Tasty Tuesday

            Summer is soon, I can feel it and have already tasted it, just had too!  My Internet was down for 24 hours due to the storms that hit Joplin then here, were all safe and very thankful! I had family over for dinner last night and really wanted to try this recipe, but I couldn't access it without the Internet, so I did it my way! lol  I'll go ahead and share the recipe I still want to make but my version was very tasty too! All I did was get a lemon cake mix and instead of adding the water per directions, I used frozen lemonade concentrate, it was tangy, will make you pucker a little but it was a hit! I frosted it with cream cheese icing.

Lemonade Layer Cake

Cake:

• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
• 3 tablespoons thawed lemonade concentrate
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups fat-free buttermilk
• Cooking spray
• Frosting:
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 2 teaspoons thawed lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• To prepare cake, place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat well after each addition.
• Pour batter into 2 (9-inch) round cake pans coated with cooking spray; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
• To prepare frosting, place 2 tablespoons butter and the next 4 ingredients (2 tablespoons butter through cream cheese) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, and beat at low speed just until blended (do not overbeat). Chill 1 hour.
• Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Cooking Light 
APRIL 2002

          And if you'd rather have a cool summer pie, this lemonade pie is easy, rich and cold!
Lemonade Pie
1 sm. can frozen lemonade, thawed
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. cool whip
1 graham cracker pie shell
Combine first 3 ingredients and blend well. Pour into the graham cracker pie shell and chill or freeze.  Once ready to serve, top with remaining cool whip and serve.

       Please keep Joplin in your prayers, this one was too close to home, 3 hours from us, I guess that's why I'm so heart broken over this disaster? I feel so bad for them all, it's just so unreal! It got pretty scary here too but no complaints, only gratitude!