Blueberry Lemonade with Ginger and Basil

About a month ago The Washington Post FOOD section (the main reason I subscribe) did a feature on blueberries. They wrote about two local blueberry growers, one organic, one not - their entire life stories plus all the details of their garden/farm/plot? What is a big blueberry patch called? Anyway, as always, it was a mouthwatering article (here, if you want to read it) that ended in a number of totally creative blueberry recipes - like Blueberry Fritters with Honey Cream and Summer Couscous Pudding with Blueberries.

And this lemonade.

Which I made immediately, especially since we had just gone blueberry picking. And which I made again for Dessert Club. And with which I have decided to start LEMONADE WEEK!

It is AMAZING. If you like the contributing flavors. Because you can taste each one. So if you're not an herbal person maybe it's not for you. But for those with a more sophisticated palette, like myself of course, this is about the most refreshing thing you could toss back in the heat of summer. After you blend up the hot base, remove the lid and hold your face over the concoction - breathe deeply for an herbal sinus cleanse and facial steam. Then after you add the lemon juice and water, chill thoroughly, at least overnight, for the most delicious purple beverage you could ever hope to drink. Then you can die happy.Blueberry Lemonade with Ginger and Basil
1 pint blueberries, stemmed and rinsed, plus more for optional garnish
1 cup sugar or sweetener of your choice
1 cup plus 1 quart water
1/2 cup basil leaves, packed, plus more for optional garnish
Two-inch piece peeled ginger root, cut crosswise into thin slices
Finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 3 or 4 lemons

1. Combine the blueberries, sugar and 1 cup of the water in a medium saucepan over medium heat; cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and the berries just begin to burst.

2. Transfer to the blender*, along with the basil, ginger and lemon zest. Puree until smooth, then strain into a pitcher, pushing on the solids with a rubber spatula to extract all of the liquid. Discard the solids.

3. Add the remaining quart of water and the lemon juice to the base mixture. Serve over ice. Garnish with blueberries and basil leaves, if desired.

*Careful! Blending hot liquid may literally cause the blender to blow its top. If your lid has a removable center, take it out and loosely hold a paper towel over the hole so steam can escape but it doesn't splatter. If not, leave the whole lid off and do the paper towel thing.

Italian Cream Wedding Cake

There is nothing more thrilling for an amateur baker than to have something turn out looking exactly like it does in the book, AND tasting as good as it looks! If you think about it for a second, you realize the credit probably goes to the recipe's author rather than the home cook, but I am taking it anyway. I am AMAZING!

Because this cake is. This is what we served for the grown-up February birthdays at our house (me, my husband, my Mom.) Four layers of delicious yellow cake full of coconut, pecans, and FOUR different extracts, filled with creamy vanilla pastry cream* and slathered with lemony cream cheese frosting. We served it, as directed, with lemon sorbet, but ooheee, that sorbet was tart with this cake! I think I'd go with sherbet at least, or even better, lemon ice cream. Yes, I think lemon ice cream would be perfect.

*Here's the thing about pastry cream. It's kind of hard to make and easy to screw up. And it makes a mess. And at least the times I've successfully made it without a curdled disaster, it never tasted as good as vanilla cook-and-serve pudding. So after another attempt at pastry cream this time around, I ditched the effort and went with the pudding. So delicious.
Italian Cream Wedding Cake (print recipe)
Cream Filling:
1 large box of cooked vanilla pudding, prepared and chilled

Cake Batter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
5 large eggs, separated
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup toasted shredded coconut
1/2 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped

Butter-Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Milk, as necessary

Finishing Touches:
Chopped toasted pecans
Toasted shredded coconut
White chocolate shavings/curls, optional1. Prepare pudding according to box directions, maybe add a little less milk so it will set up firm. Chill well, several hours or up to 3 days.

2. For cake, preheat oven to 350. Spray two 9-inch round pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper circles and spray them with cooking spray. Place pans on parchment paper lined baking sheets and wrap with bake-even strips if you have them.

3. In a mixer bowl, cream butter and shortening until well blended and fluffy. Add 1 1/4 cups sugar and mix well. Blend egg yolks into butter mixture, scraping down bowl every so often (if it seems curdled, add some of the flour called for in cake batter. Fold in vanilla, almond, lemon and orange extracts. Blend in buttermilk and then fold in remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Lastly, add coconut and pecans.

