Sunny & Bright: Lemon Cream
Posted: May 24, 2012 Filed under: cake, Fruit, lemon, Sweets, whipped cream Leave a comment »My 2012 Birthday Cake That I Shared
Lemon Cream Cake
Lemon and cream, yes, how lovely and refreshing!
Just look at these bright beauties!!!
Still trying to lose the winter hibernation weight I gained I thought it would be safer to make a “lighter” cake this year. I actually did not go lighter, but went “less of” and made half the recipe and split the cake layer.
This cake is really rich and lemon-y (recipe by Ina Garten who is notorious for creating rich foods). I added lemon glaze to each layer before adding an organic whipped cream with just a touch of lemon.
Oh, how moist and fresh! Look at all those lemon-glaze-capturing crevices…
So bright and full of flavor!
The cake was simple aside from grating the lemons and whipping the cream but if you have a grand-daughter handy, she can assist with that.
Creamy layer…
My friend and neighbor, Richard, was born a day before me so this was a perfect opportunity for me and my friend Bob to get together with Richard and his wonderful wife, Judith. We had a really nice little combination celebration!
After the first bites, the comments went like this: “Oh, this is so good.” “Mmmmm, very tasty.” “The cream is so light and I taste the lemon.” “Can I have another slice?”
My complaint – ends of the cake were a little dry. I must develop a better cake doneness test. I usually wait to see the cake separating from the sides of the pan but have come to realize this is a little too late. I’ve begun to use the toothpick method which is a bit better. Perhaps the brand new oven method might work best.
The recipe:
Lemon Cake (Ina Garten, Food Network.com)
Ingredients
2 sticks butter
2 C sugar
4 eggs
1/3 C lemon zest
3 C flour
½ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 t salt
1/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ C buttermilk
1 t vanilla
Process
Preheat oven for 350 degrees F. Grease 2 8” pans.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the lemon zest.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl combine buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and the liquid to the creamed mixture alternately, careful not to over mix.
Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 35-40 minutes.
Lemon Glaze: ¼ C powdered sugar, 1 T lemon juice, ¼ t vanilla. Combine all and mix well.
Lite Lemon Whipped Cream: 8 oz. organic heavy cream, 1 T powdered sugar, ¼ t vanilla, ½ t lemon juice. Mix all ingredients until light and fluffy. Fill a pastry bag for piping.
Lemon Cream Cake to enjoy throughout the summer season…
The Cream is in the Pudding
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: bread, bread pudding, cream cheese, Sweets Leave a comment »
Cream Cheese Bread Pudding – Mixings
I long ago discovered my affliction which makes me lose control around all things BREAD!
At the sight of a fresh roll, my eyes glaze over and I immediately begin two discussions in my head about how soft, smooth and silky it would taste but how eating one bite would disrupt my healthy-eating efforts and possibly send me on a bread bender.
So I normally steer clear of bread-related areas and events which include bakeries, grocery store bread departments, farmer’s market bread tents, baking blogs, and recipes that include bread!
The first time I thought about making bread pudding was some time ago when a colleague had me taste hers. She told me what she went through to make it which included using day-old Italian bread which is soaked in the liquid ingredients and then blended in a blender and finally baked.
I suppose there are bread pudding recipes like these but this bread pudding recipe has a difficulty rating of about a 2.
I had a copy of this recipe for a while and have been meaning to try it. I opened up my recipe folder and came across it again and intentionally with forethought – caved!
I went out of my way to purchase my most favorite of favorite breads, the Challah bread. I typically run past it in the market with my head turned in the opposite direction but I used it in this recipe. I later realized that just about any bread will make this recipe just as delicious because of its additional creamy ingredients.
Before baking…
…before eating…
This bread pudding was sinfully good and tasted like it involved much more labor.
It’s simple preparation is motivation to make it more often. However, buttoning my size 14 slacks is a much more powerful motivation for me right now. Maybe I’ll make it again next year.
Here’s the super simple and yummy recipe. I made a cream cheese icing glaze to top it.
Cream Cheese Bread Pudding
Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 C sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
1 T vanilla
10 C of bread, cubed
Process
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9 x 13″ pan.
Cream the sugar and cream cheese together. Beat in the eggs and mix until very smooth then slowly blend in the milk and vanilla. Add the cubed bread and stir to make sure it soaks up the liquid. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until pudding springs back slightly when touched and the edges have turned golden brown.
Cream Cheese Icing
3 T cream cheese
1/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C (or less) milk
Process: mix all ingredients together until smooth and pour over cooled bread pudding.
Autumn Returns For Spring
Posted: April 24, 2012 Filed under: banana, cake, sweet potato, Sweets 3 Comments »
Sweet Potato Banana Cake with Orange Ginger Frosting
It’s love season – Spring, however Autumn’s flavors have returned for this recipe.
Since it’s my sweetie’s favorite mix of flavors, it’s all good…
Yes, BOB created this recipe’s mixture of sweet potato and banana with orange and ginger frosting (my choice would have been lemon ginger since I think these two flavors compliment one another better). Yet all of these flavors worked! And worked well!
I adapted the recipe from one I found on FoodNetwork.com and a non-professional baker created it. Here’s my rendition of the recipe.
