Lemon Blueberry Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

My mom recently called me to tell me that I have completely dropped the ball on the blog and on the cookbook so I better getting moving. So, a good thing to start with is our 3rd anniversary! Matt is a wonderful husband and sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers at work today. Everyone was jealous which of course is half the fun. :) We went to The Penguin for dinner - just to satisfy Matt's love of penguins. It was a really fun place and my steak was excellent. I have tried to make a peppercorn sauce for steak before and I swear I just can't find a good recipe. I wonder if they will give me theirs... probably not. At any rate, it was delicious and to Matt's chagrin I got a photo of him out front. 

Even though we will never enjoy my mom's Lemon Blueberry Cake with White Chocolate Frosting more than we did on our wedding day, I've decided that we should have it every year on our anniversary. So, after a long hiatus of making this cake, I made it on Tuesday. The flavor was good and it was pretty but one of these days I'll actually have to buy regular cake pans. Since I didn't have it, I used a spring-form pan and had to cook it at a lower temperature for longer. It baked, but it was too dense. Luckily, that frosting is literally finger-licking good so it doesn't matter much! And of course, there's always next year!

Lemon-Blueberry Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Cake:

3 1/3 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

2 1/2 (16 oz) cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350.

1. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together. Set aside.

3. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar 1/3 cup at a time, beating between each addition. Beat in lemon juice and zest. Add eggs one at a time, blending well between each addition. Continue to beat until well blended. Alternate adding the sifting ingredients with the buttermilk in 3 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

4. Fold in the  berries and transfer batter to the prepared pans. 

5. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.Let cool.

Frosting:

11 oz white chocolate

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted  butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons freshly squeeze lemon juice

1. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler over lightly simmering water, stirring often. Remove and stir until smooth. Let cool to lukewarm.

2 Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon juice followed by the white chocolate. 

3. Spread 1 cup of frosting on top of one of the cakes and put the second cake on top. Frost the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish with lemon slices and fresh blueberries if desired.

Originally printed in Bon Appetit Magazine.

Valentine's Dessert

On the left: chantilly cream (a heavenly light and sweet cream) with a raspberry drizzle. My mom used to make this for Valentine's when we were kids. I didn't really remember it until I tasted it but it was really good and SUPER SUPER EASY. Beat cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar. Separately beat whipping cream until firm and then fold into the cream mixture. Very light, very tasty cream. Heavenly!

In the middle: a chocolate espresso cake dome filled with a blackberry mousse and a blackberry cream drizzle on top. Although we agreed that it was the prettiest of the three it wasn't as deliciously tasty as I'd hoped. Good though...

On the right: a meringue cookie with a pastry cream and strawberry compote. There was also a chocolate drizzle on top. Although it wasn't very pretty, it was tasty. Although, it takes a little work and we've had it before. If I were to pick just one to have again, it'd be the chantilly cream.

Valentines Dinner

I unfortunately work late every Monday night so Matt and I are going to celebrate Valentine's out of order. Tonight (Sunday) we made a new steak dinner with a very nice bottle of wine we bought in Napa Valley. The steak was marinated in a chimichurri sauce for 4 hours. It was made of fresh oregano, fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, jalapenos, and some basic things like salt, oil, vinegar, etc. Matt grilled them and they were really good. I loved how deep the marinade actually penetrated. I must admit that I was slightly skeptical because it was so chunky and I'm used to liquid marinades but it worked beautifully.

We served it with an ancho chili risotto cake that was very tasty. Although, I used WAY to much oil and they didn't get to cook long enough before they started to fall apart. May we'll try again some other time. I really don't care to fry things though.

Matt doesn't know it yet but I've planned quite the dessert. I plan on posting a picture in a little bit so I'll write about it then.

Superbowl of Food

I cannot believe how much food we had at the house for Superbowl.
Our Menu:
Smoked Brisket, Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage, Chicken Wings, Meaty Rotel Dip, Strawberry Pecan Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, Stuffed Peppers, Baked Potato Salad, Chicken Bacon Ranch Buns, Mexican Cornbread, French Bread, Chocolate Cookie Towers, and Creamy Lemonade Pie.

