Lemonade Cake

So I made cream cheese again. Boy does that make a lot of cream cheese. I needed to figure out a way to use some of it up. Well this was one way. I have to say the homemade cream cheese is a little thinner than the store-bought stuff. Probably because they have stabilizers in theirs. I found that I used less sugar than the 2 1/2 cups for the frosting. I don't know if that was because the homemade has a very good flavor and it didn't need the additional sugar.

The directions for this cake were not that clear or I just didn't read carefully enough (probably the latter). But I mixed all the liquid ingredients sugar and butter then tried to mix them. What a mess. I thought it was a rather strange direction. In order to save the recipe, I ended up straining out the liquid and trying to beat the butter until smooth. UGH - like I said a total mess. I ended up with some pretty large tunnels in the cake and I'm assuming this was the result of the error of my ways. Hopefully I've made the directions a little clearer or you will just pay attention unlike me ;-) It was a rather tasty lemon cake - mistakes aside. I do admit, however, there were a lot of dirty bowls with this recipe.

Lemonade Cake (adapted from Cooking Light)

2 3/4 c cake flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
7 oz Greek Yogurt
1/2c milk
1 c sugar
5 T butter
3 T canola oil
1 T lemon zest
3 eggs (separated)
1/8 t cream of tartar

Lemonade syrup:
1/4 c sugar
2 T lemon juice
2 T lemon sections, finely chopped
2 T lemon zest

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, chilled
2 t lemon zest
1 T lemon juice
2 1/2 c confectioner's sugar

Grease 2 9" cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or us a silicon round. Set aside

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mix with a whisk. Set aside.
Combine milk and yogurt and set aside.

In a mixer, place sugar, butter and oil and mix until light and fluffy 3-5 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time. Beating well after each addition. Add the lemon zest. Add flour and milk mixture alternately to the butter mixture, ending with flour. Do not overmix.

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a different bowl and beat until medium peaks form. Gently fold batter into the egg whites. Divide evenly in pans and bake at 350 for 20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Meanwhile combine ingredients for lemon syrup. Heat mixture in microwave until mixture boils; stirring to help the sugar dissolve.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes and remove and cool on wire racks. Pierce the cake with toothpick and brush syrup over cake. Until completely absorbed.

Place chilled cream cheese, lemon zest, juice and beat in mixer until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar. (I only used 2 c of sugar). Do not overmix. Place cake on serving plate. Spread half of the frosting on the cake and then place the second layer on top. Spread frosting over the remaining layer. Refrigerate.

See those tunnels! UGH!