Tasty Tuesday: Lemon Cake Adventures

Hey Food Lovers,

I'm back. I am well aware that I have bombarding you with dessert recipes. Lately, this has been a preoccupation of mine and I have been subjecting you to my foolish. Mea culpa! But I will finish up the month of April with desserts and move on to more savory items.

With that being said, here is the back story inspiration for the lemon cake. Sooooo, as you may know I am am a little bit of a social butterfly and I like to keep busy (partly because a single woman in the DMV can get into alot of trouble if she has too much idle time). I love my friends for filling my schedule with wonderful activities and events, but sometime I can get overwhelmed. Not there fault and totally mine. One of my delightful BFFs, reminded me of my shortcoming and that I now had to make amends. And as a habit, I always spread love in the form of food love. She likes lemon cake and I went about adapting the recipes.

This is a bonus recipe week because I love lemon icing and she doesn't. So, I will be making a lemon cake with lemon filing and lemon icing for the fam and me and Lemon pound cake for her.

Lemon Pound Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs, well-beaten
1 cup heavy  cream or milk

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 300F. Butter and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans, a tube pan, or a Bundt pan. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Stir in the lemon extract.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake 1 hour for the loaves or 75 minutes for the cakes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake(s) cool in the pan(s).

Lemon Cake

Cake:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sifted self-rising flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of lemon extract  

Frosting:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Filling:

• 8 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 3 lemons, zest grated and juiced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pan.

To make the cake: Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely.

To make the lemon frosting, in the large bowl of the electric mixer, using the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar on low speed. Add the cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest. Increase the speed to medium-high, and beat for about 3 minutes, or until the frosting is light and fluffy.

To make the filling: Place the ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Don't let top pan touch the water. Cook and stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
To assemble, add 1 tablespoon of filling to the cake pedestal. Run hands along the side of the cake to remove excess crumbs. Place the cake layers on the pedestal, spreading filling between the layers and on top. Spread the sides and top of the cake with the remaining filling. Frost top and sides of cake with frosting. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a sprig of mint.

I will return later in the week with pictures for my Lemon Adventures


~Recipe adapted by Patrice from Paula Deen's Lemon Cake recipe  and Diner Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2000) By Tish Boyle, Photographs by Clark Irey

Rum Caramel Pecan Brownies

Hey Food Lovers, 

Brownies 1, Patrice 0

So ok I have a confession to make. I made the cookies and cream brownies. Ummmmmmm, my first attempt =EPIC FAIL. I mean it was awful. They took forever to cook and then they weren't set in the middle. The taste of the brownies were worst because they weren't sweet enough and tasted just like the baking chocolate I used in them, which is never good. 

The only part of the recipe that came out well is the cookies and cream frosting, which was amazing. I can definitely see myself using that for something else. 

In the spirit of "if you don't succeed then dust yourself off and try again", I bring you another brownie recipe. This time closer to a traditional brownie. RUM. CARAMEL. PECAN. BROWNIES.  I figure that rum makes any thing taste better.  

And here is the end result......

The taste was much improved and the it cooked well. I am so happy. 

Now I will admit that I used a pan that was slightly bigger than the recipe called for (I used a 9x9). So I didn't get the coverage  for the second layer that I was looking for. In addition, I made homemade caramel  for the brownies. I am not yet ready to relinquish that recipe. I apologize. But, I include a close variation.  

I know... I know.... A magician can never reveal all her secrets!

Love you, and remember to RATE, COMMENT, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE.....

Love, 

Patrice

Rum Caramel Pecan Brownies

  

Ingredients: 

Cooking spray

½ cup butter, cut into pieces

½ cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. salt

½ to ¾ cup pecans, toasted

24 Kraft caramels

4 tblsp. Cream

1/8 cup of dark rum

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Line an 8×8 baking pan with foil or parchment paper so that the edges extend over the sides slightly. Spray lightly with cooking spray.

Melt butter and cocoa in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together until well combined, remove from heat and let sit for 3-5 minutes or until cooled slightly.

Whisk in eggs, then sugar and vanilla stirring just until combined. Add flour and salt and stir just until combined.

Spread half the batter evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan.

Place the caramels and cream in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 30 second intervals, stirring between each. When melted and stirred together with rum until smooth, pour the caramel over the bottom brownie layer.

Sprinkle the caramel layer evenly with toasted pecans. Pour the remaining batter evenly over the caramel and pecans.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Start checking before the end of the baking time to make sure you don’t overcook.

Cool completely on a wire rack. For fudgier texture, refrigerate cooled brownies for several hours before cutting into serving pieces.

–Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking from My Kitchen to Yours

Cookies and Cream and Better-Than-Crack Brownies

Hey Food Lovers, 


Welcome back to another Tasty Tuesday. I know it's been a while since the last update but I've been busy. And I hope u like the new format. 

Ok, now to the good part. 

I love to cook and I fear nothing. No recipes are too tough for me to tame. With that being said, Brownies have always been my nemesis. Either they are too hard or too cakey. All I know is that whatever happens once I put them in the oven. I am never happy with the outcome.

So Monday, I was minding my own business and my twitter best buddie @xsashagirl hit sent me a tweet  with a website recipe for tiramisu french toast (I will post that next week).  While I was browsing the website a bit, I saw these two brownie recipes. I am sharing them with you today and I will be posting pics of my attempts later this week (I wanna do a blondie made with golden oreos)....

So Foodies, wish me luck on my brownie quest  and  I hope you enjoy you week.....

Love, Hugs and Kitchens,

Patrice

P.S. Please share, comment, and subscribe!!!!

Cookies and Cream Brownies

2-3 squares baking chocolate

1/2 lb butter

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 Oreo cookies, crumbled

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter and baking sqaures in a microwave safe bowl. In the mixing bowl, cream melted butter and chocolate mixture. Add in sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, beating one at a time. Add flour and stir just until combined. Fold in cookie crumbles.

Pour into greased 9 x 13 baking dish (I used a 8 x 8 square cake pan).  Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until just barely done. Cool before frosting.

Cookies and Cream Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/2 – 2 lbs powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 tablespoons milk

10 Oreo cookies

Mix butter and powdered sugar together, adding sugar gradually to the mix. Add vanilla. Mix in milk, adding more if needed. Continue to add milk and sugar until it reaches the desired consistency. Crush Oreos and fold them into the frosting.

Better-Than-Crack Brownies

1 batch brownies (use the recipe above)

1/2 cup salted peanuts (if don’t have salted, add sea salt)

1 cup chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups

1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

Mix brownies according to directions, and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Remove and top with peanuts and peanut butter cups, and bake for 4-6 minutes more.

While they are finishing baking, melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Stir in cereal. Remove brownies from oven and evenly pour chocolate mixture over top.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.