I just discovered CakeCentral a few days ago and fell in love immediately. This is my frist post and I hope someone can give me som egood advice!

I have been searching for a moist cake with a subtle lemon flavour. I finally found a recipe that gives me the flavour I'm looking for...but it is soooo dry. I was going to toss the recipe and move on in my search, but decided to see if anyone had any recommendations on how to salvage the recipe by making it moister.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon flavouring
3 cups cake-and-pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk

I used shortening instead of butter because I had actually run out of buuter! But, I did add some of Wilton's clear butter flavouring to hide that fact...and like I said the taste was great.

I used the cake and pastry flour.

I only had skim milk in the house, so I cut back a little bit on the milk and added 1-2 Tbsp canola oil to make up for the fat (because from what I've read it is the fat in the milk that makes the cake moist).

So, any suggestions on how to moisten up this yummy, but dry cake? Or, should I just move on in my search? If so, any recommendations for recipes for a light moist subtle lemon flavour cake?

Add a cup of sour cream and see if that helps.

I dont do much scratch recipe baking, but I use sour cream with my box mixes.

I use a yellow cake recipe that uses potato starch in it. I couldn't find potato starch anywhere, but I did find potato flour. On the bag it said "Add a tablespoon or two to any biscuit, pastry, cake recipe to increase moistness." And my recipe called for 2 tablespoons of potato starch so I gave that a try, and it worked. Perhaps you could try that. I found it at my Target, called Bob's Red Mill potato flour.

And also a lot of bakers with brush their cakes with a little sugar syrup to make it moister. But I've never done that, never had to.

Have you ever tried Dorie Greenspan's Party Cake recipe from her Baking From My Home to Yours? This cake always turns out moist for me.

What your recipe is a classic 1 2 3 4 cake. I have seen a lot of variations of this that use different flours, flour that is sifted after measuring, flour that is sifted before measuring, AP flour, all cake flour and a combination of flour like you have. I have seen it where the eggs are separated and the whites whipped. I have seen it where sour cream is substituted with milk. I have also seen it where shortening is used instead of butter, and oil too.

To make it less dry you can use less flour. Try about 1/4 cup less each time until you find what you like.

Also cake flour will absorb a lot more liquid than AP. And the combo of pastry flour and cake flour could be adding to the dryness, even though it shouldn't. So try adding more liquid too.

I don't like to whip the egg whites separately from the yolks. I tried it once and was not happy.

Also how you mix it can make it dry also.

Lots of reasons why. You just have to experiment til you find what you like. Me, I am still tweeking.