4. Place egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl, and using whisk attachment, whip egg whites on low speed of mixer until frothy. Increase speed and slowly dust in remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Increase speed and whip until whites are stiff and glossy, abut 3 to 4 minutes. Fold one-third of egg whites into cake batter. Then carefully fold in remaining whites so as to incorporate whites but not deflate batter.

5. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake until cakes spring back when gently pressed with fingertips, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool cake layers well, and, once cooled, cover loosely with wax paper while making frosting.

6. For frosting, cream butter and cream cheese in a mixer with paddle attachment until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and as much milk as required to get a smooth and spreadable consistency. Whip on medium speed for 3 minutes.

7. To assemble, cut each cake in half horizontally. Whisk or mix chilled pudding with a spoon to loosen it. Place one cake layer on a serving platter and cover with one-third pudding. Sandwich remaining layers the same way, leaving top layer plain.

8. Frost cake sides and then top with Butter-Cream Cheese Frosting. Dust top with a fine mixture of pecans, coconut and white chocolate shavings or curls. Chill 1 hour before serving (or up to 3 days.)

Recipe adapted from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

What I don't get is why I didn't used to like cheesecake. When I was younger cheese turned into cake seemed wrong. But now it seems...Oh. So. Right.

I think this is the biggest cheesecake I've made (in my NEW 10-inch springform!) Definitely the most successful. It is divine! One person I served this to said it was better than the Cheesecake Factory. I understand he was being polite and possibly exaggerating, but I'd say he wasn't far off. Only it served up a little messy because I didn't have wax paper between each slice (how do they do that?) But I did try a new trick: slicing with dental floss, and that did a pretty good job.

Anyway. This cheesecake is fabulous. If you like cheesecake (who doesn't?) and lemon (who doesn't?), make it. Love the toasty marshmallow meringue and definitely serve it up with fresh raspberries if available. Wowzah.

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake
Crust:

1 3/4 cups crushed shortbread cookies (about 24 Lorna Doones)

6 T unsalted butter, melted

3 T sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Cheesecake Filling:

2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened (that's 40 ounces or 5 (8-oz.) bars)

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup whipping cream

1 T vanilla

2 T fresh lemon juice

2 tsp pure lemon extract

1/2 tsp lemon oil, if available

Zezt of 1 lemon, finely minced

Finishing Touches:

Store-bought lemon curd

1 (7-oz.) jar marshmallow creme

Raspberries

Mint leaves

1. Preheat oven to 325. For crust, mix all ingredients and press into bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Wrap outside of pan with foil to ensure no leakage of batter into water or water into cake. Set a roasting pan filled halfway with water in the oven.

2. For cheesecake filling, in a mixer bowl, blend cream cheese with sugar and flour. Add condensed milk and blend well. Then add eggs, egg yolks, whipping cream, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon extract and lemon oil and blend well on low speed, making sure no cream cheese is stuck at the bottom well of mixing bowl. Fold in lemon zest.

3. Spoon filling into prepared pan. Place cheesecake gently in water bath. Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until cheesecake is just set. Turn off oven, open oven door, and let cool in oven at least 1 hour. Refrigerate cheesecake overnight.

4. To garnish cheesecake, the next day or once the cake is well-chilled at least 8 hours adn 1 1/2 hours before you want to serve it, unmold cake and cover with half of the lemon curd. Then add marshmallow creme in dollops.

5. Preheat oven to 425 and position oven rack to upper third position. Place cake in oven briefly to brown top (you can also use Broil setting but watch it carefully - I broiled and it took less than 2 minutes.)

6. Serve cake, offering remaining lemon curd, whisked so that it is smooth. Garnish with fresh raspberries and a few mint leaves.Recipe adapted from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Perfect Party Cake

This recipe is super long so I'll keep my comments short. It's a little intense, but it's totally worth making (for a special occasion.) Slightly lemony white cake, four layers, meringue buttercream and raspberry jam in between, a little coconut on the outside. Really outstanding.

I worried because the cake and buttercream weren't very sweet, but since the jam is, the final product is perfecto. I am still kind of blown away by the meringue buttercream. I'd never made anything like it; I was suspicious. But Little Miss Famous Baker Dorie Greenspan really came through and I am a believer. However, I DO NOT know how her photographer got perfect pictures in the cookbook because after slicing through four layers, it's going to be smeary. They probably used styrofoam and glue, but MY pictures are real!

