Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 8×8-inch baking pan. (See below in “NOTES” section for other baking pan alternatives).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment (alternatively you can do this in a large bowl with an electric mixer), add the sugar and lemon zest. Beat the two together. This will release all of the fragrant oils in the lemon zest and infuse them in the sugar. We want this, we need this.

Add the butter and vanilla extract; beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. If you want the cake to be yellow in color, add 2-3 drops of food coloring gel. This is of course optional.

In a measuring cup, pour in the milk, egg whites, and add the strained lemon juice.

Turn the mixer to low speed and, alternating between the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients, add them to the butter/sugar mixture, until the batter is relatively smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth it out until it reaches the sides. Transfer to the oven to bake for 25 to 32 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. It’ll probably take a good hour.

In the bowl of a stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment (or a medium bowl using an electric hand mixer), add the cream cheese and beat it until smooth. I like to do this or else the cream cheese frosting will have little clumps of cream cheese. Next, add the butter and beat it until smooth, about 15 seconds.

Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla and heavy cream. Beat for a full 2 minutes to ensure fluffy, delicious frosting.

To two small bowls, add about 1/4 cup of frosting to each. You can eyeball this. One will be our lemons (yellow) and another will be our stems (green). Add a drop or two of yellow food coloring to one frosting bowl. And add a drop or two of green food coloring gel to the second frosting bowl. Mix until smooth. Transfer the yellow frosting to a piping bag fitted with a #3 round piping tip.

Transfer the yellow frosting to a piping bag fitted with a #1 round piping tip.

Add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake and smooth it out into an even layer. Make it cute with some swoops. I like to clean the up the edges by using an offset spatula.

If you didn’t do the lemons above, no biggie. Top it with some sprinkles OR leave it as is. It’s cute.

To add the lemons, pipe on rounds of frosting; they’ll end up looking like lemons once we add the tops. Add as many as you like. Make them any size you like, too. Dip your finger in a bit of water and tap the tops of the lemons to make them appear smoother.

Pipe on a small “V” shape at the top of each of the lemons. This will make it appear like they have a stem.

I keep this cake at room temperature on my counter. I don’t own a glass cake cover so I use a colander. This cake is delicious for about 2 to 3 days. If my way leaves you unsettled, you can always place the cake back into the 8×8-inch baking dish and cover it with plastic wrap. You can also place them in containers with lids and just store them at room temp.