Purple Cake with Lemon Buttercream

Purple Cake with Lemon Buttercream is cut into mini individual cakes, decorated with fresh blackberries, for a beautiful and tasty dessert.

This Purple Cake is so pretty and tasty, that is perfect for themed parties, and is a hit with kids and adults alike! I am obsessed with color purple, and I love making Unicorn Cupcakes, Magic Purple Cake and Ube Muffins.

Purple Cake With Lemon Buttercream

Purple Cake with refreshing lemon zest and lavender extract is the cake that you have to try this summer! With a vibrant color and amazing flavor, this cake is also incredibly easy to make. The cakes is soft and moist and topped with a sweet vanilla buttercream. The best part of this recipe is that it’s easy to follow and you can make the cake in any color you would like. I like to cut it into individual mini cakes, that are almost too pretty to eat.

Why You’ll Love This Purple Cake with Lemon Buttercream:

• The cake is gorgeous, with a beautiful purple color, a mild vanilla taste and a refreshing lemon buttercream.
• The cake is very easy to make, you basically bake a huge one layer cake and cut it into squares.
• The individual desserts are the perfect single serving, looking also festive and easy to transport.
• The cake is perfect for a special occasion, like a baby shower or birthday.
• Super fun to make with kids.

Tips and Tricks to Make the Best Purple Cake with Lemon Buttercream:

• Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature.
• Make sure to have enough gel food coloring as just a few drops are not enough to make this cake purple.
• You can customize the cake and use lavender extract instead of vanilla, also you can make the cake a different color.
• Vanilla beans can be replaced with vanilla extract.
• Don’t skip the lemon zest, it adds a punch of fresh lemony flavor to the cream.
• Be careful not to over-bake the cake, start checking after 25 mins of baking.

How to make lemon zest?

Follow these easy steps below:

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• Rinse the lemon.
• Set your tool over a cutting board. A microplane produces a very fine zest, perfect for baking and cooking. If you don’t have a microplane, use the smallest holes on an ordinary grater.
• Grate the yellow skin of the lemon only. Grate just enough to get through the yellow skin, this way you can avoid the bitter white pith underneath.
• Rotate the lemon and repeat. Once the white pith is exposed, rotate the lemon and zest the next strip of peel. Repeat until most of the peel is removed, or until you have enough zest for your recipe.

Can you use lemon juice instead of lemon zest?

Yes! Lemon zest adds citrus flavor to your recipes, including desserts, main dishes, and more. If you don’t have a lemon and a zester handy, you can use regular store-bought lemon juice. 1 medium-size lemon = approximately 1 tablespoon of lemon zest = 2 to 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

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Tools/Ingredients I used to make the Vanilla Purple Cake with Lemon Buttercream:

• Sheet Pan – I love these pans, they are 17×12 inches and also have a lifetime warranty, can be used for desserts, cookies and savory recipes
• Square Cookie Cutter – can be used to cut square cookies or to cut mini cakes
• Gel Food Coloring – I like having a range of colors of hand for when I bake something fun, gel food coloring is the best as it doesn’t add extra moisture to the batter or frosting
• Vanilla Extract – love this vanilla extract, the flavor is great, I always have some on hand
• Piping Bags – I like using disposable piping bags, I really don’t like the idea of cleaning another item after I make cupcakes and frosting
• Piping Tips Set – I used the star tip to pipe my frosting, this is a great set at a very good price
• Cake Leveler – Absolutely love this one, I use to remove my cake crowns and to make the flat

Print

4.86 from 7 votes

Servings: 9 people

Purple Cake With Lemon Buttercream

Prep Time:

1 hr

Cook Time:

45 mins

Total Time:

1 hr 45 mins

Purple Cake With Lemon Buttercream is cut into mini individual cakes, decorated with fresh blackberries, for a beautiful and tasty dessert.

Ingredients

Vanilla Purple Cake:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter (1½ cups/340grams), at room temperature, plus more for the pan
• 4½ cups all-purpose flour plus more for the pans
• 1½ tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2½ cups white granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs room temperature
• 2 vanilla beans seeds only or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1½ cup heavy cream or whole milk*
• 15 drops purple food gel color or violet you can use more or less, depending of the color you want to achieve

Lemon Buttercream:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature
• 4-6 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 4-6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice depending how lemony you want the buttercream
• pint of fresh blackberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a half sheet pan ( 17"x12"x1") with parchment paper, spray with baking spray or grease with butter and dust the pan with a little flour, tapping out the excess.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla seeds (or vanilla extract) and gel food coloring.
5. On low speed, start beating in the flour mixture into the butter in 3 batches, alternating with the heavy cream (or milk), beginning and ending with the flour mixture, until just smooth. Add more food gel color if needed for the desired color.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until the cake is lightly golden on top and the center springs back when pressed, 30 - 35 minutes, depending on the oven, start checking after 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean. I baked mine for 32 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, after that, with the help of the parchment paper, slide the cake from the pan, to the counter to cool completely.
8. Once completely cooled, trim the top of the cake with a long serrated knife or a cake leveler to make it even. Trim the sides of the cake.
9. Using a stainless steel square form, cut the cake into mini cakes and set aside.

Lemon Buttercream:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar starting on low speed, I added 4 cups, if you want the buttercream sweeter you can add 1 more cup of confectioners sugar. Mix in lemon zest and lemon juice. Stop to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Assemble:

1. Pipe lemon frosting over a layer of cake, top with another layer of cake, followed by the last (top layer) of lemon frosting and decorate with fresh blackberries. Repeat with the remaining cakes.
2. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
3. Store cakes in the fridge. The cake is better served same day, when it's the most tender and fresh, second day it's also good, but by the third day, it may start to dry out as it's not fully covered in frosting.
4. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

* Use milk for a lighter, more airy texture and use heavy whipping cream for a more denser, rich texture.
*You can use lavender extract to make a lavender cake, or you can use peach extract and peach color to make a peach cake. You can play with the flavor color combo as you want.

Here is a step-by-step video of how to make the Purple Cake Recipe:

Calories: 703, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 114mg, Sodium: 325mg, Potassium: 462mg, Carbohydrates: 156g, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 109g, Protein: 10g, Vitamin A: 6.4%, Vitamin C: 4.4%, Calcium: 23%, Iron: 27.9%

Author: Catalina Castravet

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Purple Cake

All images and text © for Peas and Peonies, LLC.

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