Disappeared in minutes and with competition. two cakes at the party - this gone the other 3/4 left. But I added 1/4 cup butter to the cake and over a cup of confectioners sugar to the frosting. It was superb, the cake stiff enough to support all the frosting. This is a keeper.

Maybe i just dont appreciate lemon in my cake. I thought this was terrible.

Never again! So dry you can't even eat it!

Four stars instead of five for a couple of reasons. First, unsuspecting cooks would find themselves with not nearly enough raspberry jam to fill this giant! Thanks to previous reviewers for the heads up - I went into this prepared with two 12-oz. cans of Solo Pastry and Cake Filling and it turned out to be the perfect amount - TWICE what the recipe called for! Second, other reviewers noted the cake was dry if prepared as written. Thanks again for the heads up - and I was determined to combat that. I added an extra egg and 1/4 cup of shortening, both of which did the trick because the first words out of Hub's mouth were about how moist the cake was! I loved the flavor of the cake as it stands, with the teaspoon each of almond and vanilla extracts - there is plenty of lemon in the frosting, and I like the neutrality of the almond/vanilla to balance out the lemon frosting and the raspberry fillling. The frosting is luscious, tho' I did add another cup of powdered sugar as it was a little too buttery tasting with just the three cups. The cake bakes beautifully and is easy to divide into layers. I would strongly recommend frosting with a crumb coat first, refrigerating for about 15 minutes, then frosting the cake. Hubs loves raspberry and he loves rich desserts. This was his birthday cake, and he definitely got one rich, raspberry cake! Moist (with my modifications), delicious and absolutely stunning.

I tried this recipe and the cake was a little dry. I added 4 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to the batter because I felt the batter should have a taste of lemon in it but I still wasn't able to taste the lemon in the cake. The frosting was way too sweet for me.

We tried this cake last night and were really disappointed...in fact, we each had a couple bites and the cake was really dry, which was surpising the batter was delicious! And, the frosting was gritty...we tried adding some milk to make it a bit smoother, but that didn't help. Save your ingredients and find another recipe!

I can't say that I cared for this cake. I think it would have benefited immensely from a raspberry compote instead of jam, and pretty much any other kind of frosting. Buttercream just wasn't the best choice. If you have lemon extract, use it instead of almond. It would be a lot better. Adding lots of fresh raspberries to the top really cut the how sugary the frosting was, and helped the flavor a lot.

The frosting for this cake is delicious! The taste of the cake is also very good. The one problem I had was the preserves - the amount specified is not nearly enough to cover 5 9-inch layers. I'm glad I bought a larger jar. This is a very dense and rich cake. I made it the night before and refrigerated it. That said, it tastes better at room temperature. If making in advance, I'd suggest allowing it to sit at room temperature for at least an hour before serving. It looks very impressive, also.

This frosting was fantastic! I was a little worried about it being too 'lemony' but it was perfect. The cake was a little dry, and I did not split the layers. Presentation is beautiful though, when serving slices. I will make this again, but probably with a different cake.

This cake was absolutely FABULOUS, but definitely labour-intensive. I only had 3 square pans, but would invest in a 3rd round pan just to be able to make it round, because icing the square was a nightmare. I found the layers incredibly thin and decided not to cut them any further. I just made the jam layers nice and thick to offset the thicker cake layers. Overall, an AMAZING cake, and best if refrigerated overnight before serving.