5 Minute Lemon Cooler Cake

Hello Summer! I always feel good when this recipe comes alive from the depths of my family cookbook. It means warm temps, sunny skies and happy outdoor times are in my immediate future. I love to make this super fast cake recipe for spring and summer outings. It travels easily and keeps so well, you can make it days ahead of time and let it hang out in the fridge until ready to go.

Yesterday, I got one of those desperate school emails asking for a last minute baked good for my son’s first grade bake sale. I can’t say no to a bake sale. My big little guy loves it when I contribute food to his class & I can’t say no to him. It is my duty to make real food for school functions to keep all the store bought crappy muffins & cookies away. Someone’s gotta do it.

SO, this cake. It’s crazy good, always works plus it takes like 5 minutes to make. Ok maybe 6 or 7 but you get the point. I’m not going to lie though, it is easy because it’s a play on store bought box cake mix & jello. It bothers me for a quick moment and then I move on and realize it’s only cake and it’s totally worth it. It does have a lot of fresh lemon juice in it which is what gives it that amazing sweet tart lemon magic. Seriously the only time consuming step to this cake (because everything else is just dumping and stirring) is zesting & squeezing lemons for juice. If you have a little hand held squeezer/juicer…that’s all you need. Easy. If I haven’t sold you YET….here you go:

3 Reasons to make this cake: 

1. It’s lemon. FACT: Even picky dessert eaters always try the lemon dessert. 
2. It’s super moist, no dry cake here. The glaze pools up at the bottom so you have to lick your fingers while you eat it PLUS it has this amazing  lemon sugar crust along the edges of the top of the cake that tastes like you put a lot of time into making sure it was there, flecked with little pieces of lemon zest…YUM.
3. No frosting. It travels AWESOME. It loves the cooler and the refrigerator. 

Guys, this cake travels anywhere & everywhere with no worries. There is no frosting. You can bang it around, toss it on the floor of your car, pack it in a cooler…it goes where you go and always looks pretty. It has this lemon glaze and it literally sticks to the bottom of the pan from the sugars + the lemon juice so there is virtually no chance it is going to move around in that cake pan.

I tested this theory earlier as I screamed into my driveway (LATE), unstrapped a paddle board (cutest thing ever, b-day present for the 8 year old next week) from the top of the car which was an anxiety filled trip on the highway for me as I have zero faith in my ability to properly tie anything to the top of my car and then proceeded to drive 75 mph on the highway. I literally drove home from Reno with my head out of the sunroof window tweaking that it would blow off, dive through the windshield of the car behind me and I would cause a muli-car pileup for miles around sending people to the hospital. Whewww, glad that’s over.

Anyways, I ran inside, grabbed that cake from the fridge and literally threw it on the backseat of the car and then drove like a bat outta — to Squaw to get it there before all the children were gone and the dang thing was over. It slid from one side of the car to the other about 7 times. Mission accomplished. Cake. Still. Perfect.

I take this cake everywhere all summer long. BBQ’s, birthday parties, picnics, soccer games, camping, the boat, the list goes on…It packs up so well, tastes great cold and everyone always asks for the recipe. Just bake it up, throw the lid on and off you go.

You’ll see.

Cheers, Cam