Nedra's Lemon Cake

Today's recipe comes from my aunt's sister-in-law.  Though she is not my blood relative, she was frequently at family dinners, and we always spent part of Christmas Day with the extended family at her house.

I have wonderful memories of sitting at the big table with the adults, as she didn't pawn the kids off at a side table.  I always felt so grown up eating at her house.   Another big plus was that she had an awesome aluminum pitcher and a set of those bright, solid color aluminum tumblers to drink out of; and instead of coasters, she had little socks that you slipped onto the bottom of the glasses so they didn't sweat on her table.  It's funny the weird things you remember from childhood!

Anyway, it was always hard to choose between her light and airy cheesecake and this fruity lemon cake.  Most of the time I'd go ahead and have some of each!

1 yellow cake mix

1 small box lemon instant pudding

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup water

4 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9x13 inch cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, instant pudding, oil, water, and eggs.  Beat with electric mixer on low until cake mix is moistened, then beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.

Pour cake batter into prepared pan, bake for 30-40 minutes, until toothpick inserted near center of cake comes out clean.

While cake is baking, in another mixing bowl, combine lemon juice, powdered sugar, water and melted butter, mix well.  Warm this mixture in the microwave for 1 minute.  Pour over warm cake.  Cool.  Serves 16.