Gluten-free Lemon Cake with Creamy Coconut Frosting

We had a birthday in our home this week! I was given several cake and muffin mixes and decided to spruce one up for the party. Very simple, but very good! Of course I don't have a picture because we ate it up too fast!

If you don't have a cake mix handy, an easy one to find is the GF Betty Crocker mix found at regular grocery stores. This is actually one of our favorite cake mixes.

Gluten-free Lemon Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
Zest from 2 lemons
2 teaspoons lemon extract (or extra zest)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of one lemon

Whatever the box calls for, which in my case was:
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut)
1 cup non-dairy milk (minus the lemon juice)

Preheat the oven according to the box of cake mix.

Zest the lemon. You do this by washing them well and then grating them on the smallest setting of your grater.

Juice one of the lemons into a measuring cup. Add milk (I used rice) to bring it to the 1 cup mark (or how ever much liquid your recipe calls for).

Beat the oil, milk, extracts, eggs and zest together. Slowly add cake mix and beat until well-mixed.

Pour into a 8 or 9-inch round cake pan, or a square one. Bake according to the directions on the box.

Creamy Coconut Frosting
I cannot for the life of me find the recipe I used. It was on the internet.

It went something like this :)

1/2 cup coconut oil, cold
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4-1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used an alcohol-free one)
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Since it's hot right now, I measured out the coconut oil and put it in the fridge for a while.

Put it in a bowl and beat it until creamy. Add powdered sugar and milk.

If it's cold, you will need to heat the coconut milk just a tiny bit to get it liquid.

Add the vanilla to 1/4 cup cooled coconut milk. Slowly add to mixing bowl. Add more milk if the consistency is too thick.

Fold in shredded coconut.

Frost the cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator until it's time to eat.

*If you have trouble finding lemon extract, it's super-easy to make your own. All you need is 7-8 ounces of vodka or rum, 1 lemon (preferably organic because the alcohol will be extracting all that is on the peel) and an 8 ounce glass jar.

Peel the lemon using a veggie peeler, focusing on getting just the yellow part (the white makes it bitter). Put the peel in the jar, and cover with alcohol. Put it a dark places and let it sit for at least a week (I think I did 2 weeks). Remove the peel and store the extract.