Lemon Crumb Cake

One of my guilty pleasures happens to be the individual lemon crumb cakes from Publix. They are to die for. I looked for some reference on them online but couldn’t find anything. However, the following recipe from Epicurious is close……

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
½ cup packed golden brown sugar
4 tsp. grated lemon peel
¾ t. ground cinnamon
½ cup vegetable oil
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Powdered Sugar

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Lightly butter and flour 8-inch square glass baking dish. Stir flour, 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon in large bowl to blend. Add oil and lemon juice and mix until flour is evenly moistened and mixture forms clumps. Set aside 1 cup of mixture for topping.

Whisk sour cream, egg, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda in small bowl until well blended. Using electric mixer, add sour cream to crumb mixture and beat until batter is smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top.

Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer pan to rack and cool. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with foil; Store at room temperature.)

Sift powdered sugar over top of cake. Cut into squares and serve.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 ¼ cup granulated sugar

6 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 bars (1.5 ounce) Godiva Dark Chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat over to 325 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 12 cup Bundt cake pan.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter in large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium to high speed until blended.

Gradually add the sugar, beating on medium speed 15 minutes or till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating on low to medium speed for one minute after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add flour mixture beating on low speed until just combined.

Spread half of the batter in prepared pan. Pour melted chocolate on top and pull knife through batter to marble it. Top with remaining batter.

Bake 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Invert on wire rack and cool completely.

While cake is cooling make the Chocolate Glaze….recipe seen below:

Chocolate Glaze for Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

½ Tablespoon unsalted butter

3 bars (1.5 ounce) Godiva Chocolate bar, coarsely chopped

Heat cream, corn syrup, and butter in small saucepan over medium heat to a gentle boil. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir gently until smooth. Cool the glaze until it starts to thicken slightly, stirring gently.
Place cake on serving plate. Drizzle with chocolate glaze.

Dump Cake

This recipe brings back fond memories of my mother and some of the interesting things she would cook for us back in the 1970s. This was a popular recipe in my mother’s circle of friends, and it’s one of the first things she allowed me to try by myself.

I’m one of those cooks that always has to leave a little raw cake batter aside to savor later. While you don’t mix up the cake mix in this recipe I was in love with the taste of the butter as it mixed with the cake mix. Mother’s Dump Cake always ended up with holes in it because I would look for the sections that had the highest content of butter and cake mix.

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Use an oblong cake pan (13 x 9 x 2)---Do not grease. Each of the ingredients should be distributed evenly one on top of the other.

DO NOT MIX.

Pour 1 can crushed pineapple with juice into the pan. You can also use a can of cherry pie filling as seen in the image.

Sprinkle with 1 box dry yellow cake mix.

Slice 1 ½ sticks margarine and arrange evenly on top of cake mix.

Push 1 cup pecan pieces into mix almost covering nuts.

Bake 45 minutes or till golden brown.

Dump Cake is best served warm and is great served with ice cream!