Fun New Pans and Pound Cake with Lemon...and Berries

I know that I have enough baking pans...but how many are really enough? When I saw these pans at the King Arthur Baking site I knew that I had to have them. Normally I would only get one, but each pan holds about 4 cups of batter, so with two I can make a normal recipe for a large pound cake or Bundt, but instead bake the batter in two pans. This means that small-ish slices will still look generous per serving, AND I can have a variation in one of the pans.

I did this by making a lemon pound cake batter and then putting a cup of fresh berries in one pan with about half the batter. The second pan was just lemon batter. Next time I think that I would put batter in one pan and them the berries mixed in with the remaining batter put into the second pan. You could also make this as the recipe does with orange zest and juice.

The results were delicious! The plain lemon cake was great with a cup of tea, but I did try slicing my portion in half, adding some raspberry jam, and some lemon curd on the side. That was an awesome treat! The berry slices were served today with sliced fresh, juicy strawberries. Even better than the lemon cake either way. The berries in the cake kept it moist and those strawberries went so well with the cooked berries in the cake. Do give it a try! You can just do the berries mixed into the batter and bake it all in one large loaf pan. You will have to bake it longer...about an hour to an hour 15 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean when done.

Fresh Fruit Pound Cake

from Great Cakes by Carole Walter 

1 cup fresh fruit (I used half strawberries, half marionberries, but you can also use raspberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines [pitted], or orange sections)
2 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks/ 8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon freshly grated navel orange rind (I used lemon zest)
1 1/2 cups strained confectioners' sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or orange juice is using orange rind)

Wash the fruit, if necessary, and dry it well on paper toweling. Cut large pieces into 1/2-inch chunks to measure only 1 cup.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 2 3/4-inch loaf pan well and dust with flour. Invert over the kitchen sink and give pan a tap to remove excess flour.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and put in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the beater or paddle attachment. Add the orange rind (or lemon zest) and soften on low speed. Increase speed to medium-high. Cream until smooth and light in color, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes more...it is important to cream for the full time to add air.

Add the sugar, 1/3 at a time, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. Then beat until well blended, approximately 2 minutes more.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, at 1-minutes intervals, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce speed to low. Blend in the vanilla and orange (or lemon) juice. The batter will look curdled. That's OK.

Add the dry ingredients all at once, scraping the sides of the bowl again. (I used quick On-Off bursts of my mixer for the first few seconds until the flour started to blend in...that way I avoided flour all over the place!). Increase speed to medium-low and beat approximately 30 seconds longer.

Spread 1/3 of the batter evenly on the bottom of the baking pan. Scatter half of the fruit on top. Spread on the second third of the batter and cover with the remaining fruit. Spread the remaining batter on top, smoothing the surface with the bottom of a spoon.

Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 60-65 minutes, or until cake is golden brown on top, and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Try the toothpick test if unsure that it is done.

Remove the pan from the oven and set on a cake rack to cool for 10-13 minutes. Inver cake onto rack, remove pan, then turn cake top side up to finish cooling. When ready to serve, dust top lightly with confectioners' sugar.

Since I made my cakes in the new pan, they are served with the bottom side up. I made a quick glaze with lemon juice and confectioners' sugar and dripped it across the 'ribs' of cake and let it set...about 2 teaspoon lemon juice to 1 cup confectioners' sugar.

Storage: Store at room temperature under a class cover or in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Lemon Sheet Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

A little late to the party, but summer is never an easy time to find the right time to bake. As usual, we have a project for the house going on. This July it's a refurbishment of the back deck, which is a three level affair connected by steps. Sweetie and I built it together over 25 years ago, so it has aged enough to no longer be beautiful, nor totally safe.

Today we stopped early enough that I whipped up the Lemon Sheet Cake from The Perfect Cake cookbook (no 'buttermilk' in the title since I didn't use buttermilk). Except for using non-dairy margarine and soy creamer as substitutes for the butter and buttermilk, I followed the recipe exactly. Those substitutions are necessary if I'm going to eat any of the cake, and I soooo enjoyed this cake that I'm glad I did.

