Lemon Cake

I bought a huge bag of lemons from Costco and wanted to use them up. My sister was coming over for dinner so I searched for a lemon pound cake and found this recipe on Tasty kitchen. I read the reviews and decided I needed to try it. I was very impressed with how light and fluffy and the flavor was just wonderful. I wouldn't say it was pound cake but a great lemon cake. The pound cake I am used to is much more dense. If you have a party to go to or want an easy desert to make that is very tasty and impressive then give this a try.

I only changed the the box mix but pretty much everything else was the same. Let me know what you think.



Ingredients

1 box of Duncan Hines white cake mix
1 package Lemon jello pudding mix
3/4 cups water
1/3 fresh lemon juice
1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs

For icing

1/4 cups butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 whole lemon zest
3 Tablespoon Lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Add all cake ingredients into mixing bowl and mix well on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let stand for 10 minutes and then turn out on to plate. Profusely perforate the top of the cake with a toothpick.

Mix softened butter with powder sugar, zest and lemon juice. Mix well and add milk until you get consistency of batter.

Ice cake while warm. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Make sure to not over bake

Perfect color. Now to poke with tooth picks so that the icing will seep in.

Easy to slice and you can see how moist

Mom's German Chocolate Cake

I can't believe I started this blog one year ago. It is amazing a year has already gone by. I was posting my dishes on facebook and a friend of mine said you should start a blog. It made sense because I was getting many requests for recipes and this way I didn't have to send them out individually and you could go back as many times as you wanted. Now it has been a year and my first recipe was Fettuccine Alfredo.

The best part of starting this blog is how many new food blogs I have discovered in the process. I found so many amazing recipes from other bloggers and I also discovered pinterest along the way.

Today I am posting my mom's German chocolate cake because it is very special to me. My mom has been making it since I was a kid and she only makes it once a year if we are lucky. It does take a lot of work but after you take one bite you know it was worth every minute. This cake is super moist and full of flavor. I also love this cake because one year she made it and I was the one who taught her how to fold in the egg whites. My mother has been teaching me how to cook my whole life and it is nice to be the one teaching her a thing or two. Don't be intimidated by all the steps in this cake because it goes a lot faster than you think and it is all worth it when your guests are oooooing and awwwwing while they eat it.

Ingredients for the cake
1 (4 ounce) package of Bakers sweet German chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup Butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Directions

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Grease three 9inch pans and then flour. Then line the pans with wax paper to help remove cakes easily.

Break chocolate into pieces and pour 1/2 cup of boiling water and stir until melted then cool.

Beat butter and sugar and then beat in 4 egg yolks.

Stir in vanilla and melted chocolate.

Mix flour, soda and salt in a large bowl and the beat  in chocolate mixture alternating with butter milk.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold this into the Batter and Pour into three pans equally.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool at 15 minutes but make sure cake is cooled completely. Don't remove until you are ready to assemble. (You can make these cakes the night before and let them stay in pan until you are ready to assemble the next day.)

Ingredients for Coconut Pecan Frosting

1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 (12 ounce)  or 1 1/2 cups can of evaporated milk
4 slightly beaten egg yolks
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans chopped
2 cups coconut flakes sweetened.

Directions

In a sauce pan add evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in nuts and coconut. Cool until thick enough to spread. should make about 4 1/2 cups frosting.

Spread coconut frosting on each layer of cake.

Ingredients for Chocolate frosting

4 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoons Hershey's cocoa
4 tablespoon water
2 cups confectioner sugar

In a small sauce pan melt butter over low heat. Add cocoa and water and stir until mixture thickens. Do not boil. Add confectioner sugar beating with whisk until smooth.

Spread chocolate frosting around the edge of the cake. You don't have to add this but me and my mom love the chocolate frosting. It just adds that extra touch.

Blackberry Cobbler

I Turned on the food network about a year ago and saw my very first episode of The Pioneer Woman. She made this Blackberry Cobbler. I am usually not a big fan of cobbler I tend to like a crisp more but this was a recipe I couldn't get out of my mind. I waited until blackberry season to give it a try and made it over the summer TWICE.

It was so easy and so good that I had to make it more than once and I had to share it with all of you. I had never used self rising flour so it was the one thing I had to run to the store to get and was worried I wouldn't be able to find it in a regular grocery store but they had plenty. Most of us do not have fresh blackberries right now but you can make it with frozen also. Try it and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

1/2 stick of butter

1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup whole milk

2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries

whipped cream and or ice cream for serving

directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 3 quart baking dish with butter.

In a medium bowl , whisk 1 cup sugar with the flour milk. Whisk in the melted butter.

Rinse the blackberries and pat them dry. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the top of the batter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the blackberries. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 1 hour. When 10 minutes of the cooking time remains, sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over the top. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.