Pink Lemonade Cake

I’ve been so tired of cakes lately… I can’t seem to make any of them work… they’ve been tasting like cotton balls soaked in muddy water.

Lets not go into details about the attempts of decorating either….. I am convinced my 5 year old could make it look better …

I kept hearing little phrases of sympathy…. “it’s ok Mama… it will taste better than it looks”… “ Mama…. Looks don’t matter, it all gets smooshed up when we chew it.”

Thanks guys…

Since I am a glutton for punishment and when I saw this cake I knew I had to try again…

I am glad I did… This little cake is perfect for the spring and just full of bright flavor… Blah blah blah ... it sounds all cliché but the more I cook the more I understand seasons and what goes when and where….

Gathering our cake ingredients

Add the lemonade concentrate to the milk  

Mix and set aside

Grease and flour two 9” cake pans

Add the baking powder and salt to flour

Butter in mixing bowl

Beat 1 minute till creamed well

Add sugar ¼ cup at a time

Add 1/8 teaspoon of red food coloring

That’s purty…

Add eggs one at a time mixing well

Add half of flour, mix

Add half of milk, mix and repeat with rest of flour and milk

Add lemon flavoring

Pour half the batter into one pan

In the remaining batter add ¼ teaspoon of red food coloring

Mix well

Pour into pan and bake till middle springs back when touched, about 25 to 30 minutes

Let cool and now lets make the frosting

Beat soften butter

Add marshmallow crème and lemonade

Mix well and add powdered sugar

Perfect

Cakes cooled and ready for assembly

Slice both cake rounds horizontal

Place one slice cake round on platter.. dollop  small amount of icing in middle..

You only want a little to stick the rounds together… the first time I made this cake I added a fair amount of icing and it was like trying to get a octopus dressed… it slid around so bad I pretty much almost lost it…

Something about food not working out for me that sends me over the edge… it is the one thing I can control most of the time and when it refuses to let me have my way I turn into a blubbering idiot..

Top with the lighter colored cake round repeat with icing and finish with the remaining rounds

Now ice the rest of the cake… I covered mine and let it set in the fridge for several hours

Keep little fingers out of cake…

Serve.

 Print Recipe

Recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup butter

4 Eggs

3 1/3 Cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ Teaspoon salt

2 Cups sugar

Red food coloring

1 1/3 Cups milk

¼ Cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 Teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 Recipe Lemonade Butter Frosting

Directions

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease two 9x2-inches round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment; grease paper. Flour pans, tapping to remove excess; set aside. In medium bowl stir together 3-1/3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In an extra-large mixing bowl beat butter with mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl; beat 2 minutes more. Add 1/8 tsp. red food coloring; beat to combine. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In bowl stir together milk, lemonade concentrate, and extract (mixture will look curdled). Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low after each addition just until combined. Remove half (4 cups) the batter; spread in one pan. In remaining batter, stir 1/4 tsp. red food coloring. Spread in second pan.

Bake about 35 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly touched. Meanwhile, prepare Lemonade Butter Frosting.

Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layers from pans; peel off waxed paper. Cool completely on wire racks. Trim off domed tops of layers so cake will stand flat. Cut each layer horizontally in half, making four layers. Brush crumbs from layers.

Place one dark pink layer, cut-side down, on a plate. Spread 1 cup frosting just to edges. Top with a light pink layer, followed by second dark pink layer, spreading frosting on each just to edges. Stack final light pink layer, cut-side down. Spread frosting on top and sides as desired.

 

Lemonade Butter cream Frosting

Yield: 4-1/2 cups

ingredients

1  1/2 Cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1  16 ounces jars marshmallow crème

1/8 Cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

1 Teaspoons pure lemon extract

 

Directions

 

In very large mixing bowl beat softened butter with mixer on medium for 30 seconds, until light and fluffy. Add marshmallow creme and lemonade concentrate. Beat until smooth, scraping sides of bowl. Add powdered sugar and extract; beat until light and fluffy. Frost Pink Lemonade Cake. To store frosting, cover and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Bring to room temperature before frosting cake. Makes 3 cups.

 

Blogger Nominations......

In my earlier blog this morning I mentioned I was nominated for the

                                                                     

                                                                               Award

This award is given to bloggers with 200 or less followers… it kinda helps us little guys who don’t have ranch hands to feed and lodges to decorate…

So once us little peons are nominated we must spread the word and do the same for five other up and coming blogs…

So the Liebster blog award nominations go tooo…..

Mosquito Creek Farm:

I love how Jessica is so calm about her adventures on the farm… I admire her tenacity and her super human energy to do all her projects while homeschooling half a dozen kids… It’s one thing to be able to do all of that but she shares it with all of us! When I grow up I want to be like her.

Walnut Hollow:

This is another blog chocked full of adventures and information… Rachael is another super woman who never seems to stop with her creativeness.

Our Journey Home:

I started reading this blog about three years ago… usually when I am feeling sorry for myself and wallowing in a pity party I read her posts  and just can’t stop crying… Her daughter had Mitochondrial Disease. And her blog is so honest and truthful… I love to read how people really feel… not what everyone around wants to hear..

Entergently:

Not for the faint of heart… not for the medically minded.. not for anyone who has no back bone.. Kelly is another honest  blogger that I really enjoy reading… I found her through a homebirthing group over 5 years ago.. and she has a vast array of knowledge that no medical degree could ever give you..

