Lemon Cake

I love lemon flavored things.  I don't really like lemon candies, most are too tart but I do like a nice undertone of the flavor in lemon cakes, lemon cookies, lemon in my water/tea, lemonade, lemon bars, Starbucks lemon iced pound cake (YUM!). 

Many moons ago, there use to be Girl Scout cookies where half the box were vanilla sandwich and the other half were lemon sandwich cookies, remember those?  OMGosh, I loved those cookies!  I was so bummed when they discontinued them.  I remember sitting by the pool eating my sleeve of lemon cookies (that froze well hence eating in the summer poolside) and with each cookie I would savor eating it, as you know how many cookies you get in those darn boxes, each one is to be treasured, not devoured since there were so few per box!  Those were the days!  Then they switched to the cookies called Lemonades, those were good but disappointing.   I've tried the lemon sandwich cookies at the grocery store, not nearly as good as the Girl Scout ones.  Man I wish they would bring those back!  I would buy a freezer full of them. 

I have really been craving lemon cake ever since I went to a wedding a few months ago with AMAZING lemon cake.  I've been keeping my eye on several Pinterest recipes and decided to give one a whirl!  This one was pretty good, I wasn't a fan of grating a lemon rind but I got thru it.  This one kind of seem more pound cake-like than the fluffy consistency I was hoping for but it was still very good and seem to got better as it was refrigerated.   I was pretty proud of myself, this recipe is completely from scratch, beginning to end, I used no shortcuts, and actually enjoyed making it (other than that grating the lemon, that part sucked).  

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind 
• 3 tablespoons thawed lemonade concentrate
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 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 fat-free buttermilk
• Cooking spray
• Frosting:
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 
• 2 teaspoons thawed lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare cake, place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat well after each addition.
3. Pour batter into 2 (9-inch) round cake pans coated with cooking spray; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
4. To prepare frosting, place 2 tablespoons butter and the next 4 ingredients (2 tablespoons butter through cream cheese) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, and beat at low speed just until blended (do not overbeat). Chill 1 hour.
5. Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Source: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/lemonade-layer-cake-10000000249959/