Have Your Cake Mix And Eat It Too

Last week at Harris Teeter was a good time to stock up on cake mixes, so my pantry is now chock full of them.  Lots of different flavors.  In anticipation of our Easter brunch, I 've been thinking of how I could work a cake mix into the menu.  Then it came to me, nothing says warm weather like lemon.  And since it's 80ish degrees here in NC, and we are so ready to welcome spring, a lemon pound cake seemed just the ticket.


As I had mentioned previously, I still have LOTS of sour cream in my refrigerator, and last week was a super time to get vanilla at HT, it was all coming together.


So here's what I did:


Lemony Pound Cake


1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 3.25 oz box lemon pudding (use dry)
3 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 box lemon cake mix
1 cup all purpose flour


1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 10 inch Bundt pan.
2.  In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar and pudding mix (not prepared, just powder) until fluffy.  Add in eggs one at a time.  Then stir in vanilla and water, followed by the sour cream.  To the liquid mixture add in cake mix and  flour and beat for about 2 minutes.  Pour into the prepared pan.  Batter will be thick.


3.  Bake in oven for about 50 minutes.  The time may vary depending on type of pan you are using (dark like mine, usually takes a little less time, so you may need longer).  The cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean.  Let cake cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan, then remove cake from pan and allow to cool completely.  Pound cake is often better then next day, so if you have the time, make it ahead.

I wanted to add a little fruit on top (so that we could justify eating dessert at 10:30am), but didn't have anything fresh and didn't have time to go get any.  Thankfully, when perusing my pantry I came across a can of boysenberries that I had picked up a while ago at HT.  I wouldn't typically spring for such a treat, but I found this delicious can of berries in the markdown basket.  These berries sell for $3.79 a can, but HT was discontinuing the boysenberry, so I couldn't pass them up for just $.99.  The Oregon Fruit website had a recipe to make a berry sauce, so a few tablespoons of cornstarch and lemon juice later, I had all I needed to eat dessert at 10:30 with a clean conscience!

Here's the final product, with a little Cool Whip ($.99 this week at HT) and a sprig of mint, just for fun.


If you missed out on the Duncan Hines cake mix deals last week, Harris Teeter has Betty Crocker on sale this week.  Couple the sale with this coupon and you will be all set.


Enjoy!