Posts tagged lemon

My dear Grandma was born on July 4th. This gives me the chance to make lots of patriotic cakes.

On a hot summer day, lemon cake with vanilla mousse filling and cool fresh berries on top is just the thing! My sister found the cute decorations at Michael’s.

Here’s a the naked cake (before the decorations):

Our big, extended family Mom’s Day celebration gave me the perfect reason to make this cake:

I’m not the best at placing flowers on a cake, so I got a little help from a friend : ) 

The top layer is dense, chocolate cake with cherry pie filling and a thick ribbon of Dutch chocolate icing to keep said filling from squishing out.

The bottom is lemon cake with vanilla mousse filling. The pink fondant was made using my favorite marshmallow fondant recipe. 

Kudos to my uncle Jeff for giving me a lesson on how to use my camera- I love this photo!

  Aunt Jill asked me to make a birthday cake for a sweet relative who will be 99 this weekend. I think it needs to be over the top… After all, 99 is major achievement!

So the birthday girl’s favorite flower is the African Violet. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any decent-looking real ones, and no fake ones. I did find this lovely dark purple hydrangea, and since her eyesight isn’t so good anymore…. she’ll at least appreciate the pretty color. Then I thought a baby picture of her would be a nice finishing touch, and give the creation some personality. Can’t wait until it’s done!

Here she is- the 3-tiered lavender cake! The largest cake is lemon with Pastry Pride/vanilla filling, and the middle is raspberry and vanilla swirl cake with the same vanilla pastry filling. I used buttercream for the frosting underneath the fondant. The photo is edible with a buttercream “frame”. The birthday girl cried when she saw it. It thrilled me to see how a beautiful cake could make her feel so loved and appreciated. 

Here’s a great way to make Lemon Cake if you are too busy to do it from scratch (and tastes just as great).

1 box Betty Crocker French Vanilla Cake Mix 

1 stick soft unsalted butter 

2 TBSP canola oil

5 large eggs - room temp

3/4 cup sour cream

1 TBSP lemon zest (fine grated fresh lemon peel)

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease your pan (if you are turning the cakes out of the pan for decorating, use a product like Pam with flour or Wilton Cake Release). Beat butter and eggs together - adding one egg at a time and mixing well after each addition. Mix in sour cream and lemon zest, alternating with the cake mix. Mix on high setting for 1 minute. Follow instructions on the box for bake times according to pan size(s). Mini cupcakes take about 10 minutes to bake. 

I made this cake while vacationing at my sister’s in L.A. Her friend asked me if I’d do one for a casual get-together—and even suggested a fun store called Surfas where I could get the supplies. Nice. Now all I needed was a great idea for a cake. My sis suggested I try the delicious combination of lemon cake with fresh strawberries:

Good idea!