Lemonade Cake

Did you have a lemonade or candy stand as a child?

My children did for years and years and lemonade

just reminds me of summer.

I saw a yummy picture of this on Pinterest and had

saved it for the summer.  We have a lunch group

and during the summer we gather at my friend Barb's

pool.  We bring our children and now our grandchildren

and do pot luck for lunch so I decided the pool party was

the perfect place to try out the lemonade cake.

I popped the cake in the oven the night before and then sat

down and read the reviews.  The recipe came from

My Recipes.Com and is a Cooking Light recipe.

I quickly began to panic as half the reviews said they took one

bite and threw the whole cake out.  I started making a back-up

plan in my mind as to what I could whip up in the morning.

First let me say that as I read the recipe and it said to bake

the layers for 20 minutes, I knew that was the first big mistake.

Where I come from, a layered cake has to be baked around 30-35

minutes.  Many of the reviewers said their cakes fell.  Aha - not

enough cooking time.  

I set the timer for 30 minutes and checked it and it needed another

5 minutes.  It raised, it looked good, it smelled good, but how

to taste a little of it and not be embarrassed as I served it.

Reviewers didn't love the cream cheese frosting recipe either -

I wondered if that was because it was "light".  Now this I

could change as I hadn't made that yet.  So in the morning 

I made my own recipe for a lemony cream cheese frosting.

Then I decided to garnish it with crushed lemon drops and

that led to crushed lemon drops between each layer.

Since everyone in the lunch group knows

I am a food blogger,

I decided to take some photos at home, including a slice of

cake (the above photo).  That let me take a little snitch of the

cake and YES, I liked it.  It got to come to the pool with me.

Everyone there liked it too and they especially loved the crunch

of the lemon drops between layers.

Lemonade Cake

(I changed the recipe to create 3 - 8 inch layers.)

2 C. granulated sugar

9 T. soft butter

1 1/2 T. grated lemon rind

4 1/2 T. thawed lemonade concentrate

3 tsp. clear vanilla

3 large eggs

3 large egg whites

3 C. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 7/8 C. buttermilk

Heat the oven to 350.

In mixing bowl beat the first 5 ingredients until fluffy - for a full 5 min.

Add the eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating well between

each one.  Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and stir

together with a whisk.  Beat the flour mix into the butter mix

alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.

Scrape the sides of the bowl often.

Prepare 3 - 8 inch pans by cutting out parchment paper to fit

the bottoms of the pans.  I don't grease my pans, just use parchment

paper.  This way the grease doesn't interfere with the cake rising

and you get nice flat layers.  Spoon the batter evenly into the

three pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes

out clean.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife around

the edge of the pan to release the cake from the pan.  Turn upside

down on a cooling rack.  Let cool completely.

Frosting

10 oz. jar lemon curd

(I like Dickinson's or Trader Joe's.)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 C. powdered sugar

pinch salt

1/2 C. crushed lemon drops.

In a large mixer bowl beat the lemon curd and the cream cheese until 

smooth.  Beat in the powdered sugar and salt.  Beat until smooth.

The frosting will be very soft at this point so place the bowl in 

the fridge for about 20 - 30 minutes to help it firm up.

Place a small amount of frosting on serving platter to

hold cake in place.  Place a layer on and frost the top, then

sprinkle some crushed lemon drops on.  Continue with the

remaining layers.  Finish by frosting the sides and top and

garnish with crushed lemon drops.  

I had these African daisies in my garden so I used them to

top the cake.

Summery goodness in every bite.

Whoa, look who swam up out of the deep to have a bite of cake

with us.  This is Mermaid Emmy.

 You can find her fun mermaid tail

at The2Tails.com

She added her own tankini top.

You can also find the mono fin that goes inside by Googling

mermaid fin (around $30) and you could sew your own out of

sparkly swimsuit fabric. 

(We more mature ladies are toying with the idea of making

mermaid tails for ourselves! Now that would make a funny picture.) 

I will be posting with

On The Menu Monday

Foodie Friday

Seasonal Sunday