Lemon Coconut Cake

I made this for a work party, and it turned out really yummy. Two of my coworkers said they dreamed about it afterwards. Definitely on the "keep this recipe" list.

Lemon Coconut Cake

Ingredients for cake:

one Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix

1-1/3 cups water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

Ingredients for lemon filling:

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1-1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

6 tablespoons butter

shredded coconut (optional)

Ingredients for icing:

1/2 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon zest

5 tablespoons lemon juice

about two cups shredded coconut

Bake the cake according to package directions. However, if you want to torte it into three layers as I did, you can either bake it in three eight-inch cake pans or use one 8x3-inch cake pan. I used an 8x3-inch cake pan that Wilton makes. The cake took about 55 minutes to bake, and then I used my cake leveler to split it into three layers.

As your cake cools, make the lemon filling. In a small bowl, blend two tablespoons cornstarch with 1/4 cup water until the cornstarch is dissolved. Whisk in 2 eggs until blended. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1-1/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, and 6 tablespoons butter. Bring to a boil. Whisk in the egg and cornstarch mixture and return to a boil. Continue whisking and boiling until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap.

At this point, your cake should be cool enough to cut into layers if you chose to use the 8x3-inch pan instead of three separate eight-inch pans. When the filling has cooled, spread half of it onto the bottom layer. Sprinkle with some shredded coconut, if desired. 

 Place the middle layer on top, and spread it with the second half of the filling and more coconut. Add the final layer of cake on top.

To make the icing, beat 1/2 cup butter until smooth. Add two cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest and 5 tablespoons lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Ice the cake and cover with a layer of shredded coconut.

Lemon Drop Cookies

I found this recipe on a bottle of Crisco Vegetable Oil and made only a few slight changes. You can find the original recipe online here.

The cookies are very light in flavor and texture. One of the changes I made was to use lemon juice instead of lemon extract. Perhaps the extract would have given it a stronger flavor. Either way, these cookies will melt in your mouth.

Lemon Drop Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening (i.e. Crisco)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/4 cup warm milk
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray cookie sheets with baking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Beat in shortening on low speed until completed mixed. Add egg, milk, and lemon juice and mix until blended.

Using small cookie scooper, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be lightly browned. Cool completely on cookie sheet on wire rack.

To make the frosting, beat the above ingredients. Add more milk if a thinner consistency is desired. Spread on top of cooled cookies.

Yields: about 2-1/2 dozen cookies

Citrus Cream Cake

If you are seeing this blog post before 7:00 P.M. on May 8, 2011, you are seeing my mother's "Mother's Day" cake before she does. :)

The recipe comes from the Kraft food website. I made no real alterations to it. In place of the orange zest, I did use some fancy dried orange peel that my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. Based on the directions on the orange peel, I used 1/3 of the recipe's original amount.

Citrus Cream Cake

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 small package (3.4 oz) Lemon Instant Pudding
1 1/3 cups sour cream, divided
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
2 tablespoons orange zest (or 2 teaspoons orange peel)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed
1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch cake pans.

Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, 1 cup of sour cream, water, oil, eggs, and orange zest/peel in large mixer bowl for one minute on low speed. Then beat on medium speed for two minutes.

Pour into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove to wire racks to cool cakes completely.


Beat remaining sour cream (1/3 cup) and powdered sugar in large bowl with whisk until thoroughly blended. Stir in Cool Whip.

Place one layer of cake on cake plate or cake board. Spread half of Cool Whip mixture on top. Spread a little less than half of mandarin oranges on top.
Then place second layer on top and repeat with remaining Cool Whip mixture and mandarin oranges.


Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Mini No-Bake Cheesecakes

Due to "Cattapalooza" this past weekend, my entries for this week are a little late. On the bright side, I baked a lot, so I’ve got two recipes to share!

First up are these mini no-bake cheesecakes. I looked at a lot of recipes online before I decided on this one. It’s basically Martha Stewart’s recipe with the amounts adjusted to fill mini muffin tins versus a springform pan.

