Lemonade Cake (with a secret ingredient!)

Lemonade is fabulous. Cake is fabulous. Combine the two to make a cake and then slather it with vanilla frosting. Pure joy! This moist and lemony cake is super simple to prepare and is loaded with tart lemon goodness. The sweet vanilla frosting balances the tangy lemon, so each bite is sweet/tart bliss from start to finish. So what's the secret ingredient?

The secret ingredient is lemon Jello! The Jello adds just the right amount of lemon flavor, and does magical things to the batter. The gelatin adds body and texture, and keep the cake moist - sometimes lemon cakes made with lemon juice are great fresh out of the oven, but they tend to dry out quickly. Plus, you need to a add a ton of sugar to balance the acidity of the fresh juice. Jello to the rescue!

About the frosting: I used prepared (store-bought) vanilla frosting, but you if you want to make frosting from scratch, try my healthy cream cheese frosting from my Healthy Flourless Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Also, I like to frost this cake right in the cake pan and serve it from there!

Lemonade Cake (with a secret ingredient!)

Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3-ounce package lemon Jello
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
Vanilla frosting or the cream cheese frosting from my Healthy Flourless Lemon Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, Jello, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla.
Beat in half of the flour mixture. Beat in the milk and then the remaining flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a wooden pick comes out clean or with little moist bits of cake clinging to it.
Cool the cake, in the pan, on a wire rack.

Once the cake has cooled, top with vanilla frosting and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container (but I don't think you'll have any leftovers).

Serves 8