on the table: Lemon Icebox Box Cake

By Amelia Cook

When I was 7, a picture of a little girl named Liang came in the mail with my monthly sponsored children through Holt International. It explained that little Laing needed cleft palate surgery in order to get adopted in a certain time span. I immediately thought, “maybe I can raise $75 to at least help towards a small part of the surgery.” My mom posted on Facebook that I was baking cakes to raise a small portion of money. By the end of my summer, I ended up raising $1,700 which covered her full surgery, part of another child’s heart surgery, barnyard animals for a family, a sewing kit for a single mom, school supplies for 10 children, shoes for ten children, school tuition for a child living in the Mongolian Dump, and much more. In other separate fundraisers, I paid for an elderly lady’s hip surgery, $200  to give to my previous school’s library that was being repaired from termite damage, and much more. Through that, my mom remembered she had a Lemon IceBox Box cake recipe from Mrs. Shanny, who was incredibly close to our family, and I also started to use that recipe. Recently, Mrs. Shanny passed away, and I’m incredibly honored to continue her family recipe from one of her amazing, talented, recipes she made. I now have my own charity, Cakes For a Cause, and I’ve received Mississippi’s middle Level State Honoree through The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. I hope to continue with my charity, and hope to share that even when you’re young, and you may think you can’t change the world, you can still change someone’s life.

Lemon Icebox Box Cake

Ingredients: 
1 box of yellow cake mix
3 cans of condensed milk
9 tablespoons of lemon juice
Large cool whip 

● Follow the directions to make a yellow cake box recipe, using two round pans to make the cake, then let cool.
● Split the two round cakes into halves to make 4 layers of cake.
● Combine the condensed milk and the lemon juice to make the filling, and set aside about ½ a cup of this for the topping.
● Layer the remaining filling on one half of a layer, and place the other half on top. Do the same with the other cake layer.
● Put filling on top of one of the halves, and place the other half (two layers) on top to make one cake.
● In a separate bowl, combine the cool whip and the ½ cup of filling that was put aside.
● Cover the entire cake with the cool whip mixture.
● Slice 3 thin slices of a lemon and place on top of the cake.
● Refrigerate immediately, and enjoy.