Whole Lemon Cake Food

WHOLE LEMON LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Place Meyer lemons in a 2-quart saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and cover; simmer lemons until soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and lightly grease the parchment paper.
• Remove any stems from the lemons. Slice into quarters and remove all seeds.
• Place the lemon quarters in the work bowl of a large food processor and process until fairly smooth, about 30 seconds. Add flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt. Pulse about 10 times, just until the batter comes together into coarse crumbs with flecks of lemon rind. Pour in eggs and limoncello with the motor running; process until a thick, slightly grainy batter forms, 10 seconds or less.
• Divide batter between the prepared pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are light gold and spring back lightly to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on baking racks.
• Place 1 cake layer on a cake plate and cover with lemon curd. Top with the second layer and frost just the top, or top and sides, with cream cheese frosting.

SIMPLE LEMON CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). In a medium saucepan, cover lemon slices with 3 cups water. Add pinch of salt, cover, and bring to a boil over high. Boil lemons, partially covered, until very tender, 15 minutes. Drain in a colander and transfer to a food processor, along with lemon juice; process until smooth. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium, 2 minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
• With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions buttermilk. Beat in vanilla, then fold in lemon mixture.
• Transfer batter to pan and bake until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack, 20 minutes. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely on rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve with raspberries and cream, if desired.

WHOLE LEMON BARS

Steps:

• For the crust: Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and set aside. Add the butter and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and combine until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt and slowly add to the butter mixture until just combined. Pour the dough into the prepared baking dish and press, making sure the dough comes up the sides of the dish around the edges about 1/2 inch. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the dough until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. (Leave the oven on.)
• For the lemon filling: Cut the lemon in half and slice the lemon halves into thin wheels; remove any seeds. Toss the lemon wheels (with flesh and peel), granulated sugar and chunks of butter into the bowl of a food processor. Process, scraping down the sides as needed, until the lemon is thoroughly pureed. Add the eggs, cornstarch and salt and pulse until the batter is smooth. Pour into the prepared crust.
• Bake until the filling is set, 35 to 40 minutes. You can test this by bumping the pan a little; it should only jiggle slightly. In my oven, I find that the point at which the filling is set is also when it starts to get very light brown on top.
• Let cool on a rack. Cut into rectangles and dust with powdered sugar.

LOW FAT LEMON POUND CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Zest and juice lemons, saving each separately. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl. In another bowl whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla.
• Add zest to sugar in large mixing bowl. Add butter and shortening to sugar mixture and beat until it's light and fluffy. Then add eggs in one at a time, mixing to combine.
• Alternate between incorporating the flour and the sour cream mixture into the butter/egg mixture. Three additions of flour, in between two additions of the sour cream mixture. Mix until just combined.
• Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray, pour in batter and tap on counter to dislodge any bubbles. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Remove to cooling rack.
• If you prefer a super-moist cake, poke deep holes with wooden skewer or similar tool to help glaze penetrate. Glaze while cake is still warm. If you prefer the glaze to coat the top of the cake, don't poke holes and allow cake to cool before glazing.
• To glaze, mix together confectioner's sugar and lemon juice and drizzle generously over cake. Serve alone, or with berries, reduced-fat Cool Whip, ice cream, you name it!