Lemon Cream Cake

Spring is near and the fresh scent of lemon reminds me of warmer days!  I never used to care for lemons, but now that I've grown older I absolutely love them.  Lemons brighten up most any dish.  Today, I'm sharing a recipe I got from one of my best friends, a recipe for Lemon Cream Cake.  Niki Carstens owns and operates, from scratch by niki at www.fromscratchbyniki.com.  She makes super delicious treats that also look pretty.  I know Niki has made this dessert before and hers turned out awesome, you'll have to read below to see how mine turned out.  Let's just say we don't always get everything right the first time. :)

For this recipe you'll need the following:
1 pkg white cake mix (Betty Crocker)
1 pkg lemon cake mix (Betty Crocker)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 lemon
1 c. whipping cream
1 8 oz pkg Mascarpone Cheese (Italian sweet cheese)
1 c. powdered sugar
4 Tbsp softened butter

Make white cake according to the directions on the box, adding sour cream and vanilla.  Bake in a 10 inch round baking pan. (Okay, I didn't have a 10 inch round baking pan so I used a 10 inch deep dish pie plate.  It worked very well except I was "multi-tasking" while I was baking and I forgot to grease the pie plate....don't forget to grease the pie plate or cake pan.)

Cool the cake completely and I do mean completely!  I was rather anxious to make my dessert so I didn't let it cool long enough.  I'd say leave it for a couple of hours.  This cake is so moist and delicious that if you try to do anything with it too soon it will fall apart.

For the lemon cream filling, mix the Mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest of half of lemon, juice of 1 lemon (make sure the lemon is at room temperature before you squeeze it for juice,  The average lemon will get you 3 Tbsp of juice) and whipping cream.  Mix until creamy and smooth.

For the crumb topping, combine 3/4 cup of the lemon cake mix with the softened butter so that it's crumbly.  Softened butter is the key, I used melted butter-which I knew better, and got lumps not crumbles...it still tasted good though!

To assemble:  Cut cake in half, spread a generous amount of filling between the cakes layers, then top the cake with more cream filling, finish by sprinkling crumbles all over cake.  This cake is best served cold so place in refrigerator for several hours or over night.

Here was my finished product, with what I learned and shared with you today yours should look prettier..regardless of looks it was delicious, moist and creamy!

Yum!  Yum! I already ate some!



My 4 year-old likes to be the random kid in pictures, so here is his contribution to my photo shoot.