Lemon Pound Cake

Many of my neighbors make a triple chocolate Bundt cake that is truly divine. It starts with a devil's food cake mix, adds instant pudding, and ends with chocolate chips. I've made this cake before with reasonable success, but I think my neighbors are all better at this particular recipe than I am.

A few weeks ago I ran across this recipe. I'm not a big dessert person, but this is a cake that I actually get cravings for. It follows a pattern similar to the triple chocolate cake, but for some reason I seem to be more successful at creating a wonderful cake using this recipe. The glaze makes this cake. Rumor has it that this cake can be frozen for up to a month. It still emerges looking and tasting great.

Lemon Pound Cake
1 box Betty Crocker or Pillsbury lemon cake mix
1 3-ounce box instant lemon pudding
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
Juice of one lemon
Zest of one lemon
½ cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly grease and flour a bundt pan. Mix all ingredients and pour into the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool ten minutes, then invert the pan to release the cake.

Lemon Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
Mix sugar and lemon juice with electric mixer. Pour over cake while it is still hot so that a lovely lemon crust will form. Hint: I find it much easier to do this if the cake is on a wire rack with foil or wax paper underneath to catch the drippings.

Shamelessly Stolen Oatmeal Cookies

Normally when I post a recipe, it's something that I've found somewhere else and have modified a bit to make it my own. In a couple of cases I've actually come up with what I think of as totally original recipes. In this case, I've borrowed a recipe wholesale from the blog of my high school friend Kip. My kids have embraced this recipe so enthusiastically that they start singing for joy as soon as they smell them cooking in the oven. Kip has a great story about how he came to have this recipe which you can find here. But if the recipe is what you're really looking for, I've taken the liberty of copying it part and parcel here (although I did change the name of the recipe and added in the cooking time that I like best). They're wonderful cookies.

Shamlessly Stolen Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups oats
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream sugars and shortening. Blend in vanilla and eggs. Then add dry ingredients, oats, and nuts. Roll in balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 14 minutes.

Apple Cake with Carmel Topping

This is a recipe that I made when I was growing up and then rediscovered when it was served at a party I went to earlier this fall. Bob usually isn't a fan of fruit-based desserts, but this has become one of his favorites (and a favorite of the whole family). It's also a perfect way to use up the fridge full of apples that we harvested from various friends and family.

A word of warning: the carmel sauce here is overcooked and far too thick. I served this dessert for my book group last night and tried a very small crock pot as a way of keeping the sauce warm until we were ready to eat. When I took off the lid, I was shocked to see that the sauce had continued to boil all the time we were talking. So watch the cooking time, and don't store it in a mini crock pot! I'll try for a better photo next time I make it.

Apple Cake with Carmel Topping
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2teaspoon salt
6-7 apples, peeled and grated

For the caramel sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
salt

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch cake pan with non-stick cooking spray (Pam) or grease pan and set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter with sugar. Beat in egg. Stir in flour, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Fold in apples. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cake is done and toothpick comes clean when inserted in cake.

Cut in squares when cool and serve with hot caramel sauce (see instructions below).

To make caramel sauce melt butter in saucepan over low heat and then add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Serve over apple cake squares.

Note: My friend Kip posted a similar recipe on his blog, but included a recipe for a butter sauce that sounds delicious. You can find it here.