Dianne's Version of P. Allen Smith's
Lemon Cake

1 box white cake mix without the pudding in the mix
1½ cups water
1 whole lemon cut and seeds removed leave peel on
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs separated
1 box lemon instant pudding - small size 

Put lemon and 1½ cups water in blender and run to pulverize.  In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix and pudding mix; add the beaten egg yolks, oil and lemon water mix beat until smooth about 2 minutes.  Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold egg whites into the cake mix a third at a time.  Pour cake batter into a parchment lined 9x13 baking pan; level batter with a spatula.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Don’t over bake.  Check with a tooth pick. Allow to cool completely in the pan before frosting. 

Lemon Jell-O Frosting
1 regular package of lemon jell-o (not sugar free), I only use about half a package
3 cups powdered sugar, I sometimes add a little more
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese (lite doesn’t work as well)
¼ cup of butter
2 to 3 Tbsp water
½ lemon minus the seeds 

Let cream cheese and butter come to room temperature to soften.  Pulverize cut up half of lemon and water in the blender.  In a medium bowl with a heavy duty mixer beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.  It helps to have a heavy duty stand mixer for this.  Scrape sides of bowl and with mixer on low slowly add the lemon gelatin powder followed by the powdered sugar.  You can add the water lemon juice at this time if it gets too stiff. (I added the entire gelatin the first time and only about half a package the next time and both were ok. I liked the half amount better.)   Mixture should come together and fluff up.  Let the mixture set for about 5 minutes or put in frig to firm up before frosting cool cake.  

Happy Baking! 

~ Submitted by Dianne Rodehaver