Wednesday, August 1, 2012

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
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


Jacqueline
Jacqueline

Chocolat - French for Chocolate. I adored chocolate from a young age when I had to sneak in the cupboard to find where my mother had hidden the Nestle's Chocolate Chips. Having read about the famous chocolat shoppes in Paris, when I finally got there I was determined to try a chocolate from every Paris shoppe. I invite you to share my adventures in creating, in travel, and in life.

22 comments:

  1. Your lemonade cake looks yummy! It certainly sounds refreshing, and I see you have the most adorable mermaid too!

    I have recently returned from an extended blog break, and so has Potpourri Friday! I hope you will be linking up as you did in the past!

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  2. Jacqueline, I'll be making this cake. Love lemon desserts. I shared a recipe for lemon pie today. You need to link this to Favorites on the First with Alison @ Polohouse. This month is Favorite Recipes.
    Love the mermaid tail. You would look adorable in one of these. ;-)
    Thanks for the line. I'm forwarding it to a friend ~ Sarah

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  3. It's beautiful..but your mermaid takes the cake:)

    How cute is that!!??

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  4. Your cake turned out beautiful Jacqueline! Yellow is such a fun and festive color, no doubt it was a big hit! Cute little mermaid:@)

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  5. What a pretty looking cake, and I'm so glad for you that it turned out well. The lemon drops are the perfect addition.
    Maureen

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  6. That is just so pretty and I bet it tastes just like summer. I may have to make that this month.

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  7. Hello Jacqueline
    You were brave to tackle the cake and have to make changes. Your experience kicked in and the result was a tasty cake perfect for a pool party.
    Your little mermaid is adorable.
    Judith

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  8. How adorable is this little mermaid!

    Oh my...the cake looks so moist and mouthwatering! The perfect summer dessert!!

    Shug

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  9. Seriously....it's like you could just wring that bad boy out! It looks so incredibly moist!!! I love a delicately flavored lemon cake, and I think I like this one even more because it doesn't have that artificial yellow coloring to it. Delicious!!!

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  10. This cake is so cute and fun! I love the pop of yellow from the flowers.

    Off to get one of those tails! My 4 year old is going to freak out! Thanks! xo

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  11. Lemon desserts are my favorite and this is such a perfect cake. What a lovely mermaid, too =)

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  12. Hi Jacqueline! I had read the recipe for lemonade cake and WAS going to backe it for a pool party but NOW i am going to use ur recipe cause BOY! does ur cake with the added suprise of the leamond drops TAKE THE CAKE!! thanks 4 ur creativeity and style!

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  13. Oh, lemon desserts are my favorite ANY time of year. Well, in the Fall I do love apple pie...ala mode:):) Your cake looks SO good. XO, Pinky

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  14. Hey Jacqueline! That is a really good looking lemonade cake! I totally want some of that!

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  15. Thank goodness your baking expertise knew better to bake the layers longer! It looks beautiful and sounds delicious.

    How adorable Emma The Mermaid is :)

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  16. What a cute mermaid you have pictured!!! I hope she was able to snatch a piece of your lemonade cake. Thanks for telling us about all your revisions. Wish I had a bite right about now.

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  17. Jacqueline, I love the lemon drops in the cake and the decoration. The frosting sounds amazing!

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  18. The cake looks amazing, but cant get over how cute that mermaid tail is! What a great find!

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  19. Your cake looks yummy, I think lemon is of refreshing. Glad the cake turned out great, Laura

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  20. It looks fresh and delish for the summer. Anything with Lemon Curd is fine with me. Love the fresh flowers on top. Joni

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  21. The cake looks so tempting! Maybe I should "make and take " it to my sisters "do day" which we do once a week. And the little mermaid is delightful!

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  22. Hi there
    What could I use instead of the lemonade concentrate? What is it exactly? Is it those small bottles which to mix with water to a certain volume of liquid and is it in liquid format even though it's frozen? Haven't seen such here in South Africa. Beautiful cake!! would love to make during this week. thank you for sharing it.

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