Iced Lemon Bundt Cake

I baked in my new kitchen for the first time last night. Loved it! It's much more conducive to baking, cooking, and general socializing. I adapted this recipe from the lovely Ina Garten. Her show kills me. She's always having these fabulous dinner parties with some fabulous friend who she usually puts to work. Not gonna lie, I'd barbeque some pork chops if she told me to. It would be a fabulous trade-off for the opportunity to sit on her back patio and have a grand time with her whilst enjoying her fabulous foods. Anyway, this cake is deliciously lemony and perfect for spring.

Printable Recipe 

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup whole milk at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice + 4 tablespoons

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk at room temperature

Lemon zest from 6 large lemons

1 tablespoon of honey

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a standard sized bundt cake pan with butter. Coat with flour and shake out the excess.

2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine whole milk, vanilla, and only 1/4 cup of the lemon juice. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and only 2 cups of sugar with and electric hand mixer. Mix it at medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Continue mixing and add eggs one at a time, mixing well in-between each egg. Add lemon zest and combine with mixer.

4. Add your flour mixture and milk mixture alternately to butter mixture, a little at a time, until all are combined. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan and even out the top with a spatula.

5. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. 

6. In a small pan over medium heat, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of honey until sugar is dissolved. Reserve the remaining 4 tablespoons of lemon juice for the icing. 

On a side note, I have an addiction to honey. I love it. I could eat it 10 times a day. This is one of my favorite kinds: 

yummmmmmmm

7. Once cake is done, allow to cool on a cooling rack (with a tray underneath) for 10 minutes. Remove cake from cake pan but be careful as it may still be hot! Evenly poke about 20 holes in the cake with the wooden skewer. Spoon lemon juice/sugar mixture slowly and evenly over the cake. The tray below will catch any additional mixture that is not absorbed. 

8. For the glaze, start by pouring only 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice into the confectioners’ sugar. Stir and keep adding lemon juice until you get a smooth consistency. Spoon evenly over the cake. Again, the tray below will catch any glaze that runs off. 

Ohmygoodness! Yum!

Mom’s Coffee Cake and the BLIZZARD OF THE CENTURY!

Doesn't this coffee cake look delicious?! It's my Mom's recipe so I'm not going to share...sorry! I made it the other day for the first time and it reminds me of all the times she used to make it. It brought back a lot of good memories. It's super moist and filled with a lot of cinnamon. Mmmmmm. This should get me through what the weather forecasters are calling the Blizzard of the Century. Dramatic? Well maybe, maybe not. We are expected to get up to two feet of snow:

Photo courtesy of the weather.com

I'm glad I baked cupcakes and cake and I'm even happier I stocked up on wine. I hope lasts... 

To be continued....

Carrot Cake Birthday Cake

Rob's birthday was last week (Happy Birthday!!) and this past weekend I made him a carrot cake. I made this same recipe last year for his birthday but this time I wanted to make it a little bit healthier. I used mostly whole wheat flour for the cake and for the frosting I used non-fat cream cheese. Unfortunately I forgot an important ingredient...the oil. I didn't realize this until it was almost finished baking so there was nothing I could do about it. Ooops. Surprisingly though, it tastes pretty good. It's just slightly dry. But I recommend that if you're making this recipe it's probably best not to forget the oil.

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl beat together the eggs and sugar until creamy. Stir in the vegetable oil, carrots, orange juice and vanilla and mix well. Combine with dry ingredients and mix.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9 inch baking pan. I love parchment paper for recipes like this. You can do this and it's super easy to get the cake out. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

This particular time I made it in a loaf form using a standard bread loaf pan. If you do that, keep it in the oven another 5-10 minutes when baking.

Now it's frosting time!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup fat-free cream cheese softened
4 tablespoon margarine
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

Mix the cream cheese and margarine. Add the vanilla then add the powdered sugar little by little while mixing until you reach the desired consistency. Wait until the cake has completely cooled then frost.

Instead of doing the typical "Happy Birthday Rob" on the cake I decided to make little carrots. I just mixed some of the extra frosting with food coloring and put it in little plastic Ziploc bags and snipped the tips and tah-dah....

Birthday carrots!