Pink lemonade cake is a sweet treat for dessert. Its pretty pink color makes it perfect for a girl’s birthday or baby shower, though!

Originally Published in the Greenwood Daily Journal Saturday September 17, 2011

You would think that because I write a food column and also have a cooking website that I would be an excellent baker.  Don’t get me wrong, if the cake stays in the pan to be iced or glazed then I am fine.  It is only when I try to remove it from the pan and layer it that I encounter problems.

I even asked one of the best bakers I know, my mother, what I was doing wrong.  She told me to make sure I always use my mixer.  It was like she knew I was often cutting corners by just using a whisk.  Her cakes were so light and fluffy.  They never fell apart in the middle or cracked.

Envision me, late at night (when I remembered I needed to make a dessert for something) frantically pasting a pink lemonade layer cake back together with more icing than any human really needs to consume in one sitting.  My line of thought was that if I covered it with more icing then no one would know that I had messed it up.  I guess I forgot about what it would look like when it was sliced.

When it comes to baking…I am more Lucille Ball and less Betty Crocker.

This is a widely known fact in my family.  My kids don’t even ask me for a homemade cake for their birthday parties.  I want to give a big thank you to A Piece of Cake in Greenwood for coming to my rescue every February and May.  Except for this year, I made a peanut butter and chocolate custard pie for my son’s twelfth birthday and it turned out perfectly!

When I volunteered to make the cake for my grandmothers birthday dinner a few years ago, I was so proud that no one told me that they would bring a ‘back up’ birthday cake.  I found the perfect recipe that I thought I could handle, laid out all of my ingredients, started early and made the best coconut cake with lime curd filling I have ever had.  This was a fluke, though. Since then, I have made some real bricks.

Since I am celebrating my thirty-fifth birthday this week, I thought I should make a properly iced pink lemonade layer cake.

So where else should I go to for the perfect recipe?  None other than the queen of butter, cream and sugar herself, Paula Deen.  I found a recipe for pink lemonade cake that immediately caught my eye.  The description said it was bright, tangy-sweet and just right for a girl’s birthday party.  Well, since it was my birthday and I am a girl, it fit the bill perfectly!
I had to change the recipe a little.  I just couldn’t use that much butter.  An interesting twist is the addition of Country Time pink lemonade mix in the batter and pink lemonade frozen concentrate in the icing. I adjusted the amounts to fit my taste, but feel free to add the instructed amount.  The icing is so good by itself that you will have to fight your family off with a spoon!

When I realized that this cake was not only good, but great, I made another batch of cupcakes that my youngest son  helped me make.  He wanted to bring a sweet treat to his music,art, library, PE and technology lab teachers, as well as the office staff.  I needed a few taste testers, so he brought a platter to school.

Well, the votes are in and this pink lemonade cake recipe is a success!

So the moral to the story here?  Don’t be afraid to try new things.  Find a recipe that you can handle, lay out all of your ingredients, start at a reasonable hour and take your time.  Finally getting over my ‘cake-phobia’ was a great gift to myself.  So this year for my birthday I had my cake, and I ate it too!

Adapted from a Paula Deen recipe

Heather Tallman

Total Servings 12 servings

Pink Lemonade Cake

This perfectly pink lemonade cake is sweet and summery!

15 minPrep (inc. refrigeration & rest time)

30 minCook Time

45 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• Cake
• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 tsp lemon zest (I used 2 tsp)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 TB Pink Lemonade powdered drink mix
• Frosting
• 1 cup (8 oz.) of unsalted butter, softened (I used 1 stick,your preference)
• 1 pound of confectioners sugar
• 5 TB frozen pink lemonade concentrate (use just a bit more if it is thick, to taste)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon zest (I used 2 tsp)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 8-inch round cake pans. I like to butter mine and use a round of parchment paper inside on the bottom.
2. Prepare the cake batter according to the box directions using the ingredients listed.
3. To the batter, add the lemon zest, vanilla and pink lemonade powder. Stir to combine. Pour the batter evenly into the pans.
4. Bake until golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the cakes and allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
5. While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting by beating together the confectioners sugar and the softened butter until flufy. Beat in the remaining frosting ingredients until combined.
6. At this point, you can ice your cooled cakes/cupcakes.

Cuisine: Dessert | Recipe Type: Cake

Important Notes

Adapted from a [Paula Deen recipe!http://www.pauladeen.com/pink-lemonade-layer-cake]

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