This cake is tender, moist and has a heavenly true lemon flavor. The crumb is fairly tight and the crust delicate. I love the lemon sugar glaze even though it does make the cake pretty sweet. The sprinkle of lemon zest enriched granulated sugar over the glaze adds just the right touch of crunch, and even more lemon appeal and sweetness.

Allow some time at the beginning to zest and juice the lemons...takes 5-10 minutes, but is well worth the effort. Otherwise this is a fairly basic cake recipe where you cream the butter with the sugar that has been enriched with the lemon zest, then you add eggs, then the dry ingredients in three parts and the wet ingredients in two parts, with the dry added last. Using cake flour is wonderful since it makes the cake delicate and tender.

I know that quite a few Cake Slice Bakers also make this recipe. Who can blame them? This cake if just fine by itself and even better with a few ripe strawberries or raspberries or blackberries or blueberries and since this is berry season that's easy to do. I added a few  strawberries from our garden and it was the perfect summer treat with the luscious lemon cake!

Do visit the other Cake Slice Bakers to see how their cakes turned out. There is at least on who did the cake pops and one who did the almond meringue layers with fruit. No recipe, but do consider buying the book because every recipe so far has been flawless.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook,  Instagram, and  Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers are baking from a new book "The Perfect Cake" from America's Test Kitchen.

Our choices this month are...

1. Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake
2. Apricot-Almond Meringue Cake
3. Refined Strawberry Shortcake
4. Party Cake Pops

Visit our members to see what cake choice they baked up! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Sweet Cookie Fingers with Raspberry Jam and Meyer Lemon Glaze

Christmas cookies never happened this year and I had two appointments that prevented me from baking cookies for the funeral of a friend on Friday. Thought we might bake cookies when my daughter came on Friday, but I was too tired. Finally felt up to it late this afternoon.

It was good to be baking again. These sweet cookie fingers have a butter base and some raspberry jam sweetness, plus a little crunch from the almond slices and the tang of Meyer lemon (or any lemon, really) in the glaze. The dough was crisper than I had expected, but that might have been because I forgot to add the 2 tablespoons of milk that went in before the flour mixture. I also only made a half recipe because even though I was wanting to eat some cookies, I really don't want to eat 40 of them. You can easily double the recipe if you do want to make 40. That's how the recipe was actually written.

On the good news front, my nephew in Colorado and his wife are the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy. Congrats to grandpa NoName!

Raspberry Ribbons
from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book
makes about 20 slices

5 tablespoons (about 1/3 cup) butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
about 1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Lemon Glaze (see below)

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, and beat until well blended. Add the egg yolk and the vanilla and almond extracts. Beat until light in color.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt (I used a sheet of waxed paper and a whisk), then add to the butter mixture. Beat well until mixed. Mixture will be firm. Divide into two pieces as close to the same size as possible. Wrap each and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (I chilled them for about an hour and a half and that was still fine.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a large cookie sheet. (I used a half sheet pan.)

Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the other refrigerated.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll one of the pieces of dough into a rectangle about 11 x 3 inches.
Transfer the dough to the cookie sheet...you may need to use a spatula, but I didn't.

Using your fingers, press a 1-inch wide trench down the center of the rectangle. Spoon about 1/4 cup raspberry jam in the trench, smoothing with a wet finger.

Repeat with the second piece of dough. The cookie sheet should hold both rectangles of dough.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges just start to take on color. Scatter half of the almonds on each rectangle, sprinkling them over the hot jam. Return to the oven and bake another 1-2 minutes, or until the edges are light golden brown.

Remove the pan from the oven and brush or drizzle the Lemon Glaze over the rectangles. Slice each rectangle into about 10 slices.

Store in an airtight container with waxed paper between the layers, or carefully place in a plastic bag, tie snugly, and freeze.

Lemon Glaze
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest (Meyer lemon here, too)
1/3 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

Mix the lemon juice and zest. Put the sugar in a small bowl. Add the juice mixture and stir or use a small whisk to combine until smooth and well blended.