What easy cake should i make?!

Mini Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Silk Meringue Buttercream [adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible]

Ingredients
1 ? cups sifted cake flour
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3 tbsp milk, at room temperature
2 drops of lemon oil
2 tbsp lemon juice*
? cup castor sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
? tsp salt
185g unsalted butter, softened



Lemon Silk Meringue Buttercream**

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
2 large egg whites
? tsp vinegar
454g unsalted butter, softened
Two drops of lemon oil
2 tsp lemon juice*


Crème Anglaise
? cup sugar
5 large egg yolks
? cup milk

1.Preheat oven to 175C. Line 10 cupcake holes with cupcake liners, fill the rest with water and set aside.
2.In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, lemon oil and juice together.
3.Using an electric mixer, whisk the dry ingredients together. Add the butter and half the egg mixture and mix on low speed till the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat for another minute to aeate the batter.
4.Add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
5.Divide the batter evenly among the lined cupcake holes and bake in the centre of the oven for about 20-25 minutes, rotating the position of the tray halfway through, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with crumbs clinging and the top of the cake springs back slightly when pressed with a finger. 6.To make crème anglaise Place a sieve over a large bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together. 7.Over the stove, bring the milk to boil and gradually whisk it into yolks mixture. Pour yolk mixture back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Mixture will start to thicken, do not allow it to boil. When mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, remove it from heat and pour it through the sieve. Whisk mixture together and let it cool to room temperature.
8.To make Italian meringue In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water together over high heat till the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low, stop stirring and start beating egg whites.
9.Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till frothy. Add vinegar and beat till soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the 2 tbsp of sugar left till stiff peaks form.
10.Increase the heat and allow the sugar mixture to boil to a temperature of 248F. Remove from heat immediately and with the electric mixer going on medium, gradually pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Keep whipping meringue till it’s completely cool. Stir the cooled creme anglaise in. Using a whisk, beat the butter till it’s creamy and gradually add it to meringue and mix till smooth.
11.Divide buttercream into two batches. Mix one batch with the lemon oil and lemon juice and use that to frost the cupcakes. Freeze the other batch for future use. Makes 10 cupcakes
* I don’t quite remember the exact amount of lemon juice I added so taste the batter and frosting as you go and add more lemon juice if needed


** The recipe makes more than enough to frost the batch of cupcakes and since it’s so damned good, I flavour half of it, use it and keep the rest in the freezer. Bring the frozen buttercream to room temperature, spike it with any flavouring you like and give it a good stir to smoothen it out

http://eatandbehappy.wordpress.com/2008/…

Easy Vanilla Butter Cake

Preparation Time
20 minutes

Cooking Time
150 minutes

Ingredients (serves 15)
* Melted butter, to grease
* 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour
* 150g (1 cup) plain flour
* 440g (2 cups) caster sugar
* 300g butter, cubed, at room temperature
* 310ml (1 1/4 cups) milk
* 6 eggs, at room temperature
* 3 tsp vanilla essence

1.Preheat oven to 140°C. Position a rack on the second lowest shelf of the oven. Brush a round 25cm (base measurement) cake pan with the melted butter to lightly grease. Line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place the self-raising flour, plain flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla essence in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat on low speed for 30 seconds or until just combined. Increase the speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and all the butter is incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cool.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12027/easy+vanilla+butter+cake

My grandmother would make this into mini loaves to take on trips to eat as nourishment or make holiday cakes from it. I remember coming home from school and joining my Pa-pa with a slice and a cold mug of milk as an afternoon snack. Now they are long gone, but I taught my grandchildren this and now they enjoy. Here's Grand's special recipe for

HOT MILK SPONGE CAKE

1 cup milk
1 stick (1/4 lb) butter (or margarine)

heat in small pot on low until melted and set aside

Preheat oven to 340F degrees. Grease and flour loaf or cake pans and set aside

In large mixung bowl put in 2 cups flour. 1 1/2 cups sugar (*for people with sugar problems, substitute 1 cup SPLENDA or EQUAL), 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 3 eggs and beat well, adding milk mixture little by little until all is blended. There make be some lumps.

Pour into pans evenly using all of batter. Put in oven and bake for up to one hour, DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR BEFORE 40 MINUTES TO CHECK. Stick sharp knife in center of cake, if comes out clean cake is finished. If not, give 5 more minutes. Let set in pans outside oven for 10 minutes before releasing from pan. Cool cakes on wire racks or eat still warm. You can frost or glaze them or not. We ate them mostly plain.

I'm the 3rd generation using this recipe. Good luck!

It's sweet that you bake for your family. Try a Key Lime Cake or a Hummingbird Cake. You can find easy recipes for both of these at http://www.easy-baking-recipes.com/easy-… Hope this helps.

http://www.easy-baking-recipes.com/easy-…

Blueberry Cheesecake!

banana cake

A coffee cake

1. Strawberries washed, choose a slightly larger size and beautiful to stay Diqie film (as the Central cake decorating), the rest of the stalks aside. 100g strawberries cut into small pieces to take with fruit juice machine results of mud, poured, and then rinse out the remaining 1 tablespoon water, pulp spare (making a cake body use). Of about 10 strawberries cut in half, respectively (mezzanine use). Replacement of 8 or less the same size surface decoration of the cake with strawberries. The rest of the strawberry pieces into small pieces (laminated use).
2. Separated from protein and egg yolk, remaining egg whites in a clean bowl beat egg without oil. Beat egg yolks in another bowl, add sugar, cooking oil, wine and strawberry mud mix.
Mix flour and baking powder, sift into the egg yolk in the mix Hu. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F
3. Protein adding vinegar or lemon juice, dry with a blender sent to the foam, ladle out about 1 / 3 of the egg surface protein Hu in the bubble mix, then after all the egg yolk mix into the rest of Hu proteins bubble surface in the mix uniform.
4. Will be burnt into the pan in the face, forced to make big bubbles earthquake released about pan, into the oven bake about 35 minutes. (Can be cooked into the thin bamboo sticks to test whether, and if you can not face sticking Hu)
5. Released after the shock force to look pan loose organization, and then immediately turn upside down on rack (cooling rack) on the cool.
After completely cool, mold release, the cake cut into three pieces from the side. Liquid cream and powdered sugar mixed with a stirrer was sent to the solid state (pick up the bowl, tilt it will not drip.)
6. Rubbed in the underlying layer of fresh cream cake, covered with small pieces of strawberry. Covering the second layer of cake pieces, wiping a layer of fresh cream, and then cut emissions in half the whipped cream strawberry eleven above (section down), then coated with a thick strawberry whipped cream filling the gap between Cover the last layer of cake can be. The remaining fresh cream cake to smooth surface, rafts 8 strawberries, gracefully decorated with strawberries Central, the last squeeze, and sprinkle powdered sugar flowers to decorate.