Good Eats: Lemon Cake w/ Rosemary Buttercream

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C of all-purpose flour
• 2 C of granulated white sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 C( 2 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 C of milk
• 1 tbsp of lemon zest

Directions

• Sift into a bowl your flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside
• Mix together butter and sugar until fluffy and well mixed.
• Add eggs to butter mixture, two at a time, mixing only enough to incorporate them. Do Not over mix.
• Add in lemon zest and mix.
• Alternate adding in your dry ingredients and milk. I usually do this in 3 or 4 parts each. Mixing only enough to incorporate everything.
• Scrape sides and give one final quick mix, making sure everything is incorporated
• I personally line my cake pans with butter then flour on the sides, then a layer of parchment paper on the bottom.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-45 mins. The cake should have a light brown crust and a toothpick or thin dowel should come out clean.

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once the mixture begins to boil, immediately remove it from the heat and allow it to sit for about 30 minutes to infuse and cool. Once cool, remove the rosemary. You can brush this onto your layers or use a soaker bottle to saturate your layers after leveling and cutting them. You don’t need to soak them, just quickly go over the layers so that each part is sprinkled with the simple syrup.

Ingredients

• 2 C of unsalted butter
• 4 sprigs of rosemary
• 4 C of sifted powdered sugar

Directions

• Place 1 C of butter and 4 sprigs of Rosemary in a small pot.
• Over medium heat, stir the butter until it’s mostly melted.
• Take it off the heat, continue stirring until all the butter is melted, and allow the rosemary to sit and soak in the butter for at least 30 mins but I recommend an hour or two.
• Once your butter is cooled down and your rosemary has had time to soak, remove the rosemary. If the butter has rehardened, just pull the full sprig of rosemary out and wipe the excess butter down the stem, back into the pan, using clean fingers. I prefer this over reheating the butter because the more your liquify, the less it will stiffen back up when you’re making your buttercream.
• Once you have your infused butter, you want to blend the rest of the butter and gradually, the powdered sugar into it, until its smooth.
• I suggest adding the powdered sugar a cup at a time and tasting as you go, everyone has a preference for sweetness and this way you can gage it and add more or less, based on your personal preference.