~Italian Lemon Cream Cake~

This is my friend, Travis',  favorite cake.  It is the most wonderful tasting cake you will ever put in your mouth.  It is suppose to be a so called "Clone" of the Olive Garden Lemon Cake, but it actually tastes better than their cake.  It has a luscious cream icing that is made with cream cheese and whipping cream.  It tastes like lemon flavored whipped cream.  The cake itself is a white cake mix, but if you beat it by hand, it turns into a delicious moist and flavorful cake.  I hope you try this recipe and comment on how it turns out!  This is my specialty, I guess you could say.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce)  betty crocker white cake mix
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup oil
• 3 egg whites
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cold butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• powdered sugar (for garnish)

Directions

1. Make white cake following directions on box. Pour batter into 10-inch greased cake pan, or springform pan, and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 - 45 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely when it comes out of the oven.   
2. Make lemon cream filling by mixing cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in lemon juice.
3. Whip cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until it forms stiff peaks. Combine cream cheese mixture whith whipped cream. Stir by hand until blended.
4. Make crumb topping by combining flour and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add butter and dribble in the vanilla extract. Use your hands to mix cold butter into flour and sugar. Break butter into smaller and smaller pieces as you incorporate it into the dry ingredients. Be sure not to press the mixture together. You want to end up with a very crumbly consistency with pieces no bigger than a pea. (If you have trouble making small crumbs, pop the bowl into your fridge for a few minutes.) Chill this crumb topping until you are ready to use it.
5. When the cake is cool, slice it in half through the middle and remove the top. Spread all but 1/2 cup of the lemon cream mixture onto the bottom half of the cake, then carefully replace the top half of the cake.
6. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup of cream filling over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the cake and press it onto the sides all the way around the cake.
7. Now chill the cake for at least 3 hours before your serve it. When you are ready to dig in, slice cake into 12 slices. Serve each slice topped with powdered sugar tapped through a strainer.

~Lemon Curd~

Ok, I am a cooking novice and I have never tasted Lemon Curd.  It's a custard type spread made with simple ingredients.  I decided to make it, because I had an overabundance of lemons.  Turns out, it's a very tart lemon custard.  If you like tart, this is for you.  Serve it with sweet biscuits, or sweet bread.  You can also make lemon tartlets.  Here is the recipe:

 Lemon Curd
3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

~Easter Cupcakes~

Easter is just around the corner...actually it's tomorrow!  If you are interested in a really cute and sweet treat for an Easter Egg Hunt or Easter Dinner, try this super easy, super cute cupcake recipe!  I apologize for not posting anything yesterday...'twas really busy.  I will be posting 2 recipes today!

Ingredients

• A cupcake (baked from your favorite recipe)
• White icing
• Shredded coconut
• Pink decorators' sugar

• Jelly bean nose
• Chewable Sweet Tart eyes
• Large marshmallow
• Mini marshmallows

Instructions

1. Frost a cupcake (baked from your favorite recipe) with white icing and sprinkle on shredded coconut fur.
2. Cut a large marshmallow in half widthwise. Squeeze each half slightly to give it an oval shape, then decorate the sticky side of each one with pink decorators' sugar and set them in place for ears.
3. Add a jelly bean nose and either jelly bean or snipped Sweet Tart eyes, and mini marshmallows for cheeks. For a finishing touch, draw on decorators' gel pupils or whiskers if you like.

Recipe courtesy of Family Fun Magazine

~ Amma's Coca-Cola Cake~

So, I am reading this book called "Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, who are awesome writers and also enjoy cooking.  One of the writers' favorite recipe is Amma's Coca-Cola Cake.  This has quickly become one of my favorite cakes, because I love chocolate.  So whenever I get this NEED for chocolate, I go straight to my kitchen and start making this simply scrumptious cake.  It's really easy and has a consistency of a chocolate bread pudding, smothered in a gooey chocolate sauce.  It's absolutely fabulous for any PMS craving and the ingredients are probably already in your kitchen.  

Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS FOR CAKE:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sift together flour and sugar and set aside.
2. Melt butter, cocoa, Coca-Cola in a saucepan. Bring to boil and remove from heat.
3. Add flour, sugar, buttermilk, baking soda, vanilla, and eggs. Beat with a mixer. Pour into greased 9×13 inch pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

ICING:

1 stick butter
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
1 lb. box powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup mini-marshmallows

DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil butter, cocoa, and Coca-Cola. Remove from heat.
2. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and marshmallows. Stir until melted.
3. Pour over hot cake.

* Be sure to pour icing on while cake is hot.