Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

The other day I tweaked the recipe for my favorite pound cake to include lemon and blueberries.  It was so, so good.  I was afraid to add lemon juice directly to the batter because I was afraid the acid would screw up the chemistry of the cake.  The zest and extract give the cake a subtle lemon flavor and the juice in the glaze makes it about perfect in my book.
2 cups unsalted butter, softened

(Do not even THINK about using margarine here.  I cannot be responsible for the results if you do!)

3 cups white sugar

6 eggs

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1/2-3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Lemon Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan or 9 inch tube pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until smooth.  I really take a long time at this stage.  Just let the mixer go for a while.  You’ll be glad you did.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each then stir in the lemon zest, lemon extract and vanilla. 
4. Combine the flour baking soda,  and salt.  Mix into the batter just until smooth.  Stir in sour cream and then fold in the blueberries
5. Spoon batter into the prepared pan, and spread evenly.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto cooling rack.
7. When cool, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice to make a glaze.  
8. Set cake on cooling rack over a large plate.  Slowly spoon glaze over cake.  Excess will drip onto the plate.  
9. Pour excess glaze back into bowl and repeat until you don’t have enough to scrape back into the bowl.

Banana Rum Bundt Cake

The recipe for this cake is out of Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts.  In this age of online recipe sites, you may not be inclined to purchase an actual cook book (I’m not) but you will want to make an exception for this book.  It’s a treasure and everything in it is absolutely wonderful.  Sax recommends a chocolate frosting for this cake, but I dislike frosting bundt cakes and was out of baking chocolate so I made a butter rum glaze instead.  It was a good decision.

Cake:

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 generous cup very ripe mashed bananas (about 2)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt

 Glaze:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup rum

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray inside of 10 inch Bundt pan with baking spray.

2) Sift together dry ingredients.  Set aside.

3) Beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until very light.  Gradually beat in the sugar and continue to beat until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time; beat in the vanilla.

4) Lower the speed to very slow; add 1/2 the flour mixture in batches, alternating with the mashed bananas.  Add the remaining flour mixture on bathces, alternaing with the sour cream or yogurt.  Don’t over mix; finish folding the ingredients together by hand, with a few strokes of a large rubber spatula.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

5) Bake until a toothe pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.  

6) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes.  Invert onto a cooling rack to continue cooling.

7) While cake is cooling, combine 1/4 cup water, 1 cup sugar and a stick of butter in a small pan.  Cook over medium heat until boiling.  Reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.

8) Pour half of glaze into empty Bundt pan.  Put cake back in, upside down.  Pour about 1/2 of the rest of glaze over the exposed cake.  Wait a while and if all the glaze has been absorbed, pour on the rest.

9) When all glaze has been absorbed, invert cake onto serving plate.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I am not a professional baker but I can make cake from scratch and I watch Cake Boss and Cupcake Wars so I think I can say with some authority:

Faith is a genius.

For her birthday she wanted a chocolate cake with a twist - instead of frosting between the layers, she wanted cookie dough.  That sounded good, but I was concerned that the cookie dough wouldn’t spread well and that it might be a little too heavy so we talked about it and came up with … (drum roll please) … Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

I used the recipe on the back of the Ghiradelli Unsweetened Cocoa powder for the chocolate cake and frosting.  I like the Hershey’s cocoa powder recipe too, but Faith wanted more of a dark chocolate flavor which Ghiradelli delivers.

We baked the cupcakes in paper liners and while they baked, I made the faux cookie dough from the Cookie Dough Brownie recipe topping.  Essentially, it has most of the ingredients of real cookie dough except for the eggs so you can eat it raw without risking salmonella poisoning.

Salmonella poisoning is a bummer.

Important tip:  Use the mini chocolate chips for the cookie dough.  The regular sized ones are just too chunky for a cup cake.

After the cupcakes had cooled, I wasn’t sure what to do next.  I thought we’d have to cut out pieces of the center, but it worked better to just press holes into them with the handle of a wooden spoon (a finger would work too).

When they all had holes in them, we filled them with the cookie dough.

Faith wanted orange frosting so we made one batch of vanilla buttercream frosting that we could color, and one batch of the chocolate Ghiradelli frosting.  Of course, it’s easy enough to just spread the icing on with a knife, but Faith watches all those cake shows too, and she wanted to pipe it on.

Since they were her cupcakes, I let her at it.

She did a good job, didn’t she?

But of course, appearance is secondary to taste.  Really though?  How can you go wrong with chocolate cake, cookie dough and frosting?

You can’t.

They were amazing.

Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

The key to strong lemon flavor in baked goods is lemon extract.  The juice is wonderful of course, but it's high acid content can alter the product if you add too much.  If you prefer a more subtle lemon flavor, leave the extract out.

This recipe makes about a dozen, but as long as you're going to the trouble to make them you should definitely double it!

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

10 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg at room temp

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk at room temp

1/2 cup 2% milk at room temp

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 cup blueberries tossed with 1 tablespoon flour

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with baking spray.
2. Cream butter and sugar together.  Let mixer continue to run while you sift together dry ingredients.
3. Set dry ingredients aside.  Add egg to running mixer.  Combine well.
4. Add vanilla and lemon extracts.
5. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk and buttermilk, mixing after each addition until well combined.
6. Turn off mixer and stir in lemon rind and blueberries by hand.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned and the centers spring back when touched.
8. Cool in pan 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

2 ounces cream cheese or 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

To prepare frosting, place cream cheese, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon rind, vanilla, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed just until blended. Gradually add powdered sugar (do not overbeat). Stir in juice. Spread frosting evenly over cupcakes; garnish with blueberries, if desired. Store, covered, in refrigerator.

Just Your Basic, Delicious Cheesecake

For the very best cheesecake results, you have to plan ahead.  Making it the day before serving is ideal.  The ingredients need to be at room temp before baking and you have to allow it to sit for hours after baking to prevent cracks.  Your patience will be rewarded though with a creamy, luscious dessert.

For the crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp sugar

Cheesecake:

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup milk

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Important:  For best blending and to prevent cracks, take ingredients out of fridge a couple of hours ahead of time and allow them to come to room temperature before mixing.

1)  Prepare 9 inch spring from pan by wrapping bottom and sides in foil and greasing the inside well.  Preheat oven to 350.

2)  In a small bowl toss together graham crumbs, butter ans sugar.  Reserve 2 Tablespoons for garnish.  Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom and 2 1/4 inches up sides of 9 inch springform pan.  Chill in freezer while preparing filling.

3)  In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. It's important not to overmix.  You don't want to create air bubbles - just a dense, creamy texture.  Pour filling into prepared crust.

4)  Place pan in a larger baking pan.  Pour hot water into outer pan until it's about 1-2 inches up the sides of the springform pan.

5)  Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.