Lemon Thyme Cake

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I made these cakes for a ladies group I spoke at about using herbs in cooking. Most of the women in the group were fairly familiar with cooking with herbs like thyme, but very few had ever used any herb, other than mint, in baking. Thyme is from the mint family and has a slightly minty, lightly lemony flavor which makes it perfect to use in baking. Thyme pairs perfectly with this lemony cake. I added thyme to the cake batter. After the cakes were baked I poked holes into them with a skewer and topped them with a lemon thyme syrup. The syrup adds even more lemon thyme flavor. Poking holes into the cake allows the syrup to get all the way into the cake and keeps it extremely moist. In fact, these cakes seem to taste better the longer they sits. If you've never tried baking with herbs, this cake is a great place to start!

Lemon Thyme Cake

Source: Martha Stewart (adapted)
Yields: 2 loaf cakes or one bundt cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredient:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated

1 tablespoon fresh thyme,chopped, (if the center stem of the thyme is tough, pick the leaves off and discard the stem).
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Lemon Thyme Syrup 
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
Zest of one lemon, finely grated
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter and flour or spray with cooking spray, two 4 1/2-by-8-inch (6-cup) loaf pans.
Make the syrup:
In a small pot, stir together the lemon juice, zest, sugar, and thyme. Heat the mixture on medium for about 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolves and the liquid is clear. Take off the heat, cover and set aside while you prepare the cake.

For the cake:

In a a 2 cup liquid measuring cup,combine buttermilk with lemon juice and fresh thyme. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a separate bowl mix lemon zest and sugar together. Rub the sugar together with the zest until the sugar is slightly damp. 

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar/zest until light and fluffy about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).

Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool for about 20 minutes before glazing with the syrup.

Set rack with cakes over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Poke holes in the cakes over the top with a skewer or a thin knife. Pour the syrup over cakes, letting it run down the sides; let dry, about 30 minutes.

I also want to congratulate Kerry S. on winning our Woodland Fairy giveaway!! Our fairy party was also featured on two wonderful blogs last week. Woohoo! 

Check out our feature on Happy Hour Project and Kate from A Creative Cookie picked our party to be featured on Sugar Bee Crafts! Thanks ladies, I am honored!

Woodland Fairy Party and Giveaway

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Be warned this Woodland Fairy party just may be cute overload!
My sister and I put together this party for my niece's 7th birthday. My sister made all the printables for the party and I made the food. I made toadstool and monogram cupcake toppers and cake toppers from fondant to match the invitations. We are in the process of putting together an Etsy store so that you can buy these (and many other styles/themes) printables and fondant decorations and throw a Woodland Fairy party of you own. In the meantime we are going to have a giveaway and one lucky reader will receive the pdf files with the printables for this party from Fat Bird Designs and two dozen of the Woodland Fairy Cupcake toppers, a fondant fairy cake topper and 3 fondant mushrooms from me!

Woodland Fairy Birthday Banner

The invite, you can edit to add your party information, and the cupcake toppers!

Even if you don't win the whole party, Fat Bird Designs is offering this FREE printable and DIY instructions on how you can make the felt mushroom, pictured below.

 Enter to win the pdf files for the printables for the party, one dozen monogram cupcake toppers with the letter of your choice, one dozen mushroom cupcake toppers. The pdf files will include a editable invitation, the Happy Birthday banner, monogram food picks, mushroom food picks, fairy picks, an editable menu, and water bottle /drink wrap.
 Here's how you enter to win! It's super easy. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and announced here next Thursday. Good Luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway Party printables: Fat Bird Designs 
Cake, cupcakes, "mushroom" marshmallow pops, chocolate dipped pretzels: Half Baked

We have a winner...and some really great dinner rolls

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 And the cookbook giveaway winner is...(drum roll please...) Melly (Melissa) Congrats Melly!! I hope you enjoy A World of Cake as much as I did.

 And now on to the most delicious dinner rolls ever. They are soft, buttery, little pillows of bread. I feel a bit Homer Simpson like when I think about these rolls. "Mmmm rolls...mmmm... What can't they do?"
If you want a great roll to go along with your Christmas dinner, these are the ones. Don't let the yeast scare away from making these rolls they are quite easy to make. And really, is there anything better than freshly baked bread items? I think not!

Buttery Dinner Rolls
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:
1 envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup very warm water
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup scalding hot milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 1/4 cups of sifted all purpose flour
2 Tbs of melted butter for brushing rolls

Method:
Sprinkle the yeast over very warm water in a large bowl. (warm water should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist) Stir until yeast dissolves.
Bring the milk to a boil. Add sugar, the 1/4 cup butter, and salt to hot milk and stir until the sugar dissolves and butter is melted. Cool mixture to 105 to 115 degrees.
Add milk mixture to yeast, then mix in egg. Mix in 4 1/4 cups of flour, one cup at a time to form soft dough. (I put mine in my kitchen aid with the dough hook and mixed it together and let it knead for a couple of minutes.) If you make them without a Kitchen-aid mixer than flour your surface with about 1/4 of flour and knead the dough lightly for 5 minutes, working in the flour
Place dough in a warm buttered bowl; roll the dough around the bowl so it gets butter all over. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hrs.
Punch dough down and knead for a couple minutes on a lightly floured surface. Dough will be a little sticky, but use as little flour as possible otherwise the rolls will not be as feathery light as they should be.
Pinch off large golf ball sized pieces of dough and shape into round rolls. Place in neat rows, not quite touching, in a well-buttered 13x9x2 pan. Cover rolls and let rise in warm place until doubled, 30-45min.
Brush tops of rolls generously with melted butter, then bake in a 375′ oven for 18-20minutes or until nicely browned. Serve warm with plenty of butter.