Sweet Potato Banana Cake
Ingredients (for 2, 9″ layers)
2 1/2 C flour
2 t baking soda, 2 t baking powder, 1/4 t salt, 2 t cinnamon, 2 t nutmeg
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 C brown sugar
3 eggs
1 T vanilla
1/4 C milk
2 1/2 C cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (organic “jewel” are best)
1/2 C banana, ripe and mashed
Process: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two, 9″ cake pans.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Cream butter and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time mixing well then add vanilla. Add dry ingredients, milk, sweet potatoes and banana alternating between these ingredients. Careful not to overmix. Pour evenly into prepared pans and bake for about 45-60 minutes.
Eggs & vanilla, flour mixture and sweet potatoes & banana.
Look at this batter. So rich…
The sweet potatoes are enriching this recipe.
In the pan before baking
In the pan after baking. The result was a dense, richly flavored, super moist cake.
The frosting was extra sweet so I made half the recipe and used it sparingly.
Orange Ginger Frosting
Ingredients: 3 C powdered sugar, 2 sticks butter, 1 t orange oil (extract), 2 T minced crystallized ginger, 2 T cream.
Process: Mix all ingredients together until creamy.
I made an orange whipped cream which was creamy and less sweet, for between the two layers.
Orange Whipped Cream
Ingredients: 8 oz. whipping cream, 1 t orange oil (extract), 1 T powdered sugar.
Process: Mix all ingredients till fluffy.
This is Bob & Donna’s recipe. Taking my knowledge of food and Bob’s penchant for mixing varying flavors we created a satisfying cake with bold flavor that worked!
My neighbor happened to come by as we were cutting the cake. Her response: “It is delicious! Can I have the recipe?”
Enjoy this cake now, in the Fall or whenever…
Like this:
Spinach Quiche in a Chive Crust
Posted: April 8, 2012 Filed under: Pasta/Rice, quiche, spinach Leave a comment »
Spinach Quiche
My first quiche! Why do I always assume some things are impossible to make! Quiche is quite simple as I’ve discovered.
After making my first quiche I now think of quiche as a light, fluffy omelet in a pie shell.
I love spinach so any dish containing spinach I’m more than willing to try.
I found a spin on a pie crust — Chive Crust from Cooking Light.
Here’s the recipe:
Chive Pie Crust (from Cooking Light)
5 oz all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
2 T minced fresh chives
1/4 C vegetable shortening
4 t unsalted butter, melted
1/4 C boiling water
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
Process
1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and chives in a bowl.
2. Cut in vegetable shortening. Tip: if you don’t have a pastry blender, use a sturdy metal wire whisk to “mash” the shortening into the dry ingredients. The picture below shows you get the same results.
3. Combine butter and water and make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add into well and bring flour into mixture until it resembles wet clumps. (Note: mine was more like a really thick porridge)
4. Make a rough disk on parchment paper or plastic wrap, wrap dough, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Roll dough out into a 13″ inch circle. Line the bottom of 10″ tart pan or spring-form with parchment, and then fit dough into bottom and press into sides. If using tart pan, remove excess.
6. Line bottom of crust with foil and add pie weights. Lower oven to 375F and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for 15 minutes before adding quiche ingredients.
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Chive Pie Crust rolled out and ready for baking…
Chive Pie Crust — done!
Mmmmm, spinach… love it!
The recipe for the quiche itself, well, I found hundreds of recipes online and decided to use Martha Stewart’s Spinach and Gruyere Quiche.
I used fewer eggs however realized that quiche=eggs so for future quiches, add all eggs!
Pride & Quiche
Fairway and the Minis
Posted: March 22, 2012 Filed under: blueberry, cheesecake, Fruit, raspberry, Sweets Leave a comment »
Mini Cheesecakes
While meandering through the abbreviated Farmer’s Market that makes its weekly appearance in my neighborhood (about one-quarter the size of the Union Square market), I stopped to taste the fruit preserves a country-fied looking man, was offering tastes of.
Growing up I was never really a jelly or jam person but a peanut butter person. While I couldn’t have my PB&J without the J, I always had it with as little “J” as possible. (I tend to like “creamy” flavors as opposed to sweet.)
I was expecting a mouth full of sugar based on these previous experiences however I was treated to a lovely, lightly sweetened, close-to-the-real-fruit taste.
The cost of one 8 oz. jar of these farmer’s market preserves: $8!!! Not in my budget.
Scoping out Fairway (one of my favorite markets for their selection but least favorite for customer service) I found these jars of organic fruit spread.
I tried the blueberry, loved it and thought it was so much like the farmer’s market preserves. It was lightly sweetened and organic to boot! It really did remind me of the preserves I’d tasted at the farmer’s market. These were less than $3 for a 10 oz. jar!
I returned to check for other flavors and in addition to the blueberry, they stocked both strawberry and raspberry. I bought the raspberry.
My son, Sean, loves cheesecake with strawberries (Junior’s cheesecake to be exact) and his birthday was coming in fast. I had just seen the cheesecake episode of Martha Stewart Bakes and thought these would be delicious, easy to make and could be topped or not, with the Fairway organic fruit spreads.
They were so creamy!
They really did melt in our mouths. Really — no chewing necessary.
My son enjoyed them and so did the rest of the crew!
Mini Cheesecakes (From Martha Stewart Bakes)
Here’s the creamy batter…
Put the creamy batter into a pastry bag for mess-free baking…
See how neat…
Then top with sweetened sour cream…
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