dessert

It was a dessert heavy holiday.

I don’t know about you but my holiday was very sweet. I baked a red velvet cake for my birthday . . .

IMPORTANT reminder … do not use low-fat cream cheese. Full fat is the only thing that will work. I learned that the hard way.

I used Martha Stewarts recipe. It uses more chocolate than most other recipes so really the result is a nicely chocolaty cake. The recipe also uses and INSANE amount of red food coloring. FOUR bottles (ounces). Seriously. I only used three and the cake was dark, dark red. Two would have been sufficient I suppose. It was one amazing cake.

The other dessert we made was Lemon Meringue Pie. WOWee! We (my sister and I) used America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe. We used Meyer Lemons (see previous post) because they’re juicier than regular lemons, two gave us a half cup of juice. I made the crust by hand with butter, Crisco, vodka and water. It was perfect. The filling was so good it has converted me to actual fandom of meringue pies. The one problem with the pie was the weeping. We did exactly what the recipe said. Cornstarch paste added to the egg whites. Meringue placed on piping hot filling. It was a mile high and beautiful. But it still weeped. I’m thinking that weeping is a natural by-product of meringue pies. Have you ever made one? Did it weep?

Here’s the pie.

I should have taken a picture of it sliced. It didn’t last too long in this house. My Mr. loves lemon meringue.

Pinterest I love and hate you!

I too have fallen victim to Pinterest. I waste and inordinate amount of time perusing the never ending barrage of images. I get why it’s so popular. Everyone wants a voice, everyone wants needs inspiration and a laugh. The thing is … all these pictures of food are going to be the end of me. I have un-followed most of the “food, recipe” boards because it’s just too distracting to see all this food. I’m having a bear of a time controlling my appetite and all these pictures of food send me right to the kitchen to find one more thing to shove in my face. ARGH!  Last night there was a lovely picture of a lemon cake. I thought, wow, that looks good, I have those Meyer lemons in the fridge! I think I’ll go make one for myself. I did and it was GOOD. Of course I didn’t follow the recipe provided I just improvised based upon what they did.

LFH version of Meyer Lemon Cake

Here’s the recipe:
1 stick + 1 tbsp room temperature butter
1-1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs (room temp)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Zest of one Meyer lemon
Juice of one Meyer lemon (appx 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and line the base of a cake pan with parchment paper.

Beat butter, lemon extract and sugar in a bowl until creamy and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and beat until light and fluffy. Sift flour, salt, and baking powders over the egg mixture. Add zest and juice beating for a few seconds. Add buttermilk and mix until well combined.

Pour in prepared pan. Tap the pan on the worktop to settle the batter. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 50-60 minutes until golden and cooked through when tested with a skewer.

Stand cake for 5 minutes, then turn onto a cake plate or wire rack and cool completely.

Top with lemon glaze comprised of 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the juice of one Meyer lemon.

As you can see, this is easy and will take less than 1/2 hour to put together. It’s light and tender in texture. You will love it!