The login requirements prevent me from comparing recipes, but my family also has a lemon cake tradition -- it's what we always make for my father's birthday. My husband once tried to class it up by making the batter from scratch rather than a cake mix and doing I don't remember what in place of the lemon jello powder, before deciding that you know what, that was more effort than it was worth, and going back to the "most of this comes out of a box" approach. :-) But we have a Meyer lemon tree on our property, which he uses for the juice and zest, and wow does that add something; the cake becomes so much more fragrant.

Also, I sent the bit about Autolycus to my friend Alyc, noting that you basically just have to change the eye color and you're describing their cat Thrace.