That One Girl:

Because I have the power to nominate!! 

 Blogger is giving me the fits today.... no matter how hard I try half of my text is different size, colour... the kids are tired of me screaming at the computer so I will stop while I still have my post.

Award and Favorite Things...

I was nominated for the  Liebster Blog Award!!! Thank you Glo! It made my month! And soon  I will share my  five very deserving blogs to pass this on…. 

Until then…

These are a few of my favorite things

I feel like bursting into song…. “when the dog bites… when the bee stings… when I am feeling bluuuuueeee” I pull out some of my favorite things and then I don’t feel so baaaddd…

I know… that was off key.

But these favorite things  make the adventures in burning food so much fun.

Microplane grater:

Mama got this for me.. I use it all the time .. even Gabriel uses it and it still works.. something about zesting citrus that sets my teeth on edge with a large grater… (and it never would be fine.. more like chunks of zest.. and ends of fingers) Thank you Mama.. you’ve helped make many of lemon meringue pies.

Rubber spatula:

I am afraid to go in the kitchen and count.. but I believe it is more than 8 and less than 20… One of my pet peeves in going into someone elses kitchen is they don’t have enough rubber spatula’s!! when I cook I run through them like candy.. and probably because I have so many do I use so much, but some people only have two… two?? How can you cook with just two?? 

I love the bamboo handle ones because all while I am smearing a plastic spatula around in my food I can hold onto something wooden…

Pastry crimper:

I inherited one from Mama.. who inherited it from her Mama… I use mine for lattice tops for fruit pies or to cut my graham crackers before I bake them.. a valuable tool in my opinion.

Bread dough cutter:

 Something about slapping that chunk of bread dough on the counter and  cutting it into even sized lumps is so satisfying for me…  there is no handle to get in the way… just a straight edge that cuts through dough, bars, and ants with ease..

Cast Iron Skillets:

I will be the first to admit that I am a food and cookware snob… I do silently judge people by their pots and pans.. and do forgive me if I haven’t offended you yet.. but if your one of “those people” I am about to.

I rate people’s ability to cook by these criteria’s…

Cast Iron pans: You know how to cook and have a knowledge of cooking that was taught by your mother..

Stainless steel pans:  You know how to cook and you have the money to cook on the best..well second best…

Non-stick pans: You burn water.

Ok it isn’t that bad.. but in order to cook with cast iron you have to learn about heat… sticking.. what not to cook in them.. so on.. non-stick all you need is a plastic spatula. 

I could go into bigger detail but a hard-core cook or even a dedicated cook doesn’t use non-stick… in my NOT so humble opinion…

Dutch oven:

 Everyone should own one of these… I had three at one time and was only using two I gave one to a well deserving cook… Both mine are enamel covered and I cook everything in them. I even found a lecruset dutch oven at a thrift store...they are around.. you just have to keep your eyes open.

Kitchenaid mixer… (saved the best for last)

For years I would become green with jealousy of young women getting married and getting a kitchenaid for a gift…  here they have no kids and so much time on their hands… why do they get such a prized possession?

I would burn through hand mixers like no one else… those little guys don’t stand a chance mixing cream cheese for cheesecakes… stiff cookie dough… they crapped out over and over… did you know their beaters are covered in silver looking stuff?? And after awhile it will start to flake off in your food?? 

That pot of mashed potatoes had such promise..

I will never forget that day when I seen my first kitchenaid at that thrift store… I was at least 30 feet away… I felt like I was moving in slow motion and someone else would get to it first… ( I was practically the only one there ) Love at first sight… it had all it’s parts… the dough hook… *intake of air* the whisk *another gasp* the beater… * almost beyond giddy at this moment*  the bowl…. Oh my… my mind was racing at this point.. thinking that could it be? Could I join those group of women who have a …. a …. Kitchenaid????? Then there was the deciding moment… the price..

$12.95.

You would have thought I found the holy grail… I don’t remember if I even tried it to see if it worked.. all I know is I brought it home and used that mixer everyday… what a wonderful joy it was to walk away from the mixer to gather the rest of the ingredients… come back and the eggs and butter are light and fluffy..

I felt all grown up.

Fast forward two years.. add two feet to each kids height… and ten more lbs on me.. even though I loved my mixer if I had the chance to get a bigger one I would… by then I realized I always had to  doubled a recipe.. and needed something to have the power to be able to push through the tripled batches of cookie dough… but there was no way I was going to pay $200 plus for a bigger mixer… this would have to do and it beated it’s little heart out just fine..

Then I went thrift store shopping again…

This time it was a cobalt blue kitchenaid… a step up in power and it had two bowls… this time I was more rational and tried it out before buying it..

It was kinda like getting a new dog.. your old one is… well old.. you still love it but it doesn’t do or look the same as the new one.. you feel a little like a trader as you pack up the old one and put the beautiful blue one in it’s place… at least I did.. but I did know that in order for me to have such a magnificent piece of machinery I had to pass on my first mixer to a deserving wife.. I did and hopefully it will give her as much joy as it gave me..

These are just a few of my favorite things… I feel like I have offended my goal of people today and along the way shared what makes cooking such a joy for me..and as for why didn't I just take a picture of my own stuff instead of plagiarizing pictures off the internet?? 

Ask my Husband... and while your at it tell him I need it for this upcoming week.