The Cake

So, last year L requested a “Buttery Lemon Citrus Cake” for her birthday, and I discovered the first cake I’ve ever met that I didn’t like.  This year, she requested a chocolate cake, which is unusual for her, because she usually says she doesn’t like chocolate.  Then she casually remarked that she wanted chocolate cake because it’s mine and S’s favorite.  While I found that very sweet, I had to set her straight that her birthday cake was for her.  If she wanted chocolate, she could have it, if she wanted something else, I would make it for her.  I had her go through my cookbooks, and she settled on this:

Easy Lemon Cake from Kraft Recipes

But … I can’t ever do something easy, and this one called for a boxed lemon cake mix.  So, I got a recipe from a friend for lemon cake and lemon frosting.

This was the first time I tried out a recipe that used 7up as the rising agent.  I’d heard of people using soda in cakes, but I hadn’t done it myself.  When the cake rose up without problems, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I think I may cook my cakes a little longer than needed, but I’ve also bitten into a raw middle piece of cake, and I prefer a little over to a little under.

 

I was worried about the pudding layer on top of the cake.  The recipe from Kraft said to frost with cool whip, but I was making the frosting recipe that came with my friend’s cake recipe.  I added two extra tablespoons of cream to loosen it up, so it would spread nicely over the pudding layer.

I think it turned out well.  At least, before I wrote one it … I don’t have the best handwriting with a pen, so when I try to write with a bag of icing … well, it looks like this:

And when you cut it open, it looks like this:

Ok, so it’s not the same as the picture from the Kraft website, but I do think it turned out well, and L sat down and ate her whole piece!  If I do it again, I may add some lemon extract to the cake and the frosting.  It was enough to make you think of a lemon, but not quite bold enough for me.  Still, it was very good.