Lemon Cake

The day is finally here! It's my 100th blog post! I can't believe it's been 100 already. Granted, I have taken a month long break, but that's neither here nor there.

Whenever we would visit my Maw Maw, we'd usually go visit her best friend, Ms. Annie. Ms. Annie would usually have a cake for us and we would hope and pray it'd be her lemon cake. So when I knew the milestone of the 100th post was drawing near, I thought of making this surprisingly easy and rustic lemon cake.

Just so happens that this is getting posted on Brian's birthday and he loves lemon desserts. So for our birthday cake this year, we get the 100th post cake too! (My birthday is Wednesday.)

Ms. Annie's Lemon Cake
Source: Ms. Annie (Not sure of original source)

For cake:
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
3 egg whites, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening and sugar. In separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder together. Combine the water and vanilla. Add dry and wet ingredients alternately into the creamed shortening and sugar. Fold in beaten egg whites. Divide evenly among three cake pans. Bake for 22-30 minutes. (Mine came out fine after 22-23 minutes.)

For the icing:
3 egg yolks, beaten well
1 1/2 cups sugar
Lemon zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
2/3 stick of butter

In a double boiler, mix half of the sugar gradually into the beaten egg yolks. Add lemon juice, zest, remaining sugar, and butter. Whisk constantly until butter is melted. Once butter melts, take off heat and let cool. The icing will thicken slightly, but will still remain runny. Ice cake layers.

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Happy Birthday, Brian!