Pinterest Summer Recipe Challenge - Olive Garden {copycat} Lemon Cream Cake

If you are a Pinterest addict like I am, you'll know that sometimes you pin ideas that you, for all intents and purposes, plan to try at some point. My recipe board, Nyam, is full of those. I decided that this summer, I'm actually going to make use of this board and try these recipes out. My goal is 1-2 recipes per week, and I'm calling it my Pinterest Summer Recipe Challenge. You can find more of my challengers here.

For my birthday this year we went out to the Olive Garden and I had a slice of this delicious lemon cream cake.. I love it because it was light in all the right ways. Light was the cake, light was the lemon flavor, light was the cream. So when I saw this on Pinterest, of course I had to pledge to try it out!

Challenger: Olive Garden {copycat} Lemon Cream Cake
You will need:
Batter:
1 3/4 cups cake flour*
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon zest
6 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 slice of lemon for garnish
Powdered sugar for dusting
Filling:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 1/2 cups lemon pie filling
*Note: when baking cakes, I always recommend cake flour. It is much finer and makes for a fluffier, lighter cake.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
You will need 2 greased 10" cake pans

You will do:
1. In your main bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder, salt, 1/2 cup of sugar. In a glass, combine the oil, yolks, water, zest. Then add the yolk mix to the flour mix, blend until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar until peaks form (I'm no good at this, but the peaks are important so be patient!). Slowly add the 3/4c sugar, making sure your peaks stay constant. Beat until the peaks are stiff.
3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the whites mixture to the batter, then carefully add the rest until mixed. Do not overmix. It will still be fluffy and somewhat airy/bubbly
 4. Pour batter into greased 2 10" cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes** or until a tester toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it completely cool. When cooled, use a rubber spatula and loosen the cake from the pan. Cut it laterally into two layers.

**I used the convection setting on my oven so that I could bake the pans at the same time. Timing will vary if you are using the normal bake setting. If you're not using convect, do only one cake pan at a time.
5. While the cake is baking / cooling, beat the whipped cream until you get stiff peaks. Slowly add lemon pie filling. Chill until the cake is cooled.
6. One the cake is cooled, layer the cream inbetween the two cake layers. Dust the top layer with powdered sugar, decorate with lemon slices.

Yes, my cake decorating skills could use some work..

My review...
This was a good cake, but it doens't shine a light to the Olive Garden version. Unfortunately, this is the only copy cat recipe online. But, with that being said - there wasn't any cake left at the end of the night. :)