I leave my house at 5:30 a.m. for a five day vacation, so I've been hustling to get an enormous amount of things done. I'm still hustling, but taking a brief moment to share these two LAZY ASS recipes because it just occurred to me they are PEEEEEEERFECT for back to school time.
Today is the 5th birthday of my precious sweet neighbor boy. I asked his mom to ask him what he wanted me to bake him for his birthday treat. She said they had made him vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for his birthday party on Sunday but that his last minute request for lemon cupcakes couldn't be granted. The first thing that popped into my head was this amazing lemon cake my mom used to make when I was a kid, which I then started making. I couldn't remember the recipe, or from whence it even came so I googled lemon cake with lemon glaze and found this one: Glazed Lemon Cake
As soon as I saw it I knew it actually wasn't the exact recipe but that the magical ingredient of the recipe of my childhood was, indeed, lemon pudding. I read the notes on the recipe and saw that a woman accidentally put the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice meant for the glaze into the cake, so I did the same thing because I can't bear an overly sweet cake. Also, FYI, I was in such a hurry I didn't see that I was supposed to mix everything except the lemon-lime soda. I threw it all in but mixed it far less, but just enough and it rose perfectly and turned out absolutely great.
Obviously a glazed cake doesn't lend itself to cupcake development so instead I did two 9" rounds and put whip cream between them -- and yes I glazed the top of both layers. I was in such a mad dash to deliver the cake last night (a day-before-your-birthday-treat) before their dinner time that I didn't catch a picture, but please know that this is a fantastic cake recipe.
One final note on the cake -- I added extra lemon juice to the glaze. I really wanted it to taste lemony. Turned out great.
NEXT -- and this is just a twist on the old recipe I posted long ago --Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever.
I had to also bake a batch of cookies to take to North Carolina with me for someone who LOVES these cookies. But I did a twist - hope he likes the twist! I added the grated rind from one orange and finely chopped up a bunch (probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup) of the Trader Joe's Dried Mandarins.
Two weeks ago I made homemade mango ice cream and made these cookies to go with it and added dried mango and it was awesome, so when I saw the dried mandarins in the cupboard I thought this could be a marriage made in heaven -- it IS! Not too sweet because the rind offsets the sweet of the dried mandarin.
So make the recipe like I instruct in the first blog post (link above) and then add rind and dried mandarin. Oh my god they are fragrant and delicious. I made this batch with semi-sweet and dark chocolate, pecans, almonds and salted peanuts. To. Die. For.