The good news about this cheesecake recipe is that it tastes great and contains no eggs. That bad news is that, like many other no-bake recipes, it didn’t get really firm, so it really needs to stay refrigerated until you’re ready to serve it.

No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes

Ingredients for crust:
1 package (10 sheets) graham crackers
5 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar

Ingredients for filling:
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the graham crackers in a resealable plastic bag. Crush them with a rolling pin until the crumbs are very fine. (When I got near the end, I used a sifter to help me find the larger crumbs that needed some more smashing.)

Pour the crumbs into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and melted butter. Press the crumbs into mini muffin cups. I used the end of a shot glass to help me press the crumbs down.

Chill the crust in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

To make the filling, beat the cream cheese at a medium-high speed until smooth. Slowly beat in the condensed milk, scraping the bowl as necessary. Then beat in the lemon juice and vanilla.

Scoop the filling into the muffin tins and refrigerate at least 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Yields: about 40 mini cheesecakes

A few extra hints:
*Instead of using spoons or a cookie scooper to get the filling into the mini muffin tins, I put the filling in a decorating bag and just squeezed it right in.
*In the picture, you’ll notice that some of the mini cheesecakes have a pink topping. I added a Cherry Cool Whip topping just before the party. It was simply the “Strawberry Mousse Filling” with the cherry cake and pastry filling instead of strawberry.

Lemon Bars

I made these while in Atlanta. My cousin and his family were on their way down to Florida, and they stopped to visit my brother and his family while I was down there. We all had dinner at a great pizza place and then walked back to the apartment for dessert.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients for crust:
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter or margarine, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour

Ingredients for filling:
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup flour
4 eggs
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I squeezed two lemons.)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 pan with nonstick foil or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, blend butter, powdered sugar, and salt until smooth. Stir in flour until blended. Press mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

For the filling, beat granulated sugar, flour, eggs, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Pour over crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until no imprint remains in filling when touched lightly. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.

Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

In case you did not attend K-Fest 2010, I made these cookies for my friend Karen’s birthday party—hence, the K on the cookie. As usual, Karen and her hubby Noel threw a great party. Karen told me I have permission to say she was celebrating her 37th birthday. Go, Karen!

The story behind this cookie is a little interesting. It started with a bad trip to the car dealership. Although I had twice been told that my 75,000-mile tune-up would take only 2 to 2 ½ hours, it ended up taking four hours, and I was super late to meeting some friends. On the bright side, I found a recipe for “Mini Ricotta Cakes” in a Family Circle magazine while I was waiting at the dealership. At home, I checked the internet for similar recipes and found the Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis (I want to be her when I grow up) had a very similar recipe for Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze.

I decided to take the basic recipe from Family Circle and the lemon glaze from Giada. The result is a melt-in-your-mouth cookie with a mild lemon flavor. Who would have thought a bad trip to the car dealership would end up in something so delicious? It just goes to prove the old saying—when life hands you lemons, make lemon-glazed cookies! ☺

Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients for cookie:
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for lemon glaze:
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add egg, ricotta, and vanilla, beating until combined. On low speed, add flour mixture slowly.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop the dough onto cookie sheets. (If you don’t have a cookie scooper, you can drop by tablespoonfuls, but you won’t get the nice domed shape.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Watch cookies carefully. They won’t brown on the top, but they should be lightly browned around the edges. After three minutes, remove to cooling racks. (Warning: bottoms can brown quickly without seeing much browning around the edges.)

Let cookies cool for fifteen minutes before making glaze.

Stir powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Dip top of cookies into glaze. Allow glaze to harden before storing.

Yields: about 60 cookies if you use a small cookie scooper.

I liked these cookies so much that I also made them again for a summer cookout. This time I used the cake icing to make flowers on the tops of the cookies. I also added one drop of yellow food coloring to the glaze to make it look more lemony. The center of the flower is a sugar pearl, an edible decoration from Wilton. You can find them in craft stores.