• 3  – eight inch cake pans, sprayed with Joy for Baking or Pam for Baking
  • 1 Duncan Hines Devil Food Moist Deluxe cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/3 C water plus 1/3 C cherry liquid from can cherry pie filling
  • 1/2 C vegetable oil
  • 2 cans Comstock Cherry Pie Filling
  • 1 package Lady Fingers, cut in half lengthwise
  • 2 – 8 oz. Cool Whip (will use about 1 1/2, save the leftover for future use)
  • 3/4 C walnuts, chopped
  • sliced Almonds for garnish
  • Lemon Curd Filling (recipe to follow)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray Pam on 3 cake pans.   Open the 2 cans of cherry pie filling and drain, set aside, it will continue to drain while you prepare the cake.  Blend the cake mix, water, cherry liquid, oil and eggs in a large bowl at low speed until moistened.  Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Fold in the walnuts.  Pour batter in the 3 pans equally.  Bake for 30 minutes, use a toothpick to check if cake is ready, it should come out clean.  Cool on a wire rack completely before proceeding.
Place first layer, bottom side up, on a plate or cake cardboard.  Place pieces of wax paper around the bottom of the cake, slightly under the cake, this will catch the crumb and excess icing.  Place about 1/2 C of the lemon curd mixture in the middle and spread around, short of the ends.  Place 1/3 of the cherries on top of the lemon curd mixture as evenly as possible.  Top with 2nd cake layer and repeat the lemon curd/cherry layer.
Put the 3rd layer on top.  Spread the Cool Whip on top and on the sides.
Gently press the lady fingers all around the 3 layer cake.  Place the remaining cherries on top of the cake, leaving about a 1 inch border.  Place the sliced almonds around the outside of the cherries.  Refrigerate until time to serve.  Note:  The lady fingers can fall, it’s also a great idea to tie a pretty ribbon around the middle, make a bow, for presentation.  Remove before serving.

LEMON CURD FILLING:
1 Jar (10 oz.) Dickinson Lemon Curd
1 – (8 oz.) cream cheese –leave out on counter to somewhat soften
1 -(12 oz.) Cool Whip
Place all the lemon curd, cream cheese and Cool Whip in a food processor ad blend for several minutes until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  You can freeze any left overs for future use.  (See Lemon Curd Napoleon for one idea!)