Harley Quinn Lemon Cake
Updated: Sep 1, 2020
Harley Quinn Lemon Cake
Celebrate the emancipation of Harley Quinn with this “fantabulous” cake! The black and white exterior has a colorful surprise inside with flavors that pack a punch!
The neon color swirl cake is made from a delicious lemon cake complimented by a lemon cream cheese buttercream. The cake exterior is coated with a layer of sprinkles and topped with tropical Skittles! It’s not quite the egg sandwich that Harley craved in the movie, but do you think she’d like it?!
Servings: 12 Servings
Prep Time: 4 Hours
Total Time: 7 Hours
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
1 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs, room temperature
1 + ½ cup milk, room temperature
6 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 + ½ tablespoon lemon extract
½ + ¼ teaspoon salt
½ + ¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 + ¼ teaspoon baking powder
2+ ¼ cup granulated sugar
4 + ½ cups cake flour
2 lemons (zest)
Lemon Buttercream (x2)
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (2 cups total)
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature (32 oz total)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (4 teaspoons total)
1 teaspoon lemon extract (2 teaspoons total)
6 cups powdered sugar (12 cups total)
Decorations
1 + 1/2 cups white sprinkes
8 oz black fondant
Letter cut-outs
1 bag Tropical Skittles
Instructions
Cake: Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Prep with parchment paper and grease 9 inch cake pans. This cake has four layers, so you will need to prep 4 cake pans. If you don’t have that many, then just grease however many you have. You can re-use the same pans after removing the first cakes!
Cake: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the zest of two lemons. Set aside.
Cake: In another medium sized bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil, and lemon juice. Set aside.
Cake: In a large bowl, beat the room temperature butter until smooth and creamy (1-2 minutes). Add in the granulated sugar and beat until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating until well-incorporated between additions.
Cake: Alternate additions of the milk and flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Mix until well-combined.
Cake: Divide the cake into 5 smaller bowls (~1 ¾ cups of batter in each). Dye the cake yellow, neon pink, purple, neon green, and sky blue. Pour ¼ of each batter into each prepared cake pan like you would a color wheel. Using a knife, swirl the colors together. Be sure to clean the knife in between each swirl so the colors don’t bleed over.
Cake: Bake the cakes for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before removing. If you are doing more than one batch in the same pans, be sure the pans completely cool before re-using them to bake the next batch.
Cake: Once the cakes are cooled, using a cake leveler or a serrated knife, level each of the cakes.
Fondant: This step is best done the day before to allow the fondant letters some time to harden. However, it can be done while the cakes are cooling (that’s what I did!). Roll out 8 ounces of black fondant. Using letter stencils cut out ‘HARLEY QUINN’. Do it as many times as you can. It’s always good to have back-up. Set aside to harden while you prepare the rest of the cake.
Buttercream*: I prefer to make the buttercream in two batches, one for the crumb coat and one for the exterior. I freeze the cake in between the crumb coat and the exterior layer, so I like to have a fresh batch for the second step. However, you are welcome to just do it all at once and save the buttercream!
Buttercream: In a large bowl, beat 1 cup of unsalted butter (room temperature) with 2 8 oz packages of cream cheese. Beat until smooth and creamy (3-5 minutes).
Buttercream: Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of lemon extract. Beat until well incorporated. Add 6 cups of powdered sugar in 2 cup increments. Beat well in between additions.
Assembly: Spread some frosting on the base of a cake board and place one layer of cake on top of it. Pipe a layer of frosting over the layer and then top with another cake layer. Repeat for all four layers of the cake.
Assembly: Spread a generous portion of frosting on the top and on the sides of the cake. Using a bench scraped, go along the sides of the cake until the sides are straight and even. Place the cake in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
Buttercream: Prep the second batch of buttercream, or prepare the remaining half if you did one batch.
Assembly: Pipe a thick swirl of buttercream along the sides and top of the cake. On the top of the cake, use an angled spatula to smooth out the top. Be sure to hold the spatula straight to get the top layer as even as possible. Then go around the cake with the bench scraper. Hold the bench scraper straight as you spin the cake around to make sure you have clean lines on the edges of your cake. Be sure to scrape the excess buttercream off the bench scraper as you twirl to keep the edges straight as possible. You will have residual buttercream on the top of the cake. Smooth it again utilizing the angled spatula. Then go over the top with the bench scraper to get a clean and straight surface on the top of the cake.
Assembly: Place the ‘HARLEY QUINN’ fondant cut-outs along the sides of the cake at an angle, starting at the bottom and working the way to the top of cake. Start each letter pattern about ~ 4 inches from where you started the last. Repeat until the sides of the cake all have the same pattern. Taking a handful of white sprinkles, press the sprinkles against the side of the cake until all sides of the cake are coated with sprinkles.
Assembly: Fill a piping bag with a star tip and pipe swirls along the top edge of the cake. Sprinkle the swirls with more white sprinkles.
Assembly: In the center of the cake, dump the bag of tropical Skittles and spread out until the top of the cake is covered.
Enjoy!
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