• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
  
• Grease and flour three 8x2 round cake pans. We like to line the bottom with parchment also.
  
• In the bowl of your mixer, combine the dry ingredients: cake mix, cake flour, sugar, and salt. Mix or stir to combine.
  
• Add lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon zest to the 1 ¼ cup milk (It will turn to a buttermilk consistency).
  
• Add eggs, cream cheese, vegetable oil, and milk/lemon mixture to the dry ingredients
  Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. (Stop at the halfway point to scrape the sides of the bowl if needed).
  
• Divide the cake batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 325 for 22-25 minutes. Baking times may vary, the cake is done when a toothpick can be and inserted and removed with no crumbs (or just a few) attached. Or, if you can lightly touch the center and it springs pack, it is done.

For the Lemon Curd

• Combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil (3-4 minutes).
• Boil, stirring, for 1 minute more.. Remove the pan from the heat.
• Spoon about ½ cup of the hot mixture into a small bowl with egg yolks and stir quickly until combined. Continue stirring, while pouring the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
• Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the curd is thickened and lemon colored (1-2 min). Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest.-- Let the lemon curd cool, then press plastic wrap onto the surface, this will prevent a skin from forming on the top. Refrigerate.
• This will fill a 2-3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake with some leftover. The recipe can be halved.
• I have refrigerated the lemon curd for a week and it was fine....I'm not sure how long it will keep beyond that
• Makes 1 ¼ cups

Whipped Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

• Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters 15 minutes before whipping the cream (30 minutes if chilling in the refrigerator. 
• Use the whisk attachment for a stand mixer, or beaters on your hand mixer.  Beat the cream until stiff peaks form. This can happen very quickly so don't walk away from the mixer.  You are at the stiff peak stage when you lift the beater and the cream stands straight up forming a peak or falls over slightly. Keep in the refrigerator while completing the next step.  
• In another bowl combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, coconut extract, and vanilla.  Mix until very smooth.  Fold this into the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembling the Cake

• Place the first cake on a cake plate or pedestal. Pipe a dam of the coconut whipped cream cheese frosting around the edge of the cake layer (about ¼-1/2 inch from the edge).
• Spread a layer of lemon curd within the dam. Then pipe on the whipped coconut cream cheese filling. I do this with a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away (same one that I used to pipe the dam). Lightly spread/smooth the top of the filling with an offset spatula.
• Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Then, top with the third cake layer. Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with additional frosting, then frost the cake.
• Press coconut all over the sides and top of the cake. We had some frosting leftover which we used to pipe stars around the top edge of the cake with a french tip, and garnished with small lemon wedges.