream and decorate with dried orange slices, or see today's video tutorial, as well as the information above in today's post, for the piped buttercream floral design.
Video
Notes
The cake should be stored in an airtight container or cake carrier for up to three days.
The buttercream recipe makes a large amount of buttercream, which is enough for the piped floral design. If you plan on frosting your cake more simply without any piping, you can cut the buttercream recipe in half.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/