I remember the days like they were yesterday. Walking into my grandma’s house and smelling the sweet smell of her hot milk cake. I always looked forward to it and I knew that it would be the perfect cake to celebrate my husband’s birthday on Tuesday! Wes LOVES lemon things. Lemon candy, lemon bars, lemon filled donuts, and- you guessed it- lemon cake. I actually made this cake for him a few years ago on his 23rd birthday and he loved it, so I thought I would make it again this year. I was super worried about how it would turn out, seeing that I hadn’t baked a cake from scratch in 5 years or so…but it turned out really well! One of the things I really love about this cake, is that it uses ingredients you already have in your pantry! The only thing I needed to go buy was lemon pudding mix. It’s super easy to make and it tastes delicious. So go ahead, bake and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees and spraying to circle cake pans with oil.
2. Melt your stick of butter in a saucepan on low heat.
3. Once butter is melted, stir in the milk and vanilla extract. Let heat until it bubbles and then turn heat down to low and let simmer.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat your 4 eggs and your sugar together with a mixer. Mix extremely well, up to 5 minutes.
5. In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Slowly beat your flour mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.
7. Once they are mixed together, slowly beat in your milk and butter mixture (hot milk, get it?!:)).
8. Split your mix up into the 2 round pans and put in the oven.
9. The actual baking time will depend on your personal oven, but mine cooks rather quickly so it was done it 45 minutes. I would check on it every few minutes after 45 minutes to make sure it doesn’t over cook. Stick a toothpick in it if you are unsure.
10. Let cake cool on a cooling rack.
11. While the cake is cooling, make your lemon pudding. You can use prepackaged kind or from scratch. I’m lazy so I used instant, but I’m sure real pudding would taste even better! When the pudding is done place it in the fridge to thicken up a bit.
12. Once cake is cool, cut the cakes in half horizontally so that you have 4 cakes.
13. Spread the cooled pudding between the layers of the cake and stack them up!
14. Sift powdered sugar over the top of the cake!
15. You are done! Enjoy!