Super Summer Dessert Cake

Ok--so it's not really that good for you and it has a few more ingredients than I would like, but it sure hits the spot after a nice dinner from the grill and after a margarita. Lemon Cake!

We have a party to attend tonight and decided it would be a good treat to bring to complement thunder sticks, sparklers, and the eventual visit from the police.

So we are going crazy and mixing some of our beloved almond meal into an old Better Homes and Gardens Recipe. Almond and coconut meal always make everything so much more dense and moist than typical crappy white flour that it's hard not to try it out in everything. So here goes--we have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I'll tell you what--I would eat the batter in a bowl for dessert as is.

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup almond meal

2 tsp. lemon zest (yes 2, we are crazy over here!)

2 cups sugar (or sub 1 cup agave syrup)

1 tbs. baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 oven pre-heated to 350 degrees

2 greased and floured 9 1/2" cake pans

1 oven mitt

1 (preferably clean) mixing bowl and mixer

1-2 toothpicks (more if you really like to poke things)

Topping Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbs. Cointreau (or Triple Sec for you cheapies)

1/4 tsp. vanilla

@ 1 tbs. milk

slivered almonds

1 small bowl and spoon

Directions:

Beat ingredients 1-8 together until mixed. Add ye olde eggs and beat some more (until mixed.) Pour the mixture into the cake pans and bake for around 25-30 minutes. While this is going on mix the topping ingredients together. Use the toothpick method to see when the cake is really done. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Remove the cakes from the pans, put the topping on the cakes and eat with hands, forks, or flat sticks from the yard.

(Our oven had that baked on stuff when we bought it new. I am sure of it.)

(Yes, this is the topping. You get a gold star for being so observant.)