What People Brought:
Goat Cheese with Blackberry Pepper Jelly, Cream Cheese with Crab Meat and Cocktail Sauce, Pizza Hut's Dunking Strips, Cheesy Bread Puffs, Ranch and Spinach Dip, Chips, and 2 Raspberry Pies,

Favorites?
Our friend Chelsea's Baked Potato Salad is so good. You bake the potatoes and cube them. Mix with sour cream, Ranch powder, real bacon bits and cheese. Sooo tasty.

The Chocolate Cookie Towers were definitely a hit. The dough was WEIRD - sticky and not very floury. But you chill it and roll it out. Although I was very skeptical about if they would turn out right or not they literally melted away in your mouth. So imagine 5 of those layered with a chocolate pastry cream (basically a highly decadent chocolate pudding) and homemade whipped cream. Yum Yum Yum

Last but not least was the Lemonade Pie. I've already made it again for my parents and sister (I'm writing from Little Rock right now). It's a vanilla wafer crust with a hint of mint. Fill with a whipped cream sweetened with sweetened condensed milk and a slight lemon flavor. Then swirl in the blueberry sauce and freeze. You should really try this recipe. It was pretty easy and very tasty. It will be perfecto on a hot summer day.

Newly Inspired

Believe it or not the time has come that I'm finally inspired again to finish the cookbook. Dare I say that I'll actually finish it this time? We'll see... I did however order a darling new apron (is it sad that I own 3 already and my husband has 2 himself - soon we'll need an apron closet!) with my cookbook's title, "blue garlic," monogrammed in script on the front. It is going to be so cute! So with that new push of excitement I sent sample recipes and a description of what I want the book to look like to my wonderful brother in law who is going to write a computer program for me that will format all the pages to look the same. How cool is it that: #1 he CAN do that, and #2 that he actually came up with the idea and OFFERED to do that for me. THANK YOU SID! Now all I have to do is narrow down the number of recipes, edit each recipe, cook everything and take photos, design a cover, edit the introduction, figure out where/how to get it printed, compile the index, put everything in order, get them printed, etc..... no big deal.

No Bake Zone

Matt has officially reminded me that my baking skills are not up to par with my cooking skills. Why do I know this? Well, this past weekend I made my dad some oatmeal raisin cookies with chocolate chips in it. After I served the cookies with milk to my dad and Matt these are the responses I got.

Dad: after a big yawn - "this feels just like kindergarten, I'm gonna take a nap now."

Matt: "These are the best cookies you've ever made honey!"
Anne: "Matt you don't even like oatmeal raisin cookies."
Matt: "Well I know, but at least they aren't burned this time!"

Although I laughed when I was baking cupcakes yesterday I forgot about them being in the oven TWICE. They didn't burn, thank goodness, but still. I am not cut out to be a baker. If I EVER decide to open my own restaurant I'll make sure that I have a pastry chef to handle the desserts.

Gumbo & Bread

Matt and I are officially on the HIGH-carb diet. I got a bread machine for Christmas and we are using it like crazy. I finally tried it two weeks ago and we've made 5 loaves since then - basic white (blah), beer bread (we actually like our other one better), french (tasty!), banana walnut (yum), and a cheese bread that I've invented..... we're gonna work on that recipe.

Mom and Dad gave Matt "The Little Gumbo Cookbook" for Christmas. So yesterday I made a chicken and sausage gumbo that is delicious. We had leftovers for dinner tonight. And maybe tomorrow night, and the next night, and the next night. Now we only have 26 more gumbo recipes to try out of that book - YIKES - we have our work cut out for us.

Oh, at lunch today I made venison burgers on the stove (it was raining and we don't have a grill at the moment) and then made an onion and green pepper brown gravy that we put on top. Serve with warm buttered bread and hot sweet potato fries and voila! I could really get into eating venison a lot - Good thing since we have about 34 more pounds to go...

Yet to come this week: Asian style pork medallions with cashew and cabbage salad (the salad is delish!), chicken marsala with spaghetti, and homemade 3 cheese ravioli with venison marinara sauce. I'm thinking while my dad and sister are here we might try banana stuffed french toast with chocolate hazelnut spread... mmmm....