Rum Cake and a giveaway!

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I recently made these mini rum cakes. The recipe came from "A World of Cake" written by Krystina Castella. This is one of the best rum cakes I've every eaten. It's moist and buttery with just the right rummy punch. I was given a copy of A World of Cake to review and GIVEAWAY!
Have I got you attention now??
Read on...

Home again!

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After three wonderful weeks in Germany and France, I'm back home again. Hubs and I had a wonderful time but it's nice to get back home. I think finally I'm over my jet lag now and getting caught up with everything after being gone for so long.
Just before I left for Germany I entered a giveaway on Sara's blog Ms.Adventures in Italy. Sara's blog is full of food, recipes, and info on Italian living. She was giving away Pocket Coffee. It's a candy combining two of my favorite things chocolate and coffee.I entered and won!!!! The day before I left Sara sent me an email saying that she'd shipped the candy and it would arrive with in the next two weeks. My younger sister was getting my mail while I was gone. I asked her to keep an eye out for a package because it had chocolate in it and would melt. She was kind enough to get the package and even try a few of the pocket coffee's to make sure that they were still okay. Wow isn't nice to have a sister willing to do that for you. hehe Thanks sis:)
Anyway the Pocket Coffee is wonderful. They are rich chocolate candies filled with espresso syrup. Coffee you can carry in your pocket. Perfect!! Thanks Sara!

Snickerdoodles and giveaway winners!

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Snickerdoodles have always been one of my all-time favorite cookies. My mom made these all the time when I was growing up. I remember being thrilled when I opened my lunch box and in it was two snickerdoodles, wrapped in waxed paper. At that point I didn't care what else I had for lunch!
There are two different methods for making snickerdoodles. One that uses cream of tartar and one that uses baking powder. I've tried both ways and I know that baking powder has cream of tartar in it, but the cookies just don't taste quite the same. The cream of tartar lends a bit of tang to the cookies and also helps with the texture of the cookie. I also prefer the all butter recipe over the part shortening part butter recipes.
In my opinion snickerdoodles way better than your average sugar cookie. The top of a snickerdoodle is crackled and crisp but the inside is soft. Perfect cookie texture! For some reason though I haven't made them in a long time. They are an old fashioned cookie and I guess because I love trying new recipes, I just neglected to make snickerdoodles for a while. I recently renewed my love affair with this cookie and will be make anther batch before Christmas. I thought this would be the perfect cookie to submit to the Eat Christmas Cookies Season 2 round-up hosted by Susan of Food Blogga


From Joy of Cooking

Makes about 36 3" cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.
Whisk until well blended
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat in a large bowl
1 cup (2 sticks)unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar

Add and beat until well combined
2 large eggs

Stir in the flour mixture.

In another bowl combine
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls, roll in the cinnamon sugar, and arrange about 2 3/4 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

And now for the winner's of the Silver Bells book giveaway!! I drew numbers and the winners are...Pam of For the Love of Cooking and Cathy of Noble Pig. Congrats!! Just email me your mailing address to paulahennig(at)msn(dot)com and I'll get your book in the mail. Thanks to everyone for all your great comments!

Silver Bells Teacakes and a Giveaway

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About a week ago I was contacted by the publishing company representing author Mary Burton. Mary Burton is a passionate baker as well as author. She developed this recipe for Silver Bells Teacakes in honor of the publication of Silver Bells. Mary Burton joins legendary author Fern Michaels and Joann Ross along with Judy Duarte in creating this holiday collection. Mary's novella is titled Christmas Past.

Mary confesses to a borderline addiction to sweets that is fed by a passion for baking that has become part of her writing routine. Struggling with a plot point, pondering motivation, and wondering if her dialogue is reading smoothly are all triggers for a break from the computer and a sojourn in the kitchen. “When the going gets tough, the tough get baking,” says Mary, who describes the time spent doing so as a chance to relax, focus on the task at hand, ruminate and go back to work refreshed and ready to tackle the relationships, homicides, and police investigations that power her plots.
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Mary Burton is also an avid cook and even volunteered as a kitchen assistant at a local culinary school to hone her skills.
I agreed to try her new recipe and giveaway two of her books. These tea cakes are easy to make and very tasty.

SILVER BELLS Lemon Cherry Teacake Cookies

¾ cup softened butter

¼ cup softened cream cheese

½ cup of confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon lemon extract

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup of dried cherries

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

½ cup canned cream cheese icing (I used homemade cream cheese frosting I had leftover from making cupcakes. Go here for that recipe)

In a stand mixer, mix together the softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. Mix in lemon extract and confectioners’ sugar. Sift together flour and salt and mix into creamed butter/sugar mixture. Gently stir in dried cherries and chill for an hour. Form dough into (about 2 inch)balls, flatten with the bottom of a glass or mug, dredge in confectioner’s sugar and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (cookies won’t spread). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook 12-15 minutes until set but not browned. Place the cookies on a cooling rack resting over a baking pan. Spoon canned icing into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 15-20 seconds. Stir until smooth and then pour a thin coating over the cookies. Let stand on the rack until the icing hardens. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and garnish with dried cherries.

For fun, I decorate some of the cookies with red and green cream cheese frosting that I had on hand.

I'm giving away two copies of Silver Bells. All you need to do is leave a comment at the end of this post(one per person please!) by 11:59 CST on Saturday December 20. I'll randomly draw two winners from all the entries. Good Luck!