Adria's Lemon Birthday Cake

Adria asked for a lemon birthday cake this year. And we had an art themed birthday party so we made her cake look like an artist pallet. A few weeks ago one of the girls at work, Jenny Christensen, brought the MOST delicious lemon bundt cake! So I asked her for the recipe. She found it at Chef in Training blog. Here it is reposted with my changes - I had to make lots more frosting to make it into a layer cake.

1 box lemon Cake Mix - Duncan Hines brand

1 small box INSTANT Vanilla pudding Mix (3.9 ounces) - Kroger brand

½ cup Sour Cream

¾ cup Oil

¾ cup Water

½ cup Sugar

4 Eggs

1 Tablespoon lemon zest - I used 1 large lemon and all the zest from it.

3 Tablespoon lemon juice - I used all the juice from the large lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together for 3 minutes on high. Pour into 2 greased 9 inch pans.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and cake springs back when lightly touched in middle. Let cool for 10 minutes on wire rack, then remove from pans. Allow to cool completely and freeze to make it easier to frost. Wrap each layer individually before freezing, then stake them in the freezer. Someone put an ice pack on top of my cake after it had been in the freezer for 8 hours, and it flattened the top some - it worked out great so I didn't have to try to cut the dome of the cake off.

Frosting

8 ounce cream cheese, softened

4 -5 cups powdered sugar or more

1 Tablespoon lemon zest - all the zest from 1 large lemon

2-3 teaspoon lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add 2 cups powered sugar, lemon zest, and 1 tsp lemon juice. Mix well (this is where the original recipe stops - and is enough for a bundt cake but not a layered cake). Add 2 cups powdered sugar and and another tsp lemon juice. Mix. Add more powdered sugar and lemon juice until it looks like the correct amount and correct consistency to frost the cake. 

Put a small amount of frosting on the cake stand to hold the bottom layer still. frost the top of the bottom cake layer. Then put on top cake layer. Frost the top and sides of cake. I made the "paint" spots my putting a small dot of frosting in each spot and topping with gel frosting and mixing with a tooth pick.