A Recipe A Week: Week 2

Happy Thursday!

As promised on Monday, here is this week's recipe!

Week 2: Lemon Easter Egg Cakes

from Woman's Day Magazine/April 17, 2011 Issue

online recipe from Woman's Day site here

ACTIVE: 40 MIN

TOTAL: 2 1/3 HR

MAKES 9

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 tsp baking powder            

1/2 tsp kosher salt                

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar  

1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest plus

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp pure vanilla extract      

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted      

butter at room       

temperature          

3 large eggs                         

1 cup whole milk                 

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese,   

at room temperature

1 1/2 cup confectioners'      

sugar

Cookie cutters, nonpareils,  

sanding sugars, and confetti

sprinkles for decorating      

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 13-in. cake pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with parchment paper, and coat the paper with cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using an electric mixer, beat the granulated sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of the butter and 2 Tbsp of the lemon juice in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

3. Reduce the mixer to low and alternately add the flour mixture and the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup butter until smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and remaining Tbsp lemon juice until fluffy.

5. Using a 3 x 4-in. egg-shaped cookie cutter as a stencil, cut out nine eggs from the cooled cake. Working with the cakes on a parchment paper-lined rimmed baking sheet, frost each one with about 3 Tbsp icing.

6. Using 1/2 to 1 1/2-in. mini cutters as stencils, place a cutter on top of one cake and use a small spoon to shake sanding sugar or nonpareils either inside or outside the cutter. Push the sugar into place with the back of the spoon, and use the tip of a knife to spread sugar into the pointy edges of cutter, if necessary. Brush excess sugar off the cake with the back of the spoon, the carefully remove cutter. Place a piece of pastel confetti in the center of each flower. Repeat on all cakes as desired.

PER EGG CAKE: 310 CAL, 15 G FAT (9 G SAT FAT),

71 MG CHOL, 159 MG SOD, 4 G PRO, 40 G CAR,

28 G SUGAR, 0 G FIBER



My notes:

When I made mine, I actually only got six eggs out of the 9 x 13-in. pan. I also couldn't find the 3 varying sized, flower cookie cutters in stores so I my mom cut out flowers out of paper and did it that way. I used the sanding sugar rather than the nonpareils because I couldn't find all yellow in stores either. If you don't like lemon, don't fret. I found that it didn't have a strong lemon flavor like I was expecting. You could probably leave the lemon out all together if you wanted to.

Here is a list of where you can find the exact cutters and decorating supplies used to create the eggs in Woman's Day.

Egg-Shaped Perimeter Cookie Cutters

69 CENTS EACH; WILTON.COM

Flower/Leaf Cutter Set

$19 FOR 12; NYCAKE.COM

Pastel confetti sprinkle, nonpareils, and sanding sugars

$2.29-$2.99; CONFECTIONERYHOUSE.COM

Also, here is the actual picture featured in Woman's Day.

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So there you go! I wanted to get this out early enough that if any of you wanted to try it you'd have plenty of time before Easter!

If anyone decides to do these, I want to see pictures :)