God Bless America!!

The 4th of July is always a great time to get together with family to celebrate our nations day of Independence. Here is a cake I baked for the occassion. It was delicious. I will say I am not a talented baker or cake decortator but the taste was out of this world!!

Lemon Cake with Buttercream Frosting & Berries

Lemon Cake

1 cup of butter, softened, plus more for greasing pan

3 cups of flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. lemon extract

1 cup low fat buttermilk

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and grease & flour a 9 x 13 baking pan

2) Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside

3)Mix butter, sugar, eggs, zest and vanilla until creamy.

4) Add flour in three additions alternating with the buttermilk in two additions.

5) Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Grandma's Classic Buttercream

2 Tbsp. Flour

1 cups of milk

1 cup of butter

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1) In a heavy bottomed sauce pan bring milk and flour to a slow boil and remove from heat. Cool at room temperature completely.

2) Once flour mixture is cooled, combine butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer until well blended.

3) Add in flour/milk mixture and beat on high for about 10 minutes or until light and fluffy

4) Frost cooled cake and decorate as desired.

Tip: I used a pint of rasberries and 1/2 pint of blueberries. The fruit and lemon cake combination was excellent!! I also doubled the frosting and filled the cake. It was too much frosting...even though it is one of my favorite things.