Lemon Cream Cake w/ Milk Crumb Topping

By msippigrl

One of the best cake mix cakes I've ever made! Cool and refreshing lemon cake with the most (simple but) decadent whipped cream filling and milk crumb topping. Perfect dessert for Spring or Easter!

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1 box white cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare as listed on box
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• Filling:
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, slightly softened
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 1/3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• Milk Crumb Topping: recipe in Directions

Preparation

Step 1

For the Cake:

Prepare cake as directed on box, adding in the lemon juice and zest. Bake in 2 (9-inch) round cake pans for time listed on box. Cool completely on wire racks.

For the Filling:

In a medium mixing bowl and using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and lemon juice together until smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until cakes are completely cool.

Spread HALF the cream cheese filling on bottom cake layer; add other cake layer and spread rest of the filling on top. (You will need to increase the filling amounts to frost the sides of cake.)

Sprinkle cooled crumb topping (recipe below) over the top of cake. Refrigerate for about 3 hours.
At serving, sift confectioners sugar over the crumb topping, if desired.

NOTES:

1. I used Pillsbury cake mix, using
2. One whole Jumbo egg and 2 jumbo egg whites
3. I used whipping cream for the filling but for a shortcut you may be able to substitute with full-fat Cool Whip
4. I made the homemade crumb topping below but you could just crumble shortbread cookies (such as Lorna Doone Shortbread cookies or Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies) over the top instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Milk Crumb Topping:


1/2 cup dry milk powder (I used non-fat)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 stick butter, melted


Preheat oven to 250° F. Line a large baking sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the dry milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Add the melted butter and toss mixture together with a spatula, until it starts to come together and form small clusters. Spread clusters out on the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before using on cake.