Easter Strawberry Lemonade Cake & a story from my class... belated.

This adventure all started with my favorite time waster (Pinterest) and an assigment of dessert at our Easter dinner. (Thank goodness for friends who have no family in town either so we can get together!)

I let Kurt pick out what he wanted me to make since I don't do sweets very often (this may change when there are more people in the house but 2 people can only eat so much cake... plus neither of us need the extra sugar.. even with  baby on board.)  This is what he picked Strawberry Lemonade Layer Cake it calls for a boxed strawberry cake and Kool-aid.  I could have been ok with the first indredient but I'm not a kid anymore... Kool-aid is not happening in this house! (I reserve the right to change my mind on this subject as my kids get to the age of enjoying such things.)

... and so the search began! It took a lot longer than I thought!  In the end I took a couple acceptable recipes and added my own twist.

Strawberry Lemonade Cake (adapted slightly from iambaker.net)

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon
4 egg yolks
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup strawberry puree (from fresh or frozen but thawed)
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 cups diced fresh strawberries
2 tbsp flour

Method:

1. Get out butter, eggs, and thaw frozen strawberries at least 1 hour before you want to start baking... the best cakes start at room temperature... or so I've read.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 8-9-in round cake pans.
3. Whip four eggs whites in mixer until soft peaks form. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, whipping to maintain soft peaks. Pour whites into large bowl and set aside.
4. Cream room temperature butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy. Add in vanilla, lemon extract, & lemon zest. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition.
5. Sift together 3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Alternatively add flour mixture and strawberry puree to batter until fully combined. Batter will be thick.
7. Fold in egg whites.
8. Coat diced strawberries in 2 tbsp flour and gently add to batter.
9. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Lemonade Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from food.com)

1/2 cup butter room temperature
8 oz cream cheese room temperature (I used the 1/3 less fat stuff cuz that's what I had.)
6 tbsp thawed lemonade concentrate
1 tsp lemon zest
6 cups powdered sugar

Method:

1. Get out butter, cream cheese and lemonade about 1 hour before you intend to whip this up.  Room temperature butter and cream cheese are so much easier to work with than cooled... learned this the hard way.
2. Mix butter and cream cheese until smooth. 
3. Add lemonade concentrate and lemon zest and mix until smooth.
4. Dump in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time... or however you want... this isn't rocket science!
5. Taste it... if you don't like the flavor or the consistency change it up a bit... plus who can pass up a beater of icing!?

Kurt and I decided the frosting needed to be fluffier so we folded in cool whip... big mistake. It was running down the side of the cake... tastes awesome but it's making a mess... Kurt also thought the icing was a tad too much lemon, so you may want to start with 1/2 the zest or test it out without the zest and see how it tastes to you.  I sprung for a really nice zest grater a while ago so I'm always happy for an opportunity to use it.

 You can see the running in the icing ... what a mess! Tasted so good though!

On a totally un-recipe related note: I'm teaching 5 year olds at church.  I love them but they are a challenge sometimes.  I have to keep reminding myself that the most important part is for them to know that I love them, NOT getting through the lesson and keeping them on point (ha! they're 5 and they have the wiggles.)  This week was extra fun because they all wanted to tell me Easter bunny stories and what fun they had planned for after church.  Add to that swelling feet (which I put up in the middle of the lesson) and baby kicking enough that the kids could see it and we had ourselves a pretty good party.  I also started crying when I was telling them that Jesus loves them and will be there for them if they are sad or scared that all they have to do is pray.  Not sure if tears freaked them out or if it was good, but I know they know they aren't alone... if they got nothing else from my lesson aside from a sugar high I'm totally fine with that.  They are sweet kids and I adore them.