Cake Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line the bottoms of three 6″ cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt.

In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated, being careful not to overmix. Add the sour cream, lemon juice and zest, mixing until all ingredients come together.

Pour batter into the three prepared cake pans, and bake in the preheated oven for 22-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.

Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for about 5-10 minutes, and then turn them out on a wire cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. I like to turn my cakes upside down to help them flattten. When the cakes are room temp, I freeze them for 30 minutes to make frosting them easier.

Lemon Curd Directions: Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Be sure to whisk constantly so the mixture doesn’t burn. Cook about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remember that the curd will continue to thicken as it cools! Remove the curd from the heat, and melt in the butter. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Lemon Buttercream Directions: In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until light and fluffy. Add 5 cups powdered sugar one cup at a time, starting your mixer on low and increasing to high with each addition. Add the lemon zest, juice and extracts, mixing on high speed for about 3-4 minutes. Add the additional cup of powdered sugar if necessary. Taste! If you’d like the frosting to taste even more like lemon, add additional zest!

Chocolate Ganache Directions: Combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small mixing bowl. Heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and stir well. Add a few more seconds if the chocolate chips aren’t fully melted. Drizzle the chocolate ganache over the sides of the cake with a spoon, or using a squeeze bottle. Then drizzle the chocolate over the rest of the top of the cake and smooth. For this cake I did an inverted drip, which just means that I frosted the cake, did the drizzle, and flipped it over!