MDW: Summer "cheat" Recipe

Hi friends! I hope you all had a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend equipped with friends, family and lots of BBQ. My weekend was busy with friends and BBQ's too! Every Memorial Day Weekend my friends and I celebrate our best friend Maria's birthday. This year I was on birthday cake duty and had such a difficult time trying to figure out what to make. This is mostly because Maria says no to cake every.single.time probably because she is the most disciplined person I know! Kudos to you Maria, I wish I had your will power. I still wanted to make a cake, I was contemplating making one of those faux cakes made out of fresh fruit but figured that was too boring. 

After a long day on Friday, I took my nephew Peyton with me to the supermarket at around 11:30pm. Peyton literally felt like the coolest kid in town until the speaker came on announcing that the store was closing in 10 minutes, then he pretty much started to freak out! Haha, I really do love that boy! Any way, at this point I still had no idea what I was making but luckily just walking through the aisles helped get my creative juices flowing. Let me just warn you that this cake is a semi-homemade cake, which, lets face it, in the Summer is music to our ears. Who wants to be in the kitchen slaving over a hot oven all day when you can get a little assistance from our dear friends, Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. 

Nonetheless, I decided to use a Pillsbury box vanilla cake from their new "Purely Simple" line. I figured I could add some lemon notes to the cake and substitute the butter for coconut oil and the milk for unsweetened almond milk. I got some inspiration from this whipped mixed-berry "Philadelphia" cream cheese that pretty much did all the work for me. Easy enough - I'll make a berry cream cheese frosting and top it off with a generous amount of fresh berries! I was SOLD on the idea and you will be too. This cake is perfect for the warmer months and just might be my go-to recipe for the Summer. Check it out:

Light Lemon cake w/ berry cream cheese frosting

what you'll need: 
CAKE:

• Box of Pillsbury - "Purely Simple" White cake mix
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil
• 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 Lemon

Frosting:

• 8 oz. Philadelphia - Whipped mixed-berry cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar

* Garnish with fresh berries of your choice

directions:

1. Follow instructions on Pillsbury box. Substitute butter with coconut oil and milk with unsweetened almond milk. 
2. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice from half of a lemon
3. Separate cake mix between two 8" cake pans 
4. Place in oven for about 35-45 minutes on 350 degrees

While cakes are baking prepare your frosting.

1. Whip butter with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add whole package of berry cream cheese and mix until combined. 
2. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until fully incorporated. 
3. Keep chilled until you are ready to frost your cake. 

Let cakes cool, assemble, frost and garnish. I decided to make my cake "naked" because I wanted that rustic, easy going Summer look, but please feel free to frost and garnish however you please!

I also made another batch for cupcakes, too!