Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake

Perfection....

The inside is layered with Meyer Lemon slices that actually become almost candied and add an interesting texture to this coffee cake

FOR THE STREUSEL:
Adapted by Martha Stewart

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• • 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 6 ounces ( 3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter

• FOR THE CAKE:

  
  
  • 5 Meyer lemons, cut into paper-thin slices, ends discarded
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 4 ounces (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from 4 to 5 lemons)
  • 2 large eggs
  • • 1 cup sour cream
    • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • FOR THE GLAZE:
• • • • 3 to 4 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
      • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  • Procedure:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch angel food cake pan.  

• Make the streusel: Mix together flour, brown sugar, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut butter into the flour mixture until small to medium clumps form. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 3 days).

1. 
   Streusel ingredients
   
   

• Make the cake: Cook lemon slices in a medium saucepan of simmering water for 1 minute. Drain, and repeat. Arrange lemon slices in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Blanching/Boiling of Meyer Lemons

Meyer Lemons after being blanced/boiled.  During the blanching process of the Meyer Lemons, I did lose some off the pulp and was left with just rind as you can see; however, that is what gave the cake a chewy and interesting texture

• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest with a mixer on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time, then the vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream.

• Spoon 1/2 of the batter evenly into cake pan. Arrange 1/2 of the lemon slices in a single layer over the batter. Spread remaining batter evenly over the top. Cover with the remaining lemon slices in a single layer. Sprinkle the chilled streusel evenly over the batter.

First layer of Meyer Lemons.  Before adding the streusel you add the final layer of the cake batter over the lemons

The streusel topping and final layer

• Bake until cake is golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. 

• Transfer pan to a wire rack set over a baking sheet and let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan, and remove outer ring. Let cool on rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the center tube. Slide 2 wide spatulas between the bottom of the cake and the pan, and lift cake to remove from the center tube. Let cool completely on rack.

• Make the glaze: Just before serving, stir together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake, letting excess drip down the sides.  Let glaze set before slicing, about 5 minutes.

Sidebar:  Meyer lemons are available from late fall through early spring.  Martha Stewart recommends slicing the lemons to near-transparent thinness in order for the rind to soften and sweeten sufficiently.   Martha recommends using a mandoline, , handheld slicer or a knife.  I used a used a sharpened chef's knife and was able to slice the lemons thin enough to obtain the desired results.

Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake - Overbaked

Sorry for not posting any goodies over the last few days, especially for Easter, I am highly ashamed of myself, but I have a perfectly logical reason for not doing so.

I was feeling extremely tired and ironically, was just telling my family and friends that I was immune to Starbucks coffee because I could fall asleep while drinking a cup of it.  Literally, it no longer did anything for me, in terms of waking me up, or providing me with any energy from the caffeine.  I decided I needed to go to WholeFoods where there is an entire wall of lovely blends of coffee from all around the world and purchase different blends to mix things up a bit. I came to the conclusion, that maybe the caffeine in their coffee, would keep me awake.  I was feeling sluggish and needed some energy, as I had just completed several large orders for French Macarons (which came out beautifully, if I may say so myself). It was a crazy week and I was running low on fuel.

Sad to say, I never made it to WholeFoods; however, I did make it to Starbucks for my usual biweekly drive-by, for my 1 lb. bag of Sumatra whole bean.  When I went to pay, the very friendly employee asked if I ever tried their new limited blend called "Tribute."  I responded, "no, but what type of coffee beans are in it and is it strong?  I was advised that the Tribute blend consisted of Ethiopian, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea and Colombian beans and that is was considered a "bold" coffee, just like the Sumatra.  I had my doubts that  the "Tribute" blend being strong, but decided to take the plunge and purchased it.

In case you are interested in this coffee, below is a picture of the coffee, or should I say culprit.

You must be asking yourself where this story is going, well here it is.  I arrived home Friday evening around 10:00 p.m. and decided to make myself a cup of the Tribute blend to taste it.  One cup was all it took, but it was so delicious that I had myself a second cup. Needless to say, it surely was a tribute, a tribute to me running around the kitchen with so much energy from caffeine, I think I would have run someone over, if they even got remotely in my way.  I looked like a mad scientist in the kitchen.  I couldn't sit at this point, so at 12:00 a.m., I put on my apron and began to pull out all my mixing bowls and ingredients to make the Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake to burn up some of this energy, because sleep was definitely not an option.

The cake itself is not difficult to make, but does require a few time consuming steps.  At 5:30 a.m., I put the cake in the oven.  At this point, I was starting to crash from the caffeine and was extremely tired.  The last thing I remember was sitting down in the living room to relax for an hour, until I had to take the cake out.  The cake was only supposed to bake for 1 hour.  

This is what I looked like at 5:30 a.m...

At 9:30 a.m., four and half hours later, I woke up and screamed....Oh Sh*! as I was running into the kitchen knowing I wasted hours of hard work and over baked my cake.  Nobody's perfect right?  This is what the cake looked liked when I took it out of  the oven....

Let's not forget about the bottom, shall we.... What a beautiful charcoal color.

I'll be posting the non-burnt version of the Meyer Lemon Cake later tonight.

Irish Whiskey Cake

Once again, here is another great recipe from my mother's recipe box.  Irish Whiskey Cake.  What is so great about this cake is its simplicity and taste of course.  All ingredients go into one bowl and you are done, with the exception of the butter and whiskey glaze you pour over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.

