Lemon-Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Yep, this is something else made with lemons! I had some extra from the week-end and wanted to use them up. After this there is one more recipe in the box that calls for lemons, so another time. I do love lemon cakes, and was glad to see this recipe and give it a try. I had a dentist appointment this morning and knew it would be hot by this afternoon. I had a couple of hours, so I went to work whipping this up. As I read the recipe as I noticed that it needed to bake for 1 1/2 hours. What? I thought oh no, don't most pound cakes take an hour! This didn't give me as much time as I had thought. As it was baking I kept looking at the clock and saying to myself hurry and bake. Well a little over an hour went by and the cake was not done, so another 5 minutes and I checked again, nope not yet. It was getting time for me to get out the door, and so one last time and I took it out. Waited 5 minutes instead of the 10 it call for to cool down and flipped it over onto the cooling rack and out the door I went. After I got back and frosted it, I just needed to try it out, well I should of been late to the doctors, as it wasn't quite done. It's ok, but needed about 5 more minutes in the oven. Next time will make sure I have plenty of time to bake this.

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

Lemon-Cream Cheese Pound Cake

3 cups sugar (lots of sugar)
1 1/4 cups butter (I only used 1 cup, that is way too much for me)
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I like fresh squeeze)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract (I didn't put this in, I just put in an extra teaspoon of the lemon juice)
1/2 teaspoon orange extract (again, I used fresh orange juice, about 1 teaspoon)
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
3 cups Softasilk cake flour
Lemon Glaze (below)
Beat sugar, butter and cream cheese until fluffy; beat in lemon juice, vanilla, lemon extract, orange extract and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour; beat until smooth.
Spread batter in greased and floured tube pan, 10x4", or 12-cup bundt pan.
Bake until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours; cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool cake completely.


Spread glaze over cake, allowing some to drizzle down side.

Lemon Glaze
1 cup powered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients until smooth.



I thought it would be fun to show what is on the back of this little recipe.

Crisp Flour Tortilla Chips and a recipe for Fruited Prosciutto Salad With Orange Vinaigrette.
Don't those sound good?? If you can't magnify the picture of these recipes, let me know and I will try to send them to you, via email.
Thanks for stopping by!!

An Award - Versatile Blogger

How exciting is it when you received an award? Very exciting, especially at my age, woo hoo! Anyway, I would like to thank Beth from The Fare Necessities (http://www.farenecessities.com/). I enjoy reading her blog and learning new recipes, she is a young lady who loves to cook, and she has many, many more years to cook all the recipes she can find and try! I think it is fun to find younger people who are enjoying cooking, baking or whatever hobby they might have to give them the courage and challenge to succeed ahead. Who knew that blogging would give me new friends that I feel I have known a lifetime!

It is my turn to pass this award on and so what out farther ado, one of the other blogs I enjoy reading is: Jana (http://timetravelkitchen.blogspot.com/). I think she has what it takes to try some really old recipes. Her family doesn’t seem to question, what's for dinner tonight? What a special family to let her try new (old) foods.

So, here are the rules that come with the award:

#1 You thank the person that awarded it to you and list a link back to them.

#2 Tell 7 things about yourself.

#3 Pay it forward by sending it to your favorite recently found new bloggers.

#4 Contact the blogger that you have awarded and make them aware.

Here are seven things, you might or might not, want to know about me:

1. For now, I am living with a family helping out with the women of the house as she has MS. So while her husband works, I take care of her. For this reason it is hard to find time, let alone a place to do my favorite hobby, baking! So some days I am able to do it here, but most times, I go to my daughter’s house and bake there. Besides, they love all the treats after I bake.

2. I have enjoyed learning how to blog and now have 3 blogs that I try to keep up. One I recently started is for my family history, (http://myforefathers.blogspot.com/). My sister has sent me lots of pictures and I want to share with family members. This is a place where I can do so.

3. Mondays are a special day to receive emails from my son, who in on a church mission. I have one son and three daughters and was glad to have him choose to do this. As our children grow up, we sure miss them, but know they have to choose the road they go down. All of my children are wonderful adults and caring people.

4. The hardest thing that I have had to go through is losing my husband. That has been 8 years ago and our 2 youngest children had to go through high school without their father. They did it and I might add, did a great job!

5. I have for now, 5 grandchildren, who are trying their best to succeed in this life and each taking their turn in school, church activities and hobbies. I think they are doing a wonderful job.

