Sweet Tea-and-Lemonade Cake

Turned this into a layer cake. 3 layers of 8" rounds.  Great taste for the cake and the icing. I got great reviews on it from my taste testers at work. This will be a "keeper" in my recipe book.

Beautiful cake in the picture and we too love sweet tea.

I love Southern Living , subscribe to the magazine and share it with my culinary home ec students.

Anyway, I ALWAYS, now believe reviews MUCH more than just pictures and websites when testing

recipes for home and school.. So for this reason I will not waste money on this today. Please just send us TOP recipes.

Is there ANY way your kitchens can repair this and resend it for all of us?

To be very honest, when I've experienced a recipe fail - it's been a Southern Living recipe. I've been wary -- but I'm not going to bother making anything from the magazine any longer. With this cake, I had a similar experience as many… the cake did not cook in 35-40 min -- took 50. And though it was not dry, it was a weird texture and tasteless. 2 tsp of baking powder seems like a lot to me… wonder if that's a mistake in the recipe. Lemonade Frosting is yummy though. One star for the frosting.

Was so super excited to make this for an Arnold Palmer lover... Have never had a SL cake recipe steer me wrong until this one. It's not that it was bad, it was just not impressive in the slightest. A lot of work for what basically amounted to a sponge cake with lemony icing. I tasted the tea in the batter, not the final cake. The lemony cream cheese icing was different, but we couldn't decide if it was a good different or a bad different? Either way, everyone ate one piece without much to say and the rest of the cake was pitched.

Everyone at work enjoyed the cake, but the icing was the big hit. I expected more of a tea taste in the cake. I may try some of the other reviewers suggestions and use more tea. I made mine into cupcakes as this is easier to handle at the office. Thank you for another good recipe.

I'm surprised at the reviews. I made this cake exactly as the recipe stated and it was moist and delicious! I used Swans Down cake flour and all the tea. I baked it for 35 minutes and it was moist and done! I took it to work for a party and people were asking for thirds! I loved the flavor and would definitely make this cake again!

This cake cooked in time. It is very very dry. I'd be too embarrassed to present this cake to guests.

I never make a recipe without reading the reivews first- until this one! I made it straight out of the magazine becuase it looked so good- the batter tasted pretty good- which was a good sign but the cake was completely tasteless. I was afraid I had made the tea too strong because I only had gallon sized bags, but I could still not taste any tea flavor. My BFF who is the nicest person in the world and will eat ANYTHING didn't eat it. I have never had to give a one star rating before but this was really awful. I am glad I did not bring it to a party- it would have been really diappointing! I threw the whole thing down in the trash

Did those in the test kitchen NOT notice this cake was dry as sawdust? There is something missing in this recipe. Sadly, I already had the cake in the oven before I read the reviews. I believe vegetable oil or shortening is a missing ingredient. I agree with Avcruz, even some applesauce would have added the moisture this cake needed. The frostiing was delish but we won't be making this cake again.

I agree with the majority of the reviews. I was so disappointed in the cake. The batter looked like way too much for a 9" x 13" pan, but I followed the directions as they were given. The cake would not bake in the center and the top cracked after baking it longer. The photo led me to believe the cake would be moist and rich in color. My result was just the opposite, I cant believe SL tested this thoroughly with all of these poor results. The frosting was good, but the cake was bulging out of the pan, so only half of the frosting could be applied to the cake. Never again....

Worst cake ever! Waste of time and money. So dry and tasteless we threw the entire cake away.

If not for the icing this cake would have no flavor. Doubt I will make it again, but if I do I will add the spices needed to make it a spice cake.

I made it with an alteration: used 1 cup tea and added 1 cup applesauce to add moisture, as I read this was the biggest criticism of the recipe. 40 minutes and came out perfect AND moist!!

Would not make this again as it was very dry! The frosting was good.

Amazing cake! I made this for my family a week ago and everyone enjoyed it. My cake wasn't dry for me, instead of discarding the remaining tea, I made sure that it was all combined with the batter. I think that might've helped.My family and I really liked the taste of the tea in the cake, it added a richness to the batter, a little something special. I can't wait to try the icing with bourbon!

Yes I agree the cake is a little different. I made this cake following the directions as in the magazine to carry to work for a luncheon. Came home with one piece! Everyone agreed that the cake and frosting was good. Yes the frosting was the best I have ever had. I will make mine the next time with one less tea bag. Cake did take a little longer to cook but every oven is different. My worse critic is my hubby and he gave two thumbs up.

I agree the cake was too dry. The frosting with the bourbon was fantastic!

I agree with the majority--extra baking time required; cake drier than expected; little to no tea taste; too time-consuming; nice icing

It gets 1 star for frosting only. Made the recipe exactly as printed and the cake cooked through fine, but was as dry and tasteless as cardboard. Since I had stupidly made it to bring to work for shared meal, was forced to cut each piece in half horizontally just so there was equal amount of frosting to cake. Coworkers agreed that it was dry and ate frosting off cake. Waste of time and money. Did someone test this in the SL kitchen first?

I followed the recipe to the T, however, the cake was too dry. The lemonade frosting was very good.

Not sure why other people don't like this cake. Sure, we had to cook it an additional ten minutes longer than the recommended time. But the cake wasn't dry. We took it to a party and it was well liked by all - adults and kids alike. The cake isn't too sweet, which is nice since the frosting is very sweet. It makes for a nice pairing. We'll make it again.

I was very disappointed. Had I read the other reviews I would not have made this cake. It did not bake well and was not done in the middle of the cake. I baked longer which resulted in it being dry. Not good and a waste of time and money.

Sadly, I did not read the first review before making this cake. One cup of tea is probably a mistake since I am having exactly the same experience as the previous reviewer. This cake isn't even close to done. I'm so grateful to the other review -- I'll take it out of the oven now and skip wasting my time and ingredients on the frosting. I'd try 1/2 c. of tea if I were determined to try again ... but I'm not.

I got my latest issue yesterday, saw this recipe, and decided to make it for dessert. Very disappointing. I followed directions, but after baking at 350 for 40 minutes, the top was browned, but the inside was still jiggly. So I baked another 10 at 325, to keep it from burning. Still not done. I covered it with foil and baked another 10 to finally get it done. The flavor was boring and the cake was dry. The frosting was good though. I won't bother keeping the recipe.