When Neighbors Give You Lemons.

Here at Ft. Meade we have the most amazing neighbors. They moved in just after we did and they are wonderful! This week, they went on vacation to upstate New York, up to the finger lakes, and I miss them dearly. However, before leaving the wife came over with two or three bags of groceries that won't last till they get back in a week. This included 6 lemons that have been staring at me for DAYS, I knew I'd have to do something with them, or they'd go bad. So today, I was feeling up to the challenge. So far I've made lemon curd which I didn't scorch this time. (Because really... how could you go wrong with that? And B asked for it.), I also made.

I also made Lemon Buttermilk Popsicles from Whipped the blog (they're also called easy-dreamy-lemon popsicles) They're in the freezer as we speak/as I type.

Finally, I made Lemon Sweet Rolls adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe's Orange Rolls. Or rather, I've made the dough, it is supposed to raise for 2-2 1/2 hours. I'm thinking we'll probably get it 1 1/2 and then I'll need to keep my momentum going!

Lemon Sweet Rolls

from melskitchencafe.com (Adapted)

*Makes 12-14 rolls/twists

Dough:

¾ cup buttermilk, warm (I pour the buttermilk in a glass liquid measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute on 50% power)

6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

3 large eggs

4 ¼ cups (21 ¼ ounces) flour

¼ cup (1 ¾ ounces) sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

Orange Filling:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Grated orange rind/zest from two large lemons (reserving 1/2 teaspoon grated rind for the glaze below)

Orange Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice from about 1  large lemon

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind/zest reserved from the filling above

For the dough, whisk the warmed buttermilk and butter together in a large liquid measuring cup. Combine 4 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with dough hook (or you can use a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon or electric handheld mixer). With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and eggs and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes. Increase the mixer to medium speed and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (knead for 15-18 minutes by hand). If after 5 minutes of kneading, the dough is still overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough clears the sides of the bowl but has a slight tacky feel when pressed between your fingertips. (See this tutorial for a visual.)

Place the dough in a large, lightly greased bowl and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled, around 2 to 2 ½ hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

For the filling, combine all the filling ingredients (reserving 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest for the glaze) in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter (I use my trusty roul’pat for this step) and press it into about a 16 by 12-inch rectangle (if you have doubled the recipe, split the dough in half and roll out one half at a time). Gently brush the filling mixture over the rectangle, using an offset spatula or rubber spatula.

Lift the longest edge closest to you and begin rolling the dough into a tight log. Pinch the seam closed and roll the log so it is seam side down. Using a serrated knife, slice the log into 12 evenly sized rolls,more or less. You can slice them thinner or thicker as you like. For a traditional cinnamon-roll-look, arrange the rolls cut side down on a lined or lightly greased baking pan. If you want to try the twist method, one at a time grab each sliced roll and holding on to either end simultaneously pull and twist the roll into a figure eight and place it on the prepared pan. Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Bake the rolls at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes, until the rolls are lightly golden on top and cooked through. While the rolls are baking, mix together the glaze ingredients. Drizzle the glaze over the warm rolls.

As most of my creations are still in process, You'll just have to wait for the pictures :) 

Yes! It is as awesome as it looks! Rainbow Cake with lemon curd filling and whipped cream frosting.

So The family I work for had their Aunt Mary come into town and it was her 70th birthday! (Also, K's been going CRAZY at home with her broken leg.) So we decided to go all out on the cake!

I'd seen the rainbow cake a long time ago, and thought it might be time to pull it out! I followed Oven Love's link to Wisk Kid: Say it with Cake and used it for our cake recipe!

White Cake (but not really)


2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
2 1/3 c (466 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c (375 g) flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c (355 g) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring. Liquid will not be vibrant enough!

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line well! how ever many 9” cake pans you have (We had 2 and just reused them).

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each.

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and let cool.



I left the parchment on the bottom of the cakes for stability until we stacked them as the layers were quite thin.

While the Cakes were baking/cooling. We tackled the lemon curd.

LEMON CURD FILLING
We doubled the recipe found here.

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

This is not my picture, it's from the recipe, but it's good to know what it should look like!

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil. (AND DON'T LET IT SCORCH!)

This is not my picture, it's from the recipe, but it's good to know what it should look like!

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

We used most of it for the cake, but some of it was left for snacking :

Finally the WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING!

It's just basic whipped cream: 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 Tbsp sugar. 

But the recipe I used said to mix the ingredients in the bowl you'll use and let them all chill together for 30 minutes or so in the fridge. 

(Were I to do this again, I would make 3 cups worth of whipping cream.)

So we started stacking the cakes, purple on the bottom, red on the top. On each level we piped a circle of whipped cream to keep the lemon curd in, then spooned lemon curd into the center. 

Then we covered the whole thing in the whipped cream frosting. 

When you cut it, it looks like this:

And when you eat it, it looks like this (for about 30 seconds before you DEVOUR the rest of it) 

Seriously friends. This might be the best cake I've ever had. Moist, delicious, light and airy... Oh my YUM!