You could add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar, but I don’t find it necessary for this recipe.

Thanks for the possible reasons why my cake didn’t rise. The one that most fit my case was because I over mixed it in order to incorporate the  colouring. I haven’t used food colouring much, and the stuff I used was called gel food colouring, even though it looked watery like the food colouring I’m used to. However, after using it, there was a small insert stuffed down to the bottom of the box, that only mentioned the use of this colouring with cookies nothing about cake, or other baked goods. I ordered online and they didn’t mention that it wasn’t really for cakes, in fact it mentioned more about cakes and nothing about cookies. I’m assuming that due to the results I got, this was a cookie only situation! Buyer beware, but if you’re misled in the advertising how are you supposed to know?! Thanks again Danielle. I’m not going to let this put me off though. I’m going to keep on trying!

So sorry to hear that it didn’t turn out well for you, Lee. How much food coloring did you use? The cake layers may not have risen very well if you over mixed the batter. A few other reasons could be that the butter and sugar wasn’t cream together long enough or your baking soda/powder wasn’t very fresh.

Well Danielle the cake wasn’t as successful as the frosting I’m afraid. It didn’t rise, and after testing, looked like it was done on the inside. I took it out of the oven a wee bit early as it was looking quite well baked on top. However, when I went to slice it the cake didn’t look done on the inside on 2 of the 3 layers. It was kind of a disaster and I’m glad I was only serving it to family! Could this be due to the colouring of the different layers, maybe being over mixed when I was adding the colouring to make sure it was totally mixed in? I followed your recipe to a T. I decided to use the vanilla cake instead of the white cake, could that have been the thing again with the colouring? Next time, plain old, no food colouring involved, cake I think. Your thoughts would be much appreciated Danielle, and again thank you for your support in some of my baking “firsts”.
Sincerely,
Lee

It should be enough for 2 dozen cupcakes. It’s totally up to you and what kind of frosting you prefer! I’m sure you could add some lemon extract or a little lemon curd to this frosting.

So glad the frosting turned out great for you, Lee! I’d love to hear how the cake turned out too!

I did it Danielle!
This is Lee. We’ve been communicating over the last couple of months? Anyway we I tried this recipe for the very 1st time today and it turned out perfectly! I wasn’t sure if I could do it but I did! Thank you so much for your help. Next, the tri colour cake. Will send you pics if I can. Thanks again.
Lee

Either way would be fine! Just keep in mind that the frosting has butter in it, so it will firm up once it’s been refrigerated. If you frost the cake and refrigerate it, just be sure to set the cake out a couple of hours ahead of time so it can come to room temperature. If you don’t frost the cake and just refrigerate the frosting, make sure to let it come to room temperature first and mix it well before frosting the cake.