6. Some of you might know this, but as many jobs as I have had, I think working at the hospital driving a semi was most fun. It was called, “Doc on Wheels”. We would go to mobile home parks and nursing homes to bring doctor services to the elderly. I also enjoyed working at a health food store, as the things I learn there has really help save me and my family in medical bills.

7. Probably the most important thing in my life is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the church and the people in it. People are not perfect but the gospel doesn’t change. Just knowing of the gospel brings so much peace to me.

Happy baking everyone!!!

3 More Recipes

I have decided to put on these recipes, as I probably won't be making them anytime soon. In fact, the artichokes are too expensive for now, so who's knows if I will get to try this. Miss living up in Lompoc and Salinas sometimes, where most of these grow. Also I haven't use sweet and sour sauce yet, so thought I would share with those of you who do. The barbecue recipe is an plus, I guess you could say 2 recipes on one card. What a deal!
Let me know what you think!



New and Different Baker Artichokes by Bianca Centofanti
6 Artichokes
1/4 cup lemon juice
Flour, all purpose
1 cup olive oil
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste
Remove outer leaves of the artichokes leaving only the more tender leaves. Cut into fourths and remove the choke. Soak in cold water, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt for 15 minutes. Drain and towel dry, dust with flour. In a large frying pan heat 1/2 of the oil (so that would be 1/2 cup), add the artichokes and cook over medium heat until golden brown on each side (about 15 minutes.) Put the artichokes in a well greased oven proof baking dish, add the remainder of the oil, parsley, basil and cheese. Beat eggs, adding salt, pepper and milk. Pour over the artichokes and bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes or until eggs are firm. Serves 4 to 6.




This recipe is in Granny's handwriting and I know Granny tried every recipe she wrote, so must have been good!

Sweet and Sour Sauce
Mix these three next ingredients together:
1 box of powdered sugar
1 cup brown sugar, light
3 tablespoons corn starch

1 1/2 tablespoon horseradish
1 cup vinegar
1 can crushed pineapple (#303 size can)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup chili sauce
1/3 cup minced dry onions
3 tablespoons soy sauce (or 4 tablespoons)
Mix all together and cook until clear and thickened. (This is with the above mixed ingredients, pwd sug, brwn sug and corn starch.)

On the card is also another recipe from Granny's neighbor, Maragret

Barbecue Sauce
1 bottle ketchup
1 cup honey
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
Mix all together.
I would think that this is a 16 ounce size bottle of ketchup, maybe more. Make sure you heat this all up until it boils and then use it.

I had many a letters with this statement on them. "Will call you later, here comes the mail man." Or "Need to get this in the mail, as the mail man is coming."
too funny! Since I have a son on a mission now, sometimes, I say: "That's it for now, as I want to get this in the mail."
Hope you will enjoy these recipes!

Lemon Bars

After reading about Meyer lemons from lots of blogs. I went to the store and bought some lemons and made two different recipes from my moms recipe box. The lemon cake below and this recipe of lemon bars.
This recipe reminds me of a pie crust on the bottom, with lemon curd on top, sprinkled with powered sugar. Very creative, little cookie pies!



Crust -
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powered sugar
1 cup butter
Mix these together (could just pulse in a food processor until crumbly, no longer, you don't want it to form a ball.) Press this mixture into a jelly roll pan (15x10").
Bake for 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Do not brown.

Filling-
4 eggs beaten well
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
6 tablespoons lemon juice
Beat these ingredients together. Pour over hot crust. Bake another 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Do not brown.
After baking sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Cut while warm. (This is something I forgot to do and was harder to cut.)

Refreshing!

Sent to: Sweets for a Saturday #18 and Savory Sunday!

Lemon Cake

Well, here is some good laughter for you! This recipe card is from my father's mother, Grandma Utterback. Most of my father's side of the family lived in the Bay area of California and we didn't get up to visit them often. When we did we usually took the ocean route, Hwy 101 - Pacific Coast Highway.

Coastline of California during the 1960's.

I loved looking at all that water! Beautiful scenery most of the way! In our family we would camp overnight at a beach campsite. We tried different ones each time. The foggiest was Morro Bay.

My siblings at Morro Bay, it was always cold there.

The waves crashing was interesting to listen to during the evening hours. We also stayed at Big Sur more than once and met other family members there. When we camped at Big Sur we also visited Hearst Castle, beautiful place. My father made sure we visited all the missions of California during our summer camping.

