Lemon Spice Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, beat eggs, water, oil and sour cream until combined. Add in spice cake mix and instant lemon pudding. Beat on medium speed for two minutes. At this point, you can either make a normal cake or do cupcakes. Either way, line the cupcake pan or oil the baking pan. Add batter and bake based on the time listed on the back of the cake mix box. Remove cake from the oven and cool. Apply icing when cool.

For the icing:

Zest the entire lemon. If the pieces are large, chop them up into small bits. Juice half of the lemon and set aside.

Add cream cheese and butter to a bowl. Mix until well blended and smooth. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla and pinch of salt. Slowly mix into cream cheese/butter. Once that’s incorporated, add in a cup of powdered sugar at a time. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl. At this point, keep adding sugar until the frosting is as thick or thin as you like. I tend to add most of the bag for a firmer frosting, but sometimes I just like a runnier icing. It all depends on your mood and what you are making. Now taste the icing. Is it lemony enough? If not, squeeze more juice and mix a little longer.

Optional: you can also add a little yellow food coloring to give it that lemon look.