Hi Jan,

If the recipe called for a couple of teaspoons of sherry I would say to substitute vanilla. Since it's 1/2 cup you can substitute water or juice (maybe apple juice). The taste won't be the same but the recipe should work.

Or, since you don't want to use the sherry, you might want to try this recipe instead:

Lemon Poppy Seed Layer Cake
Board: All Baking and Breadmaking at Recipelink.com
From: Betsy at Recipelink.com 1-14-2007
MSG ID: 0220492
MSG URL: http://www.recipelink.com/msgid/0220492

If you don't want the lemon flavor, substitute yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and vanilla yogurt.

Happy Baking!

Betsy