Southern Belle Lemon Layer Cake Recipe

“I want to make my mom a cake for Mother’s Day,” announced Katherine, age nine. To keep the project a surprise, Katherine’s aunt conspired to whisk her away for a few hours. My job was to help Katherine and Stefanie, her two-year old cousin, bake a cake.

“Piece of cake!” I thought and carefully selected simple recipes for homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I phoned my mother, a retired home ec teacher, expecting praise. But no!

“Lon,” she started off, speaking with out-of-character gentleness. “Even simple recipes are too much. I think you should use a cake mix and canned frosting.” I gulped, knowing that even if Mom were right (and aren’t our mothers nearly always right?), it would take time for my brain to accept a boxed cake.

Her reasoning was sound. She knew the girls’ cake would elicit ooohs and aaaahs on Mother’s Day. Afterward, she wanted them to be able to march into the kitchen and duplicate their first cake, no help from me, no consideration of chocolate ratios or knowing how to measure flour or the difference between baking powder and baking soda.

So a cake mix it was and canned frosting too, though me being me, we made homemade frosting too and the girls did a taste test. (They liked the canned frosting better. Harumph.)

Today? Katherine is a junior at Northwestern and will graduate with a double major in History and International Studies. Stef moves to high school next fall. Will they become cake bakers? We’ll see! Only time will tell!

This story came back to me after New Year’s when I fell head-over-heels in love with a lemon cake from a restaurant in the South which graciously shared its recipe with me but at its own request, shall remain anonymous.

I’ll tell you, when I learned that the recipe called for a cake mix and Jello, my heart nearly broke. But you know, some times these things have their place. This cake is so moist, so lemony and I love how it’s so easily adapted to other flavors. In a layer cake, it’s a show stopper – so plain (in a good way, like the classic tailored lines of so many of the dresses at the royal wedding last week) and so pretty. I like to think that some of the world’s best pastry chefs got their starts early, with the confidence that comes from a cake mix.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Do you have a favorite celebration cake recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Follow Kitchen Parade on Facebook!