Lemonade Cake

What's summer, without lemonade?

That's why this is a great little summer cake. The flavor of it is amazing, especially the lemonade-cream cheese frosting.

The crumb, however, was a little weird. Unlike the picture on the recipe's site, this cake is not light and fluffy. It's very, very dense. And spongey. It's not a texture that I care for. So I'll try this one again, but make some alterations to aim for a lighter cake. It's still very, very yummy.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon zested lemon rind
3 tablespoons thawed lemonade concentrate
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour cake pans (I used 3 small pans).

Beat first five ingredients at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Beginning with the flour mixture, alternate adding flour and buttermilk to the sugar, beating well after each addition.

Bake for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

Icing:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons zested lemon rind
2 teaspoons thawed lemonade concentrate
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces cream cheese
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

With mixer on high speed, beat together butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate, vanilla and softened cream cheese. Beat until fluffy. Reduce speed to low and slowly add in powdered sugar. Beat just until blended, but do not overbeat.

Chocolate Malt Cupcake

This is my new favorite cupcake recipe. Hands down.

And notice the lack of pictures?

I apologize for that. But seriously, I'm lucky I got this one. That's how fast they went. I made them when I substitute taught a Sunday school class a couple weeks ago. I made enough for the class to each have one and then I'd have enough left over to take to my Beehives.

Nope. I'm pretty sure I saw one of those sunday school kids eating four. There were only five left (of almost two dozen) by the time I made it to Young Women's.

Fortunately for the roomies (and me), I'd saved one for each of us at home. They were promptly gone as well.

So good. So, so good. Moist. Chocolate-y. And the frosting some how manages to evoke ice cream. Without the cold. Heaven!

The recipe comes from That Winsome Girl. Bless her.

Ingredients:
2¼ cups flour (AP is good)
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1½ cups malted milk powder (found in the baking aisle)
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until powder is dissolved.

With my stand mixer at medium speed, I beat together the flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time. Add sour cream and vanilla, and beat just until combined.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

For the icing:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
½ cup malted milk powder
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
5 cups confectioner sugar

In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter and shorting until light and fluffy. Slowly add in malted milk powder and cocoa powder. Mix for about a minute. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the frosting becomes thick and stiff.

Dining Room Phase 1

One thing we're good at is biting off more than we can chew. Enter, the dining room.

Here's what it looked like the day we did our walk through. The previous owner was pretty packed with heavy furniture, the dark greens walls kind of a sickly color.

We didn't have nearly as much furniture as she did. So it looks pretty bare. Makes the nasty green walls even more obvious. At least we lost the froofy shades on the chandelier.

First things first, that green had to go. We went with a very light shade of gray blue - it continues the monochromatic shades we have going downstairs - the dark gray blue in the living room and the sky blue in the kitchen. We were aiming for complimentary and monochromatic without being too matchy matchy. This is Behr's Cumberland Fog color matched into Glidden Flat (since I don't like Behr).

Next, we had planned to add Board and Batten to the lower half (that's why we only painted halfway down). But we couldn't find affordable, thin MDF boards to put on the wall. We considered just painting the wall white and adding the boards, but decided it would look funny with textured walls. 

Sooooooo.... we're adding joint compound to make the wall smooth (Parker's helping). Add a layer, let it dry, sand it smooth, rinse and repeat. Our house is currently covered in a fine mist of white powder. Awesome. Press on. Next up is primer, paint and the boards. We'll keep you posted.

Duh. Pinning.

Have you heard of Pinterest yet? I'm obsessed with it.

I don't know the best way to describe it. It's kinda like delicious and a google reader. And Amazon's universal wishlist. Kinda? It's great for inspiration boards, visual browsing and bookmarking.

Basically, you drag their "Pin it!" button to your bookmarks tool bar. Whenever you're on a web page and see something you like, you click the button and choose a "board" to add it to and done.

Here are some of my boards:

Can you tell I'm obsessed? Soon I'll have a board for everything. I've found it's exceptionally good for inspiration (great DIY ideas and decorating inspiration) but I also especially love it for recipes. I read several cooking blogs through a Google Reader and star recipes I want to try. Sometimes it's difficult to find those recipes again... I either have to page through tons of recipes or hit on the right keyword to search for it. But check this out - There they all are.

I'm looking for enchiladas? I find the picture and click on it and it takes me right to the recipe. Genius.

And the browsing possibilities are endless. You can search for any word and see what other people have pinned in various categories. My fav. people at Young House Love churn out great art ideas. Janell from church shares great outfits and recipes. Sometimes I just click "travel" and get lost in all the pretty pictures.

But be warned: It's addictive. My reader may run empty sometimes, but there's no bottom to the Pinterest Pool. Check it out, follow me, and leave your name so I can follow you back.

Guest bath - done!

After almost two months of work, the half bath downstairs is done!! It was very time- and labor- intensive, but we now love the room. We re-painted it, painted the trim and door, added crown molding and swapped out the light fixture and mirror. Behold!

Color -
Before: Nasty Pea Green with yellowish trim            
Now: Beautiful Aqua with bright white trim

And a few close ups...

Source list:

Wall color - Glidden eggshell color matched to Behr's Tide Pool

Trim color - Glidden semi-gloss White on White

Hardware - Brushed Nickel from Home Goods (don't remember brand)

Light fixture - Asbury Triple Sconce from the Restoration Hardware Outlet

Medicine Cabinet - Restoration Hardware Outlet

Crown Molding - Home Depot pine crown molding

Sun dried tomato, basil and goat cheese casserole

Sounds good, right?

I really wanted to love this. I mean.... sun dried tomatoes? Yes, please. Basil? Can't go wrong. Goat cheese? Get in my belly.

But this casserole from Belle of the Kitchen was just kinda ho-hum. It wasn't bad... it just didn't blow me away. I think it could have used more goat cheese, less tomatoes and something else... something spicy, maybe. I dunno. Like I said, it was good. Good for a brunch, good to make ahead, and good if you're feeding vegetarians.

Ingredients
1 cup sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
8 cups day-old French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
2/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup basil, julienned
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon pepper
9 eggs
3 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350.
Butter a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Layer the bread evenly onto the bottom. Sprinkle with tomatoes, cheese, basil, salt and pepper.

In a bowl, stir together milk and eggs. Pour evenly over bread.

Bake for 40 minutes. (Can be prepared the night before, just cover and refrigerate).

More fake takeout

Since the Mongolian Beef was a smashing success, we decided to see what else we could make at home. Enter this sweet and sour chicken from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

While not at all difficult to prepare, it did take a fairly long time to make. It's not a quick dish. But it is far tastier than I expected and we'll definitely be making it again.

Ingredients
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat oven to 325.
Cut chicken into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in cornstarch, shaking off any excess. Then coat in egg.

Heat the oil over high heat until the pan sizzles when you drop water in it. Toss in the chicken and cook until browned, but not cooked through.

Transfer to a baking dish. Mix together sauce ingredients and pour on top of chicken. [I actually doubled the sauce recipe and reserved half of the mixture for extra sauce. I put it on a sauce pan at a rolling boil for 5-7 minutes and we served it on the side of our meal.]

Bake for one hour, turning chicken ever 15 minutes to evenly coat. Serve with rice.