Pink Lemonade Cake

I made this cake for my mom's birthday and it was DELICIOUS!  It's tart and sweet just like pink lemonade.  Enjoy!















1 box Pillsbury strawberry cake mix
2/3 cup melted butter
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 pkg. Kool-Aid Lemonade mix
1 7 oz. container of marshmallow fluff
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 12 oz. container Cool Whip
Yellow food coloring (optional)

I made my cake the night before and covered it in Saran Wrap to seal in some moisture but you can make this all on the same day if needed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In mixing bowl, combine cake mix, butter, eggs and milk until incorporated.  Mix on med high speed for 2 minutes.  Pour batter evenly into 2 8 or 9 inch round baking pans that are either butter and floured or sprayed with the cooking spray that has flour in it (that stuff is amazing!).  Bake cakes for about 29 minutes, checking them with a toothpick at about 25 minutes to make sure they don't over bake.  Once tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, remove cakes from oven and place on cooling racks. Let cakes sit for 10 minutes then transfer cakes from the pans onto the rack itself and let completely cool before icing.
Once cakes have completely cooled, cover in Saran Wrap and place in the freezer while you're preparing your icing, this will make them easier to cut each layer in half.  They should freeze for at least 20 minutes.

Icing:
Cream together cream cheese and lemonade mix.  Add food coloring at this time if desired. I made mine a little on the brighter yellow side so once I added all the other ingredients it'd be a pale yellow (even though it looks white in the photo).  Next you're going to add the marshmallow fluff and lemon juice and then slowly add the powdered sugar so it doesn't make a mess.  Once mixture is fully incorporated, fold in cool whip until mixed well. 

When you're ready to frost the cakes, remove the cakes from the freezer, unwrap them and place on a flat, clean surface.  This next step can be kind of tricky if you don't have a cake leveler (lucky for me I bought one a couple years ago and have been shocked how much I use it!).  With a serrated knife, slowly begin to cut each cake in half horizontally to make 2 layers out of one cake.  If you gently place your hand on top of the cake while you do this it'll help keep it in place.  When you've done this to both cakes you're going to have 4 layers.  Place first layer on a cake plate and begin assembling the cake by frosting that layer, putting another layer on top of that and then frosting that layer, etc. until you've done all layers.  Frost the top and sides of the cake.  I sprinkled mine with pink sugar sprinkles to make it look pretty.  Refrigerate the cake until you're ready to serve it.