Lemon Meringue Cake

My husband John loves lemons..and he loves lemon meringue pie..but since the weather has been overcast  I was worried that my meringue would deflate since Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa advised that avoid making meringues on a rainy or moist day coz it deflates it.. so i decided to make a cake instead..there's this recipe that I got on tv from Giada de Laurentiis (again) i love the desserts that she makes..but i doubled the recipe for this so i can make a 2 layer cake.. I made the Lemon Curd first for the filling since in needs to cool and set..so here it is:


Lemon Curd

3 eggs
1 c white sugar
1/2 c lemon juice
1/4 c melted butter, unsalted
1 tbsp lemon zest

In a top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Whisk in lemon juice, and slowly add the melted butter while whisking. Add the zest and continue whisking and cooking over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Now for the cake..

Lemon Cake
(recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis)

6 eggs, separated (yolks and whites)
2 c sugar, divided in half
2 c all- purpose flour
1/2 c vegetable oil
pinch of salt
2 large lemons, juice and zest or if you only have the lemon juice concentrate just use 1/2 cup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or if using a dark non-stick pan lower the tempearature to 325 degrees F.
2. Butter and flour 2- 8 inch or 2- 9inch round cake pan or you can also line the bottom with wax or parchment paper so the cake comes off easily. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl whip egg whites and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy, almost like a meringue.
4. In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar, vegetable oil, flour and salt,whisk until all incorporated. Mixture will be really sticky.. add the lemon juice and zest.
5. Fold in half of the egg whites to the egg yolk batter, until well combined. Add the other half of the meringue batter, folding it with the whisk until the color looks pale yellow. Divide batter into the cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool..

For the meringue frosting, i got this recipe from Paula Deen. She calls it Fluffy 7-minute frosting.. it actually almost taste like in between marshmallows and meringue..


Fluffy 7-minute frosting
 (adapted from Paula Deen)

1 3/4 sugar
1/2  water
4 egg whites, room temp
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract



1. In a medium saucepan,bring sugar and water to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 242 degrees Fahrenheit.. I usually just eyeball it..
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy..Slowly pour the simple syrup mixture and continue to beat on high for 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla. continue beating until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Before i stack the cakes i brushed them with more lemon juice, not only it keeps the cake moist but it also add more lemon tart taste to it that my husband loves. you don't have to do this you can just use water if you like but my husband always asks for the lemon tart taste everytime he eats something with lemon in it..

4 Ingredient flour tortilla

Snack time, can be as difficult as preparing for breakfast, lunch or dinner if you have a picky kid or in my case... a picky 3 and 4 year old who would eat anything but fruits and veggies. I was browsing through Pinterest pinning away hundreds of yummy recipes that I would probably never make when I came across a picture of flour tortillas. I clicked on it and read the directions, It only needed four ingredients...Four! So back to snack time, I was about to pull my hair thinking of what to serve my "starving" kids when I thought... Quesadilla! But I didn't have any flour tortillas, did I? I did! They are so easy to make. It took less than 3 minutes to put together and less than 10 mins. to make 6 flour tortillas and did I mention you can put the rest in the fridge or the freezer for later use???

Easy Homemade Flour Tortillas 

From Pinterest adapted from grumpyshoneybunch.com (Rick Bayless recipe)

Ingedients:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil or 5 tbsp. shortening

1 cup warm water

Directions:

*Combine flour, salt, vegetable oil/shortening and water until it forms a dough

* Roll the dough into a big ball and take about 1 to 2 inch pieces off

*Pat the dough flat with your hands or use a rolling pin and roll into circles.

*Put the dough on a flat pan on the stove and let the sides cook until there are little brown specks on both sides like you would see on tortillas, like this!

I know, not the most perfect shape but I was in a hurry as my son was saying "Mom I'm so hungry I could die if I don't eat right now." or  "why is my quesadilla taking so long?!"

Did i forget to mention you could cut the flattened dough into triangles and deep fry in oil and voila! Homemade Tortilla chips!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate cake

My name is San and i'm a chocoholic. The biggest sweet tooth in our family both on my side and husband's, I crave chocolate everyday. Today is no exception, I wanted chocolate and I got to have it NOW! I've been on my quest to finding the perfect chocolate cake recipe and I have tried a lot! by a lot I mean more than 15 different recipes and somehow all of them are lacking something or somethings. I might have met my match though, and i wasn't expecting to find it right under my nose all these years... I'm talking about none other than the recipe at the back of a container of Hershey's Cocoa. I've been skeptical of trying it cause it doesn't call for any baking chocolate bars just cocoa...i mean how will it get chocolatey enough? but you will be blown away by how rich, moist and chocolatey this cake is. Oh, did i also mention that the frosting recipe is also a heavenly concoction of chocolate heaven?


Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake (adapted from Hershey's cocoa)

CAKE:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups Hershey's cocoa
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1'2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water ( or microwave water for 2 mins. and 30 sec. be careful it might not look hot but it is!)

Directions:
* Heat oven to 350f. Grease and flour two 9-in. round baking pans.
* Combine dry ingredients in a large bow. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. beat on medium speed for 2 mins. Stir in boiling water ( batter will be thin). Pour into pans
* Bake 30-35 mins. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. cool for 10 mins.

"Perfectly Chocolate" frosting
1 stick butter ( i substituted 1/4 cup butter and 4 oz. of softened cream cheese)
2/3 cups Hershey's cocoa
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
* Melt butter, stir in cocoa
* Alternately add powdered sugar and milk beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. add more milk, if needed. Stir in Vanilla.

I am not the best cake decorator but I dare you to make this, one slice wont be enough! Happy eating!