Cool Summer Lemon Cake

Of all the flavors, I think lemon beats out chocolate for me. This recipe incorporates all that lemon flavor and is kept cold so makes a cool slice a perfect ending to a meal on a warm evening.

Cool Summer Lemon Cake
1 package lemon cake mix
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 - 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Grease or vegetable oil spray two 8-9-inch round cake pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare the cake mix according to box directions with the addition of the lemon zest and vanilla extract. When the cake is baked and completely cooled, slice each layer in half to form four layers.

In a bowl, mix the two cans of sweetened condensed milk with the lemon juice and lemon extract. Use half the lemon/milk combination to ice between the layers. With the remaining half, fold in the whipped topping and frost the entire cake. This needs chilling overnight before serving.

You could probably do this with orange, too, but I haven't tried it, yet, but am considering it!

Dessert Reconstruction!

I made two pound cakes earlier this week and with only one child on the premise, right now, I had one that wasn't going to get eaten any time soon. Since it was a lemon pound cake and we like lemon around here, I decided to reconstruct it for dessert tonight. I made a lemon pudding and while it was cooling down to lukewarm, I slice up the pound cake into relatively thin slices and arranged them in the bottom of a glass pie pan. I spooned over half of the lemon pudding. I repeated the cake layer and pour on the rest of the pudding and let it spread out to cover all the cake pieces. I save a slice of the pound cake and turned it into crumbs and sauteed them in a bit of butter and orange zest to crisp a bit and sprinkled them over the top layer of pudding. Reconstructed pound cake!

I like leftovers of most anything as it gets our creative juices going when you have to prepare a meal yet want to save a bit of money. I also like the fact that no one can tell you how it should look or taste because it is a new 'invention' and never seen before in the kitchen near you!