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A slice of ginger streusel lemon cake.

High Altitude Ginger Lemon Cake

Heather Smoke
Moist layers of ginger brown sugar cake, filled with lemon curd and crumbled ginger cookies, frosted with fluffy lemon buttercream.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 3 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings16

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment

Ingredients
 

Cake

  • 2 ¾ cups cake flour or all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
  • 1 ¾ tsp baking powder
  • 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 ¾ cups dark brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 ¾ cups buttermilk, room temperature
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream

  • 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
  • zest of 1 small lemon
  • 2 tsp lemon extract
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2-4 tbsp milk or cream

Filling

  • 1 jar (10 oz) lemon curd
  • 1 ½ cups crushed or finely crumbled ginger cookies

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350 and spray three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger.
    In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla.
    Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk just until smooth and combined.  Divide the batter evenly between the pans.
  • Bake cakes for about 28 minutes, until a cake tester in the center comes out clean.  Set the pans on a wire rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely.

Buttercream

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for one minute.
  • With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar and meringue powder, mixing to combine.
  • Add the lemon zest, lemon extract, vanilla and salt, then increase speed to medium and whip for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy, adding the milk if needed to slightly thin the buttercream.

Assembly

  • Remove the cooled cakes from the pans and use a sharp knife to split each layer so that you have six thin layers.  Handle the cake layers gently; when split, they can break apart very easily when you’re picking them up.  Use a large cake lifter, if needed, to move them from your counter onto the cake.
  • Place one cake layer, cut side up, on a cake board or cake pedestal.  Spread thinly with 1/5 of the lemon curd and sprinkle with 1/5 of the crumbled cookies.
    Place the next cake layer on top, and repeat with the lemon curd and cookies until you’ve filled and stacked all the layers.  The last cake should be placed on top with the cut side down.  If you have any uneven areas around the sides, trim them with a sharp knife so that the cake is basically even and straight all the way around.
  • Frost the sides and top with a thin crumb coat of buttercream.  Chill the cake for at least 30 minutes.
  • Fit a piping bag with Wilton tip 1M, and fill the bag with buttercream, then pipe the buttercream on in angled rows up the sides.  Finish with a large spiraled rosette on top of the cake.

Notes

Leftover cake should be stored in an airtight container or cake carrier for up to 3 days.
Keyword Ginger Cake, High Altitude, Lemon
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