Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons grated lemon rind (about 2 lemons)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
• Cooking spray or butter for the cake form
  
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk (if you dont have substitute it with 1c of milk or low fat milk with 1tbsp of either lemon juice of white vinegar - let it sit for 5min)
  

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

To prepare cake, combine rind and 3 tablespoons juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

Coat a pan with cooking spray; dust with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. or butter it and sprinkle the sugar on it.

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Place butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add remaining 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, and rind mixture beating until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour mixture and 1 cup buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 180 for 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

Blueberry Muffins

Every time we are at Starbucks, we want to have one of these. I never made muffins but have made cupcakes, I was like what the heck, what would be the difference? So I tried this recipe and oh my GOD! I loved it specially because of the topping which is made from lemon and sugar so it gave this zesty taste to it on top of the sweet taste of the blueberry itself.. The recipe says you can use either frozen or fresh blueberries, I just did not bother and got fresh because getting frozen would get a mess since I have tried before baking with frozen blueberries, but if you do not have fresh it is ok, get frozen, do not defrost them, just right there take them out of the freezer and soak them in AP flour and whisk around slowly. That's it! do not worry!!

My son loved it and I got rave reviews!! I tell you, do them as soon as you can!

Ingredients

Lemon-Sugar Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
zest from one lemon

Muffins:
2 cups frozen blueberries (or 2 cups fresh)
1 1/8 cups plus 1 teaspoon of sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup buttermilk (OR 1 cup of milk mixed in 1 tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice letting it rest for 2min)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

For the topping, stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.

For the muffins, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 190C. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Rinse one cup frozen berries under cold water and spread on a double layer of paper towels to dry well. Bring remaining one cup berries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the berries that have dried on the paper towels in with the flour mixture. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until thick, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy with a few dry spots of flour – don’t overmix. This is the key to moist and tender muffins.

Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill the muffin cups until they are about 3/4 full. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a skewer (or a chopstick), gently swirl the berry filling into the batter using a figure eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over the muffins.

Bake until the top of the muffins are golden and just firm, 17-18 minutes. Cool muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!

Lemon and Chocolate Tart

This recipe is super easy, fast, and delicious. Its nice to have in this hot weather and lovely to share with family!


Ingredients
For the crust:
200gr of Marie biscuit
4 tbsp of butter

Chocolate filling:
300 gr of bittersweet chocolate (melt in bain-marie)
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp of butter without salt
2 tbsp of nutella
1/2 packet of gelatin without flavor (see instruction and do all the packet since the other 1/2 will be used for the lemon filling)

Lemon filling:
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 the same can lemon juice
1/2 packet of gelatin without flavor (use the remaining 1/2 for this)


Method

Crust
Blend to powder the biscuit and add the butter. Press on a removable form the bottom and side ways. Bake for 10 minutes.

Chocolate filling
Mix the melted chocolate with the heavy cream, butter, and nutella, and at the end add the gelatin. Let it cool and pour over the crust and take to the fridge to cool. Meanwhile do the lemon filling.

Lemon filling
Add ingredients together in a blender and blend.

Add the lemon filling on the chocolate on and take to fridge to cool for minimum 4 hours.

Enjoy!