Lemon Bundt Cake

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Lemon Bundt Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

2 ¾ cups

1-tsp baking powder

1-tsp kosher salt

1¼ cups butter

3 cups sugar

⅓ cup melted butter- cooled

4 large lemons- just the zest

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

6 eggs

½ cup heavy cream

Glaze:

⅓ cup fresh lemon juice

½ cup (100g) sugar

Icing:

     1 cup powder sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions

Cake:

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour Bundt pan.

2.    Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well mixed.

3.    In the bowl of your stand mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4.    Beat in the oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

5.    Turn mixer down to low and beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated.

6.    Mix in ¼ of the flour mixture at a time until just combined.

7.    In a clean cool bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form.

8.    Stir in about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the batter, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour into the prepared Bundt pan.

9.    Drop the pan above the counter to knock out any bubbles.

10.Bake on the middle oven rack for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean near the center.

11.Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then loosen the cake by knocking it against the counter. Invert the cake onto a serving platter.

Glaze:

1.    Stir together lemon juice and sugar over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.

2.    Brush on the hot cake until all of the glaze is absorbed.

Icing:

1.    Whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream. Add more sugar or heavy cream depending on the consistency.

2.    Pour over cooled cake and let harden.

* this recipe is adapted from whiteonricecouple.com

Real Food Adventure

     School started back up and I'm student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom. It is so much fun and so exhausting at the same time! All of my students are either 4 or 5 right now and they are absolutely adorable! But... between student teaching and homework/lesson planning I haven't had much extra time. 

     On top of school starting about 3-4 weeks ago we decided to try and cut out all processed foods and eat only "real" foods, which consists of whole foods- foods in their most natural state, lots of fruits and veggies, meat, dairy (cuz lets be real, I can't survive without cheese and milk!!!), and using things like honey and 100% maple syrup to sweeten things. It has been adventure-- a lot easier than we thought it would be but very time consuming. I was inspired to try this by another blogger who writes the blog 100 Days of Real Food, it's about her family's goal of 100 days of eating only real food that turned into always striving to eat only real food. 

     In order to keep eating things we like and that are convenient I have been a lot of cooking/baking. I have made whole-wheat tortillas, whole-wheat muffins, homemade refried beans, whole-wheat waffles, homemade granola with raisins, and plan on making whole-wheat pizza, and whole-wheat calzones tomorrow! 

     The first time I made the tortillas we loved them, but they were such a pain! The second time, I doubled the recipe and they were still good but I wasn't getting the results I wanted when I rolled them out. They were so thin that they would just tear when I went to put them in the pan. So today, I got smart and went to Sur La Table and spent the best $19.95 of my life and got a tortilla press. Now, with the tortilla press they are no where near as big as 100 Days of Real Food says they should or can be, and they are not as thin either... but they are SO easy and still so delicious! No more tearing tortillas, no more thin spots burning in the pan! Also, I used olive oil since I don't have avocado oil and wasn't about to spend $20 on a small bottle of it! You don't taste the olive oil at all and since they are a little oily pre-cooked I don't add any extra oil to the pan and they come out great! 

      I made the whole-wheat muffins with fresh blueberries and they were very yummy but a little dry. I made a triple batch and stuck about 2/3 in the freezer for another time. Since they are a little dry we nuke them in the microwave and add a little cream cheese and they are delicious! I made both cupcake size and mini cupcake size and both turned out great! 

     I never thought to make refried beans at home.. well I guess technically they are mushed pinto beans because not only do I not refry them, I don't fry them at all! They are so simple! The first time I made them I threw them in the crockpot before bed and woke up the next morning to beans that were done! I make mine without jalapeño though--I'm a wimp and don't like spice. They make bean and cheese burritos with the whole-wheat tortillas! Yumm! 

     Last Sunday morning I decided to make us whole-wheat waffles and they were so good! I added just a little cream cheese and ate them without syrup. My bff cheated and smothered hers in added butter and waffle syrup and loved them also! 

