Lemonade Cake

You know that feeling after you drink a big glass of lemonade on a hot day?  The kind of feeling that comes with the exhalation of breath?  Thats how this cake leaves you feeling.  

As a caregiver I've worked with a lot of people and so it's safe to say that I work with the most adorable 12 year old girl in the world! She's so sweet and funny that when my mom came to visit I couldn't help but want her to meet my adorable weekday charge. So we decided on dinner together, and not wanting to be freeloaders we decided to bring dessert.  One of my friends on facebook had pinned this recipe from pinterest and I'd looked at it briefly, debating perhaps on something else.  I'm glad that I chose this in the end because it was delicious.  

 So delicious that I decided to make it for my Grandma's birthday, and it was super delicious then too!(Ps. that's me and my grandma in the picture)

This cake is super easy to make and since some of the reviews I saw said that the lemon taste wasn't noticeable I added more lemonade concentrate.  The second time I made it I squeezed half the lemon juice into the cake batter and the other half into the frosting.  I've included the changes into the below recipe.

Cake Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons softened butter

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

4 tablespoons thawed lemonade concentrate

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 whole large eggs

2 large egg whites

2 cups-all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 lemon (optional) (if you don't want to waste the lemon after you get its rind you can squeeze half of it into your cake batter before you add the dry ingredients)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. To prepare the cake place the sugar, butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate, and vanilla extract.  Beat these ingredients together on medium speed until it's well blended.
3.Add the eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating mixture well after each one.
4. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.  Blend together
5.  Alternate adding dry mixture and buttermilk.  Start and end with the flour mixture. Beat well after each addition to the mixture.
6.  Pour the batter into 2 round cake pans (9-inch) coated in cooking spray.  Make sure to tap the pans once on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
7.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out of the center clean.
8.  Cool the cake.  (The original recipe says 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans, and cool on wire rack)



The link to the frosting recipe is:
 http://experimentsinsweets.blogspot.com/2012/06/lemonade-frosting.html