Perfect Party Cake

Cake:

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or whole milk)

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons; reserve for juicing)

1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 tsp pure lemon extract

Buttercream:

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks (I know!) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)

1 tsp vanilla

Finishing:

2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable

About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350. Center rack. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line bottom of each with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet (mine wouldn't fit so I didn't.)

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

3. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl and rub together with fingers until sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until cakes are well risen and springy to the touch. Transfer to cooling racks and cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

5. To make the buttercream, put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

6. Working with the whisk attachment, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate - just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface an set aside briefly.

7. To assemble the cake - using a sharp serrated knife and a gently sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or cake plate protected by strips of wax paper. Spread it with one third of preserves. Cover the jam evenly with (just less than) one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with the third layer (you will have used all the preserves but still have buttercream.) Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top. Voila!!!

Recipe from :

Fresh Lime Chiffon Cake

It's just so nice of everyone to keep having birthdays! I made this a few week's ago for a girls' night birthday party at my house. Lime is such a mouthwatering flavor, but I had no idea it could be this good in a cake.

I'd never made a chiffon cake before, but it was how it sounds - in texture, about halfway between angel food and regular white cake. In flavor, whatever you make it. In this case, DELICIOUS!

It was an occasion to buy 8-inch round pans. I only had 9-inch, and I'm sure they would have been fine, just cut down the cooking time, but I wanted to do it by the book, so I got 8-inch. They cooked up light and golden, and then came my favorite part - assembly! The filling is so simple and so perfect - lime juice, lime zest, sweetened condensed milk. What more could you want? Except maybe an icing of Cool Whip, sugar and more lime juice. Talk about a summery treat!

And since there are three components to this cake - the cake, filling and frosting, each requiring lime juice, I added it all up so I could get all the juicing done at once. This recipe calls for a TOTAL of 11 T of lime juice, or 2/3 cup. It took about 3 1/2 limes for me. You also need a TOTAL of 2 tsp lime rind (about 2 limes.)

Fresh Lime Chiffon Cake

Filling:
1 tsp finely grated lime rind
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Cake:
cooking spray
1 T cake flour
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7 T canola oil
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 T water
1 tsp finely grated lime rind
1 tsp pure lemon extract
3 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar

Frosting:
3 T sugar
2 T lime juice
2 1/2 cups fat-free whipped topping, thawed
Fresh mint springs, blueberries, lime wedges, etc. (optional), for garnish

1. Prepare filling: Combine lime rind, lime juice and sweetened condensed milk in a small bowl, stirring until blended. Cover and chill 3 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 325. Coat bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust with 1 T flour.

3. Place egg whites in large mixer bowl; beat with mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 T at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Pour into another bowl to hold until needed.

4. In the same mixer bowl, combine 2 cups cake flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk until combined.

5. In a medium bowl, combine oil, lime juice, water, rind, lemon extract, and egg yolks in medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add oil mixture to flour mixture; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

6. Gently stir in one-fourth of egg white mixture into cake batter; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Divide cake batter evenly among prepared pans, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake 20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans. Remove wax paper. Cool completely on wire racks.

7. To prepare frosting, combine 3 T sugar and 2 T lime juice in a small glass bowl. Microwave on high for 20 seconds at a time until sugar dissolves. Cool completely. Fold into whipped topping.

8. Assemble cake! Place 1 layer on cake plate. Spread with half of filling. Place second layer on top; top with remaining filling. Place third layer on top.Spread frosting over top and sides. Garnish, slice and serve. Can be stored covered in refrigerator up to 3 days.


Recipe from Cooking Light, June 2006

VGP #9 Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies

OK, when Ed saw the name of these cookies he said it sounded like a cough drop. But what could be more appropriate for the first month of winter? Then I made them and we both agreed these do not taste like medicine. The honey is present but subtle, the lemon is bright and cheery. It's like a drop of sunshine borrowed from summer. Lovely with a cuppa.


1/2 cup granulated sugar
7 T butter, softened
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp lemon extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
Cooking spray
1 cup powdered sugar
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon rind

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat first 3 ingredients with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add honey, extract, and egg; beat until well-blended. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

3. Combine powdered sugar and juice in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Brush powdered sugar mixture evenly over hot cookies. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tsp rind. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

Makes about 2 dozen

Recipe from Cooking Light magazine