1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk

Shirriff lemon pie filling or lemon pie filling of choice

2 340g cans of vanilla icing

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease an 8 x 2 inch round cake pan.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.  Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix WELL.  Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.  Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cake is done when tooth pick or knife is inserted through the center and it comes out clean.

1. Prepare 2 cakes as per the above directions; one for the bottom layer, and one for the top layer.  Remove from pans and place on wire rack to cool.  Cool completely!

2. Prepare lemon filling as per instructions and place aside to let cool slightly.

3. Once cakes are cooled completely use a knife to gently even tops of both cakes.  Ideally both cakes should be as flat and level as possible.  Place one cake on flat serving plate or cake catty.  Spoon lemon filing on to the top of this layer; smooth evenly across top making sure to not let any flow over edges.  Place second cake gently on top of lemon filling.

4. Using vanilla icing, ice the sides and top of cake.  Cover and keep in cool place until ready to serve.

This cake was a BIG hit and I will definitely be making it again.  I also can't wait to try it with different fruit fillings, so if you maybe don't like lemon, try it with raspberry, blueberry, lime... or just use vanilla icing for the middle!

I had to make a few adjustments to the original recipe for the vanilla cake that I found.  First, I had to adjust the amount of milk in the recipe.  It was only 1/2 a cup, I upped that to 2/3 to make the cake more moist.  Second, the temperature for the oven was too high.  It was originally 350 degrees.  When I first did this recipe at this temp I had to discard the cake as the outside was burnt and the inside had not yet cooked.  My last tip is when pouring the batter into the pan make sure to level it out very well.