Lemon Yogurt Cake

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-yogurt-cake-recipe/index.html

Jud and I love lemon pound cake. The one at Starbucks is awesome.  This is pretty close. It is very lemony. The recipe is for a cake, but I decided to make lemon cupcakes instead. I made some of them tiny and some of them regular size.  We can't possibly, or should I say we shouldn't, eat a whole cake, so I froze the little ones and saved the larger ones.  I will pull them out of the freezer in a couple of weeks.

Printable Version: Lemon Yogurt Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt ( I used Brown Cow- vanilla)  ( I had a hard time finding an 8 oz plain whole milk yogurt.
1 1/3 cup sugar, divided use
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (syrup to pour over baked cake)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 1 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan. I just sprayed the mini-muffin tins with cooking spray. I used paper liners in the larger muffin tins.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean. I baked the larger muffin tins about 20-25 minutes and the mini-muffins about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze:
Combine 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and pour over the cake.


Lemon Pound Cake

Jud and I have gotten hooked on the lemon pound cake at Starbucks.  We go get a cup of coffee and 1/2 a piece of this wonderful cake.  I found a recipe courtesy of Gale Gand on Food Network, and it is just about as good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/lemon-pound-cake-recipe/index.html





Printable Version: Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for icing
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup lemon juice, plus 1/3 cup for icing

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 6-cup loaf pan and line it with parchment or waxed paper. (I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray and it came out fine). In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or use a hand mixer), cream the butter. Add 1 cup of sugar and mix. With the mixer running at low speed, add the eggs one at a time.
Add the vanilla.
3. Working in alternating batches, and mixing after each addition, add the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup of the lemon juice to the butter mixture. Mix until just smooth.
4. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until raised in the center and a tester inserted into the center comes out dry and almost clean (a few crumbs are OK), 65-75 minutes.Mine was ready in 65 min.
5. Meanwhile, make the glaze; In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the remaining 1/3 cup lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved. I used powdered sugar and lemon juice so you don't need 1/3 cup of the lemon juice.  Just add the powdered sugar and then add a little lemon juice at a time until it is the consistency you want.
6. When the cake is done, let cool in the pan 15 minutes (it will still be warm). Run a knife around the sides of the pan. Set a wire rack on a sheet pan with sides (to catch the glaze) and turn the cake out onto the rack. Peel off the waxed paper.
7. Using a turkey baster or pastry brush, spread glaze all over the top and sides of the cake and let soak in. Repeat until the entire glaze is used up, including any glaze that has dripped through onto the sheet pan. Let cool at room temperature, or wrapped in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator (Well wrapped, the cake will last up to a week). Serve at room temperature, in thin slices.

Pirate Cake Pops

I got this idea from Pintrest and decided to make them for my grandsons' 5th birthday party. I found a picture on pintrest and just tried to copy it.  You can order them from Etsy, but they are pretty expensive. If I had it to do over, I would not do these. It is so much trouble, and he told me last weekend, after I had bought the stuff to make them, that he didn't like cake pops.  Go figure.








The first thing you do is make the cake of your choice as directed on the box.  He wanted strawberry so I bought the cake mix and canned icing.  After the cake is baked you break it up in a bowl and add the icing from the can.  I just did a little at a time, because I wanted to make sure I would have enough icing to do 25 cake pops.  After mixing it well, form them into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. I like them small so that each pop can be put into your mouth in one bite.

Put some sticks in the cake pops and place them in the freezer for 15 minutes.  While the pops are in the freezer, melt the white and red chocolate bark in separate bowls.  Remove the pops one at a time and dip them in the white chocolate. I tried to just cover the bottom part of the stick with the white chocolate so that the top part would not have a double layer of chocolate.  Let the white chocolate harden while you make the remaining pops. You can stick each one in a piece of styrofoam to allow the chocolate to harden. After the white chocolate hardens, dip the top part for the bandanna in melted red bark.  You will want to tilt the top part so that it is not straight across. While the bark is still wet add the dots for the bandanna. I bought multi-colored dots and separated them out for a while, then I decided multicolored would be just fine. I ran out of white chocolate bark and decided to melt some semi-sweet chocolate, but it didn't harden as easily as the bark.

After the bandanna has hardened add the eyes and patch in a tube of black candy writer. I bought mine at a cake decorating place.  You can go on pinterest and type-in pirate cake pops for a better picture.
I decorated the square piece of styrofoam like a pirate ship and push the cake pops into the ship.

Chocolate Malteser Cake

The Martyak's are coming on Thursday so I made this cake for us to have. Hopefully, there will be some left by the time they get here. Jud tried it for me. He said I wouldn't want to serve something that wasn't good. It passed his inspection. I think Bodie will like it.
Nigella used superfine sugar, but I just used regular sugar. She also used Horlicks malted milk powder, but I just used what my grocery stor had, which was Carnation.  From Nigella Lawson - Feast


Printable Version:
https://sites.google.com/site/whatscookingsherry/chocolate-malteser-cake


Ingredients for the Cake:
3/4 cup lighty brown sugar                                        2 T. malted milk powder
1/2 cup superfine sugar                                             1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs                                                                        1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
3/4 cup milk                                                              1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon butter                                                    1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Ingredients for the Frosting and Decoration:
2 cups confectioner' sugar                                         1 stick plus 1 tablespoon soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa                                  2 tablespoons boiling water
1/3 cup malted milk powder                                      2 ounces Malted Milk Balls for decoration

Tkae whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients can come to room temperature (though it's not so crucial here, since you're heating the milk and butter and whisking the eggs).
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and line two 8" round cake pans with parchment paper. Whisk together the sugars and eggs while you measure out the other ingredients; I use a standing mixer here whilch explains why I can do two things at once. Heat the milk, butter, and horlicks powder in a saucepan until the butter melts, and it is hot but not boiling. When the sugars and eggs are light and frothy, beat in the hot Horlicks mixture and then fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two pans and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, but which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. Let them cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and then turn out of their pans.
Once the cakes are cold, you can get on with the frosting. I use a food processor just because it makes life easier; you don't need to sift the confectioners' sugar. Put the confectioners' sugar, cocoa and Horlicks malted milk powder in the processor and blitz to remove all lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop, scrape down, and blitz again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running until you have a smooth buttercream.
Sandwich the cold cake layers with half of the buttercream, and then ice the top with what is left, creating a swirly top rather than a smooth surface. Stud the outside edge, about 1/2 inch, with a ring of Malted Milk Balls or use them to decorate the top in whichever way that pleases you. I do not ice the sides. (I didn't either)