Week 21: 7-Up Pound Cake

I made this week's cake for sweet friends who left for the beach this morning. 
I've had this recipe since the summer of 1985 and believe it was the very first cake I baked as a new bride.
It is a wonderful cake to make in the spring with its lemony flavor and would be wonderful covered with the fresh berries in season. 

7-Up Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks, room temperature)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs (room temperature)
3 cups flour
1 cup 7-Up, Sprite or Sierra Mist
2 teaspoons lemon extract

Cream butter. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition. Add lemon extract and mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add 7-Up then mix together until combined. Scrape sides of bowl, then mix briefly.
Pour into a greased Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until the cake is no longer jiggly.

Cool cake on wire rack for 10-15 minutes and then turn out on your cake plate.

Enjoy!!!!
Happy Baking!
Julie

Week 9 - Cinnamon Roll Cake

Happy March!!!
David needed a cake for a meeting he was going to this week. I wanted to make one that resembled a coffee cake and found one on Pinterest that looked delicious.
The Cinnamon Roll Cake is from Laurie's blog: Cookin' Up North and has become a very popular pin on Pinterest. I look forward to trying more recipes from her blog. Thanks Laurie!
















Cinnamon Roll Cake
Cake:
3 c. flour
1/4 tsp.salt
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter, melted

Topping:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix everything together except for the butter. Slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes.

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Drizzle the glaze over the warm cake.

Happy Baking!
Julie

Week 8: Sugar Cookie Cake

So hard to believe the eighth week of 2012 is almost over and that March will be here next week!
I found this week's cake a few years ago from my friend Kelli's lovely blog. It is delicious served with fruit and whipped cream and is wonderful for a lady's gathering. I hosted our monthly women's fellowship last night and all enjoyed the Sugar Cookie Cake. Let me know if you bake it!


















Sugar Cookie Cake

3/4 cup cold butter, cut in small pieces
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix butter, flour and sugar into a crumbs (I use my food processor for this step and then pour the crumbs into a large bowl and finish off with a pastry cutter). Set aside 1 cup of the crumbs.

















To the rest of the crumbs, add the buttermilk to which the 1 teaspoon of baking soda has been added.
Add the eggs and vanilla; mix and pour into a greased 9x13 in. pan
Top with the 1 cup reserved crumbs.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes (or until a cake tester comes out clean).


Happy Baking!
Julie

Week 7: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Our Benjamin is coming home for the week-end so I baked one of his favorite cakes today... Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. My dear friend, Nancy Z., shared this recipe with me years ago and it has become a family favorite. This is a great make ahead recipe. I've also made it without the chocolate chips and it was delicious. I usually make a raspberry sauce to serve alongside the cake.

















Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons melted butter

Combine all three ingredients and press into a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

Cheesecake ingredients:
3 - 8 oz. bars cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With an electric mixer blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and combined well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Stir in mini chocolate chips and vanilla extract.
Pour batter over the crust and bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees and bake 35 more minutes.
Place on cooling rack for an hour or so and then cover and refrigerate. Wait to unlatch your springform pan right before you are ready to serve the cake.


Enjoy!
Happy Baking!
Julie

52 Weeks of Cakes

As I was waking up the morning of January 2nd I had the wonderful idea of starting a blog featuring a new cake each week of 2012. I had baked an oatmeal cake on January 1st so I already had my first cake baked and ready to serve during the college football games that afternoon.

The first name, for my blog, that came to mind was 52 Cakes; but it was already taken. I thought of many more, but each one had already been claimed. I called my friend Amy as she is very creative and I knew she would help me. Sure enough! She came up with 52 Weeks of Cakes. So here we are! I hope you will stop by regularly as I will baking a cake each week and will share the recipes with you!

Happy Baking!!!
Julie