the cake was made, and it turned out just fine.

i used a tip i found on jordan's blog's comments for doctoring up the box mix:
add 1 extra egg
use butter instead of Oil
use milk instead of water (reduce qty by about 20%)
add a tsp. of vanilla

i did three layers, and put store bought lemon curd between each layer. the cake was the tiniest bit dry the first day, but yesterday it was moist and delicious, and trouble. we had to keep 'cleaning up' the edges.