With that said, let's run it:

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/2 cup of oil
1 ounce of whiskey
4 Eggs
1 cup of milk
1 instant vanilla pudding mix (do not make the pudding just use the powder mix in the box)
White Cake Mix
1 cup of walnuts
2 teaspoons of flour

For the Whiskey Glaze:

1 stick of butter
3/4 cup of 10x, confectioner sugar, or icing sugar
1/2 cup of whiskey


Procedure:

• Place the walnuts in the food processor with 1 teaspoon of the flour and process until walnuts are finely chopped.  Set aside.
• Combine the white cake mix, oil, whiskey, eggs, milk, pudding mix, and chopped walnuts into the bowl of your mixer.
• Mix until all ingredients are well combined.
• Grease and flour your pan.
• Pour the batter into a bundt pan or tube pan.
• Bake for 1 hour.

Sidebar:  Use your imagination, as you can see I used a rose pan and a silicone sphere pan to make my cakes.  You can use any pan you like such as a muffin pan, Easter bunny pan, etc., you will just have to adjust the cooking times.  My roses took about 10-15 minutes to bake.

Whiskey Glaze:

• While the cake is baking, melt the butter and whisk in the 10x sugar and whiskey.  Set Aside.
• When the cake is finished baking, immediately when you remove it from the oven, pour the whiskey glaze over the cake and allow the cake to cool.

Sidebar:

If you are using individual molds, pour the whiskey glaze over each mold and let cool before releasing from the mold.

• Once the cake has cooled run a spatula around the sides of the pan and remove from the pan.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugared if desired.

How easy was that!!  Let me know what you think about this recipe and your creativity regarding what type of mold you used to bake the cake.

Enjoy!

Mom's Jewish Apple Cake

The scent of cinnamon, sugar and apples, bring back so many childhood memories of my mother in the kitchen baking.  My sisters and I would gather in the kitchen to watch.  These moments were special and unforgettable, because the time we shared in the kitchen with our mother, not only bonded us as a family, but ignited my passion for baking.

My mother's Jewish Apple Cake recipe has been handed down from generation to generation and I would like to share it with you and your family.

The cake is dense, moist and layered with apples, cinnamon and sugar.  During the baking process, the apples, cinnamon and sugar placed on the final top layer of the cake, caramelize rendering a crispy, gooey, cinnamon sugar deliciousness that is amazing.

This is the best Jewish Apple cake you will ever taste.  I mean it!  Now let's get baking....


For the Cake Batter:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 4 large eggs 
• 3 cups of all  purpose flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3 tsp. of baking powder
• Dash of salt
• 1 cup of oil
• 1/2 cup of orange juice (I use no pulp)
• 2 1/2 tsp. of real vanilla extract

Sidebar:  This cake batter is on the thicker side.

For the Cinnamon Sugar and Apples:

• 4 medium red delicious apples 
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tsp. of cinnamon sugar

Equipment:

One tube pan.  

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Grease and flour the tube pan.
• Peel and core the apples. 
• Slice the apples in half and then slice the apple into thin to medium slices.  Continue to all apples are sliced.  Set aside
• Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside.
• Place all of the cake batter ingredients into the bowl of your stand mixer.  Using your paddle attachment, mix until combined.  Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.
• Pour half the cake batter into the tube pan and spread evenly in the pan
• Place half of the apples slices in a circular pattern on top of the cake batter, starting from the inside of the tube pan and working your way out. Make sure you completely cover the cake batter with the apples.  

Sidebar:  The end of each apple slice should be touching the next slice and there should be very little space between the apples.  See below:

Apple slices layered onto the batter and half the cinnamon sugar mixture sprinkled on.

Completed first layer with apples and cinnamon sugar

• After you have covered the batter with half of the apple slices, sprinkle approximately half of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the apples, until each apple is thoroughly coated with the sugar mixture.  (I save a little extra of the cinnamon sugar mixture for the top of the cake).
• Pour the remaining cake batter over the apples and cinnamon, spreading the cake batter evenly.  
• Sprinkle the remainder of your cinnamon sugar over the apples.  You want to make sure you have an extra layer of cinnamon sugar on the top of the cake to achieve the crispy, crunchy top. 
• Place the cake in your oven on the middle rack and bake for approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the cake springs back when touched and the top is crispy and browned. 
• Remove the cake from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack.
• Once the cake is cool, run an offset metal spatula or knife, whichever you prefer, around the sides of the cake to release it from the pan.  Remove the inner tube first.
• Then holding the inner tube of the cake an on a flat surface, take your offset spatula and carefully place it between the bottom of the cake and the pan and gently turn the pan while you are making a sawing motion with the metal offset spatula.
• Continue moving the spatula between the bottom of the cake until the cake is released.
• Hold the inner tube upside down and with your other hand gently release the cake from the inner tube.
• Once the cake is removed from the pan, place it directly onto the surface you are going to serve it on.

Side Bar:   I typically start checking my cake at 1 hour; then 1 hour and 10 minutes, and so on.  Your cake tester will always have some crumb on it, due to the apples.  What you are looking for is a nicely browned top and few crumbs on the cake tester.  As we discussed in other recipes, everyone's ovens are different and baking times will vary.  Usually my cake is finished between 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Final layer of apples and cinnamon sugar on cake batter

Top  of Jewish Apple Cake with the delicious caramelized apples, cinnamon and sugar.

Ahh, doesn't that look great!

Slice of Jewish Apple Cake layered with apples and cinnamon sugar