My family and cousin Buddy Armstrong's family at Big Sur. Where is Buddy and family now?

I loved our summer vacations. During the day we would visit the area around where we were camped. Most often we would tailgate our lunches as we were travling to the next campsite. Down in the LA area where we lived, we didn't have the Safeway stores that northern CA did and for some reason we always shopped at that store when we were on vacation. Mom said at least she knew we could get good groceries from Safeway. (Funny isn't it the things I remember from my childhood.) I think, as we visited the Missions, we were all pretty bored, but as I got older and was learning them in 5th grade I was able to share pictures we had taken of them.

Santa Inez mission, about 1965.

Now as an adult I have revisited some and appreciated them more. I have many family members who have lived all over California, so the history of CA is important to me. It brings out the history of what some of my family members went through from the late 1860's to present. That is another story, but for now back to this recipe.
There are two recipes for this cake in my mom's box. One written by my grandmother and the other by her daughter, my Aunt Shirley. So, I was at my daughter's yesterday and decided to take my grandmother's card.




Well, to my surprise the instructions made me think it was the Jello Poke cake from the late 70's, so I had it in my head to make it this way. That was a big mistake as I misinterpreted the instructions:
When cake is done take a fork and make holes over the entire top. Then pour over the lemon glaze. Juice of 2 lemons - pwd sugar enough to make a thin glaze. (That's it, the instructions.)
Next I looked at the ingredients:
1 box Swansdown Lemon Flake Cake Mix (I think Duncan Hines is now the Swansdown brand, maybe, anyone out there know for sure?)
1 box lemon jello
4 eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup oil
rind of 2 lemons
What would you do with this? Well as I mentioned I thought the jello was made up and poured through the cake, since you poked holes in it. After I made and baked the cake with the mix, eggs, water and oil, I let it cool a bit and made the jello up. Then took the liquid jello with the rind from the lemons and poured it over the baked cake. And then instead of the lemon glaze, I just frosted it. It was good, just a little watery. I kept the cake refrigerated so the jello would set up.
When I got home and read Aunt Shirley's recipe, it made more sense and I knew what I did wrong. Too funny!




New instructions:
Mix all above. (So you mix the cake mix, 4 eggs, and dried box of jello, with the water, oil and rinds from the lemons - together!) Then bake in the 9x13" pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, not the 30 minutes I did. Then when the cake comes out of the oven, poke the holes and pour the glaze into it. The glaze is juice of the 2 lemons with enough powered sugar to make a thin glaze.
This makes more sense and I will be making this again.
In all reality, you could do what I have done for years, just make a regular lemon cake mix and use a glaze that you like. It taste the same and is much easier. Not all the extra oil and sugar (from the box of gelatin) plus you'll save an egg.
Lemon cake no matter how you make always taste refreshing!!!
I hope you have had a good laugh of my mix-up but enjoyed reliving some of my sweet camping memories!

Peachy Crumb Cobbler

Here is another recipe that was on a Duncan Hines card. It sounded good, so I decided to buy the exact ingredients and then go to work! As I was putting in the ingredients in my basket, I noticed that this would of cost over $10 to make, so I did a little switching around. Next time I will make from scratch and save even more. Using a different brand of blueberry muffin mix with canned blueberries, I saved 75 cents, by making my own peach pie filling from canned peaches, I saved $4.


Peachy Crumb Cobbler
1 package Duncan Hines Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix (sorry, but I used a different brand, to save money)
1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cans (1 pound 6 ounces each) peach pie filling (see notes*)
1/2 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used a 1/2 teaspoon here, see notes*)
3 teaspoons almond extract (I only used 1/2 teaspoon, as I didn't want over power the fruit.)
Ice cream, if desire
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl combine dry muffin mix, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in butter, then stir in nuts.

In a 13x9-inch pan combine pie filling, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the almond extract and the drained blueberries.

Spoon the crumb topping over the peaches.



Bake at 350 degrees F, for 35-40 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Serve with ice cream if desired.

NOTES: For the peach pie filling, I used 3 cans (14-ounce size) of peaches and drained and saved the juice. To this juice I cooked in a medium pan and started it boiling. To this I added the called for sugar, almond extract, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg, (1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg). Let this boil for about 1-2 minutes. While that is boiling, take a bowl and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water, stir and dissolve. Add this to the juice mixture and thicken. After this has thickened then I add the peaches and drained blueberries.

