Guest Post: Lemonade Layer Cake

Jen is one of my first and oldest blogging friends (old like time wise; she’s very young. phew.) So, I’m v.v. glad to have her here to take care of me while I’m not pregnant anymore (!!!). Here she is with the dangerous:

Hi everyone! I’m Jen from A Ginger’s Guide to Parenting & Design and I’m so happy to be filling in for Jenna while she’s busy snuggling her new little man. I’ve got a little man of my own and he’s super fun. Hopefully Jenna bought enough pee-pee tepees. Those boys love to surprise you.

Today I’m going to share with you one of my very favorite summer desserts to make: a Lemonade Layer Cake. It’s super citrusy, light and delicious. And it’s easy, did I mention that?

Cake:

1 1/3 cups sugar
6 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsp thawed lemonade concentrate
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ cups fat free buttermilk

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Place first five ingredients in mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until well blended, about five minutes.
3. Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl. Mix well.
5. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture. Begin and end with flour mixture and beat well after each addition.
6. Pour batter into two 9-inch round cake pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray.
7. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from pans and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

2 tbsp softened butter
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp thawed lemonade concentrate
½ tsp vanilla extract
8 oz low fat cream cheese
3 ½ cups powdered sugar

1. Place first five ingredients in mixing bowl and beat at high speed until fluffy.
2. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not over beat.
3. Chill in the fridge for one hour.

Ok now here’s the fancy part.  Place one cake layer on a plate and spread with ½ cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.

If you are living with someone who loves lemon cake as much as my husband does, you can give it even more of a lemon boost by adding some lemon gel on top. Like in my picture, I added some on top of the cake as well as in between the layers. Definitely gave it a nice kick.

And that’s it! I am not usually a huge fan of baking because most things take way too long, and I usually have to cook with a two year old trying to climb my leg, but this was really easy. And really delicious. The lemon cream cheese frosting is my favorite part. I could probably (and may already have) eaten a few spoonfuls of it on its own. Maybe.