LEMONADE POKE CAKE

This gloomy, yucky day called for a super yummy, sunshine-y treat, and when I think sunshine and sugar I think of my Nana's lemonade cake. Oh my gosh, it's so delicious and so simple--perfect!

When I was growing up, my whole family would get together at Nanny and Grampy's for Sunday dinner. It wasn't a formal thing, just a casual, fun, wear your sweatpants, laugh and eat and start-the-week-out-right kind of a meal. I have so many fantastic memories from those days--entertaining my cousins, trying to impress my beyond cool aunts, hugs, a million games of Seven-Up, teasing, birthday dinners...I could go on, but I'll spare you. ;)

My favorites of all the memories, though, are the ones I have of hanging out with my Nan. She is pretty much the most awesome, loving, hilarious woman on Earth. I always loved to "help" her with the cooking, but even if she didn't have a job for me to do, I would sit and talk to her while she worked. 

She has always made me feel like she is listening to every word I am saying and that everything I have to say is important. That's a pretty great feeling as an adult, but an even better one when you are a kiddo. 

I was thinking about all of this as I was preparing her old go-to summer Sunday dinner dessert today, and thought it would be fun to get Kinley in on the cooking action just like Nanny did with me. 

Lemonade Poke Cake

1 box of cake mix (I just used a plain white cake today, but you could use lemon instead for a super lemon-y cake)

1 can of frozen lemonade concentrate, melted (I used pink lemonade today)

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Cool-Whip (optional)

Follow the directions on the cake mix box.

Kinley helped with the pouring and the mixing today and she did a super job!

After your cake is baked and cooled, poke holes in it all over the place with a toothpick or skewer.

This is the part where all of the helping went a little haywire. I cut the sharp tips off of a couple of skewers and let SuperBaby go to town with the poking. She did great at first and then she decided that scraping the skewer through the cake was a better method.

Pretty much mutilated. Good thing the only guests we had for dinner tonight were my parents. :)

Whisk together the lemonade concentrate and powdered sugar. Pour it all over your cake and put the whole thing in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. If you aren't gonna be eating it for more than an hour or so, just wait until you are almost ready to eat to pour the lemonade mixture on top, otherwise it'll be REALLY soggy.

Lemonade Cake is pretty tart, so we like to eat it with a plop of Cool-Whip to cut the sour a little bit. Also, if your cake gets destroyed by your baby helper like mine did, you could just spread the Cool Whip on top and no one would even notice. :)

So easy, right? It's perfect for BBQ food or summer birthday cake or gray days like this one. We all enjoyed every last bite--Kinley's Daddy and Grampy even had two pieces each! 

Even though our Lemonade Cake was mostly crumbs soaked in syrup, it tasted yummy, made us happy, and made us think of our amazing Nana far away in Illinois and how much we love and miss her. Total success :)

Enjoy!!