My Report: When I make this again, I will not add the sugar to the peaches. And I will only add half of the sugar called for in the topping part. It was too sweet for me, so a little less sugar seems right. I liked the flavor of the peaches with the blueberries. (If you don't want to throw out the blueberry juice, then you can make it into syrup for pancakes or ice cream topping.) I added the nutmeg. I like the flavor of fresh nutmeg with cinnamon. I have always made peach cobbler with pie crust, so this was a good and different change!

Extra note: I didn't care for this the next day, as the crust seemed to soak up the juices and become soggy. So my suggestion is to eat this the very first day!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am going to do a sample of my comparison shopping for this recipe.
The Duncan Hines Pineapple Cake Mix was on sale, $1.99 and I have always made pineapple upside down cake from scratch. But in the interest of time and I saw a box of store brand on sale for 89 cents, I decided to buy and try it. The store brand cake mix is a butter cake mix. In the following recipe it ask you to save the pineapple juice for the liquid part of the cake mix, which I did.
Recipe from Duncan Hines:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme Deluxe Cake Mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 can (1 pound 14 ounces) pineapple slices or 1 can (1 pound 4 1/2 ounces) pineapple chunks
Maraschino cherry halves, if desired
Whipped cream, if desired
Melt butter in a 13x9 1/2 x2-inch pan. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly in pan.
Drain pineapple; save the syrup. Arrange pineapple in the sugar mixture. If desired, also arrange maraschino cherry halves, rounded side down, in the sugar mixture.
Add enough water to pineapple syrup to make 1 1/3 cups liquid; add this and 2 eggs to the cake mix an mix as directed on the label. Pour batter over fruit.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 50 minutes, until cake pulls away from side of pan. Let stand 5 minutes for topping to begin to set. Then turn upside down onto a large platter or a cooky (yes, this is how the spelled cookie on the recipe card.) sheet. Serve pieces of cake topped with whipped cream.


What I did:
In a 13x9" pan, melt about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the butter, from the stick of butter used in the cake mix.
REMEMBER, to watch, as the butter can catch on fire!
I have the oven preheating to the 350 degrees F, for the cake, so I put in the pan and melt the butter there.
It only takes about 1 minute or less to melt the butter.
After taking out of the oven I sprinkle about 3/4 cup dark brown sugar.
Next add 1 pound 12 ounces can pineapple slices, drained (saving the liquid).
If you add the cherries, put them in now. I also like pecans, so I added a few.
Set aside, while you make up the cake batter.



In a large bowl, mix up:
1 package of yellow cake mix, butter kind
3 eggs
1 stick of butter, remember I used about 2 1/2 tablespoons for the melting in the pan.
I use cold butter and cube it. I have found this to work better, than softened butter, as you don't get such a greasy cake.
2/3 cup of pineapple juice, from strained pineapple slices (this was just the right amount of liquid the cake mix instructions add for, if you don't have enough to make 2/3 cup or what ever you cake brand ask for, add water, to make the correct amount)


After mixing this for about 2-3 minutes, to make sure the butter is mixed in completely, pour into the 13x9" prepared pan.
Bake according to the instructions on the cake mix. (You might need to add 5 extra minutes.)
It takes about 30-35 minutes.
Make sure the cake is baked, by carefully touching and seeing if the cake springs back and not sinks in. Use a toothpick and insert into the cake and the toothpick should come out clean if the cake is done.
After it cools for about 5 minutes and using pot holders, turn over onto a cookie sheet that fits the 13x9" pan.

My report:
I saved on the butter part, as the box asked for a stick of butter and the recipe asked for a stick of butter to be melted in the cake pan. Instead, I chose to use 2 1/2 tablespoons in the pan and the rest of the one stick in the cake mix. It worked, the cake was still delicious. I saved an extra dollar from buying the store brand. I don't think I used a cup of brown sugar for the bottom of the cake pan and still the cake was sweet enough from maybe using 3/4 cup of brown sugar. I do buy the pineapple in it's own juice and save on some sugar. Also didn't have to buy cherries, as I don't care for them. And lastly I didn't use whip cream on the cake. In fact I haven't heard of putting whip cream or anything extra with pineapple upside down cake. (Your choice of course.) So there is some savings to this cake recipe. This was very close to my home-made and was just as delicious!
Enjoy and let me know what you tried!

Added this to the Sweet As Sugar Cookies #13.