    My favorite thing of all so far has been my homemade granola cereal! I add raisins to it when it's done and eat about 1/4 cup with some milk every morning and it's not only delicious but keeps me full! It it so easy to make and can be made in a large batch all at once. I've posted my recipe below. All the recipes for the rest of these real food items can be found on the 100 Days of Real Food blog that I love so much! 

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Homemade Nut Free, Sugar Free Granola

Ingredients

·      3-4 cups rolled oats

·      6 tablespoons unsalted butter

·      ½ cup honey

·      ½ cup maple syrup

·      ½ teaspoon salt

·      3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

·      Preheat oven to 350º

·      In a saucepan over medium low heat, melt together the honey, maple syrup, butter and salt.

·      Once butter is melted remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

·      Pour hot liquid mixture over oats and stir to coat evenly.

·      Pour onto greased cookie sheet.

·      Bake for 15-20 minutes stirring every 5-7 minutes to keep it from burning.

·      Let cool, add raisins or other dried fruit.

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     Even though we are on a bit of a real/whole food revolution I still plan on baking and even baking with all-purpose flour and sugar. I will be trying out new whole food recipes also though! I'm going to try and come up with a whole-wheat sugar free cupcake... so we'll see how that goes! 

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Our next door neighbors yard has a TON of fruit trees in it. We just had new neighbors move in and in between them moving in and our old neighbors moving out there was some time with no one living in the house... because of that their fruit trees are just overflowing with yummy fresh fruit and luckily for us they keep bringing us bags full! :) This last batch had a ton of apples, more than we could eat before they would go bad so I just had to come up with some way to use them!

I know it's not fall time and apple pie in the end of July just doesn't make sense-- but I just had to try! I've never made these before and I was very happy with how they turned out! I love making homemade  pie during the "normal" times- Thanksgiving and Christmas- so I decided to try and turn pie into a cupcake! I made the filling the same way I would for a pie, I just diced up the apples much smaller! 

I started with a box mix again as my base but didn't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor for the cake so I decided to make it a cinnamon cupcake. I started by adding very little cinnamon since it is so overpowering and worked up to 2 tsp. which I thought was a perfect amount; you could add more or less depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor. 

Once I divided the batter amount the cups I then used a tablespoon to spoon in the filling. I didn't attempt to push it down, but think next time I might. Once the cupcakes were baked the apple filling wasn't as in the center as I would have liked but they sure are yummy! 

Once they were out of the oven and cooled they weren't exactly that pretty cupcake look that I like; but of course, frosting could cover any imperfection! When I think of apple pie, I think of it being topped with ice cream and thus- creamy, vanilla buttercream! 

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Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

Box Mix

½ cup melted butter- cooled

1 cup milk

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. white sugar

Filling:

4 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. white sugar

2- 3 cups chopped apples

Juice of 1 small lemon

Frosting:

1 can buttercream

2 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup heavy cream

4-6 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Filling:

1.     Peel and chop up apples into dime size squares

2.     Add lemon juice to bowl of apples and stir to coat

3.     Add butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and white sugar to a sauce pan and heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally

4.     Once everything is melted together stir in apples, turn to low heat

5.     Heat until apples are just tender, set aside to cool

Cupcakes:

1.     Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pan with paper liners

2.     In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low the cake mix, cinnamon, brown sugar, and white sugar

3.     Melt butter and set aside to cool

4.     Add milk and butter to dry ingredients and mix on medium

5.     Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

6.     Mix on medium about 60-90 seconds until well mixed

7.     Divide batter between cupcake pans, filling about ½ full

8.     Scoop about a tbsp. of apple pie filling into each cup

9.     Place cupcake pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º

10.  Bake for 20-23 minutes

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla, and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer

2.     Beat on low until well mixed

3.     Add powdered sugar and mix on low, add more or less powdered sugar based on desired consistency

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo