Lemon Bundt Cake

I just can't stay away from the lemon. Maybe it's because it's so frigidly cold out and maybe it's because there are 4 foot snow drifts in my yard, and maybe it's because it has snowed so many times this month that I have completely lost track of just how many FEET, yes I said feet, not inches of snow that we have had, that I found myself needing to make something light and yellow and lemony to remind me that spring is only a month away.

You know it's pretty bad here in Rhode Island when we hear we are getting another 6 inches of snow and we all say "oh, only 6 inches". It's been that kind of a winter. My husband had to use a roof rake to get all the snow off the roof! It's a winter wonderland alright!

Enough about the snow....on to cake. This cake is everything you want a lemon cake to be. It's moist and full of lemon flavor. It just feels bright. It just makes me smile and if you have a lemon lover in your life, you most certainly need to make this for them.

I love a good Bundt cake recipe. This is one of them. Definitely going to be on my cake rotation from now on.




Lemon Bundt Cake
PRINTABLE RECIPE
slightly adapted from a recipe at Sprinkle Some Sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/4 cups whole milk
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

Lemon Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a Bundt pan very well making sure to really get into all crevices then lightly flour pan. Set aside.

Lightly whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer (if you're using one) fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs on low until they are thickened and very pale yellow in color. Turn mixer on low and slowly add sugar to running mixer and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Slowly pour in dry ingredients on low speed until combined.

In a small saucepan, heat milk until very hot and butter is just melted. Do not boil and whisk the mixture to help the butter along. Pour into batter and mix until smooth. Batter will be very thin. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 27-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Once done, remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in pan. Allow cake to cool a bit on a cooling rack. While the cake is cooling prepare the glaze.

For the glaze,
Whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice together, using more or less lemon juice as needed to get desired consistency. (I like to keep mine slightly thick so it won’t thin out too much when I serve it over warm cake.)Once cake is cooled down slightly, drizzle glaze over warm cake. Alternately, you can drizzle the glaze over each individual piece being served. Cake will stay soft and moist for 3 days stored in an airtight container.

Cauliflower Hash

Out of all the breakfast foods in the whole wide world I love corned beef hash the most. Well done hash with lots of crispy bits makes me happy. I'm not a French Toast or waffle person, but I love me some hash.

In my quest to keep it low carb I decided to make my own version of hash with cauliflower. I had seen a few recipes here and there but decided that I'm a good enough cook (at least I think so) to pull it off without using someone else's recipe.

I kept it simple....onion, cauliflower and some spices and then I topped it with a runny egg. To say is was breakfast nirvana for me is an understatement. I LOVED this. I think I might have loved it as much as I love my crispy corned beef hash. Why didn't I do this sooner? I made enough for two meals. Sometimes it's nice to get two meals out of breakfast food. No one else in the house likes cauliflower so that was a score for Mama!

Let me say that you can customize this recipe to your likings. I happen to love onion so I used a lot, if you don't like it you can leave it out completely.



Cauliflower Hash
recipe from Lisa@ The Cutting Edge of Ordinary
PRINTABLE RECIPE

1 large head cauliflower, chopped into small pieces.
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
pepper
paprika

Add 2 -3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add in the chopped onion and let it cook just until it turns translucent. Add in the minced garlic and let it cook for about a minute. Add in the chopped cauliflower and mix everything up a bit. Cover the skillet and let it cook until the cauliflower is tender, but not mushy. I let mine sit undisturbed for 5 minutes at a time so I could get all those brown delicious bits from the bottom. If it starts to stick, just add in a little more olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika. I served this with a runny egg on top. Yum!

Lemon Puffs

Hello again from snowy Rhode Island. After having 2 feet dumped upon us last week, we are in the middle of another storm that is dumping another foot on us today. I think we are going to run out of places to put it! Good thing I'm a snow lover!

Lemon again, I know. I can't help it. I am lemon addicted and what is really funny about it is, I never liked lemon before. Up until a few years ago and I would turn my nose up at anything lemon or lemon flavored. Crazy right? Now I'm churning out lemon treats like there's no tomorrow!

I also have a fantastic lemon Bundt cake coming up. Oh man is it good, but for now I'm bringing you this little puffy delights.

I used Stevia when I made these so they were sugar free for me....sans the tablespoon of real sugar on top, but they were still delicious!

It only take a few minutes to throw these babies together too!




Lemon Puffs
Printable Recipe
Adapted from a recipe at Allrecipes.com
2 – 8 ounce packages of refrigerated crescent roll dough (such as Pillsbury® Recipe Creations®), divided
2 lemons, zested and juice, divided
2 – 8 ounce packages cream cheese softened
½ cup sugar
2 table spoons butter, melted.
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

Press 1 can crescent roll dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish, stretching to the edges. Mix the zest of 1 1/2 lemons and juice from 2 lemons together in a bowl. Beat cream cheese and the sugar into the lemon zest mixture using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy; spread over crescent roll dough layer. Unroll the second can of crescent roll dough and place over cream cheese mixture, gently stretching dough to the edges. Brush melted butter over crescent roll dough layer and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon of sugar.
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Bake in the preheated oven until top is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes. Lift dessert from baking dish using foil; transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour. Store any leftovers in fridge.