spring is springing

The children managed to keep their chocolates and jelly beans off their Sunday clothes to get some cute pictures of them. In case you are interested in seeing some seriously sugared-up kids, they are posted here:

On Easter we made a deliciously delightful lemon cake. It was so good, it would be a crime not to share it with you.

Lemonade Layer Cake
adapted from ‘Cooking Light’

Cake:
1 1/3 cups sugar
6 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsp lemonade concentrate, thawed
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.

Place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, beat with a mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with knife. Into a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk; beginning and ending with flour mixture, beat well after each addition.

Pour batter into 2 (9-inch) round cake pans (which have been lined with parchment paper rounds and coated with cooking spray). Sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles in batter. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting:
4 tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tsp lemonade concentrate, thawed
½ tsp vanilla extract
8 oz cream cheese (we use Neufchâtel, the 1/3-less-fat cream cheese)
3 ½ cups powdered sugar

Place the butter and next 4 ingredients into a large bowl; beat with a mixer on high until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until blended (do not over mix). Chill 1 hour. Then proceed to frost your cake!

We served it with a simple strawberry sauce (fresh strawberries blended with a little lemon juice and a little powdered sugar).