Vanilla Bundt Cake

I have no pictures of this one, but I do want to hang onto (and pass on) the recipe. I made this for a bbq last weekend, I didn't do the powdered sugar on top but instead made a ganache that I poured over, and then put strawberries in the middle. It's very light and delicate, and then it's got a nice lemon freshness to it that is definitely worth having.

Link: Here

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 egg, at room temperature
2 egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup low-fat (1%) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel, (optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4-1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour Bundt pan; set aside.

Beat granulated sugar, butter, egg and egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add milk and vanilla; mix well. Add flour, lemon peel (if using), baking powder and salt; beat about 2 minutes or until smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Gently loosen cake from pan with knife and turn out onto wire rack; cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Garnish as desired.

Nutrients per Serving
Calories 178
% calories from fat 35%
Total Fat 7 g
Sat. Fat 1 g
Protein 3 g
Carbohydrates 26 g
Cholesterol 14 mg
Sodium 181 mg
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Dietary exchanges
1-1/2 Starch
1-1/2 Fat

Strawberry Sweetness

A friends daughter, Miss Safi, turned 5 last week and her only specification was that she wanted "a berry on the top" of her cake. According to mom, the "berry" she meant was a strawberry, (thank you Strawberry Shortcake)... so that's what I made.

The top is carved cake with fondant, the tiers are covered in regular butter-cream with vanilla and almond extracts. It's yellow cake filled with custard and fresh-cut strawberries, and I got this nifty little gum paste mold for the trimming.

This was a *lot* of cake, it was quite heavy... but everyone loved it so I am happy!

Ah the Joy of Moving...

/end sarcasm.

Last week we moved. For a couple weekends before that, I held a yard sale to try to get rid of all the unnecessary I didn't want to move...

Not so relevant to my post, no, but context.

So the second weekend I let the kids set up a lemonade stand (I think they made more money than I did), and I made cupcakes to sell along with it. I had them in packages of 6, and the lesson I learned is: individual is better. I sold one cupcake, most people said they didn't want a whole package, but they would've bought one. Unfortunately by the end of the day, in the heat, a lot of the decorating I did had melted.

But I still was proud of them. I gave them away and we ate them ourselves, and we got some great pictures - so nothing wasted.

These were plain vanilla cupcakes, each one was done a bit differently. One was blue fondant, hand painted with coloured gel, there were a couple pink/white piped ones, chocolate, chocolate strawberry, and plain white butter-cream with stars and gold sparkles.