Sugar Bean Bakers: spring

Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2016

{ Strawberry Lemon Pound Cake }

I think, dare I say it... it's finally Spring here in Ohio.

I thought that before, then awoke to snow on Bean's birthday (April 9). It seems it is here for real now though.

Ohio likes to give us 75 degree days in March, but when April rolls around its like, "Hey, jk! Here's a 30 degree day!". Um, thanks.

Now that Spring actually has arrived, I like to open all the doors and windows and just let the happy flow through.

Don't get me wrong, I love Winter. I love Winter a lot. I love beautiful snowy days, snuggling inside, reading books under blankets, warm cocoa, etc, etc, etc.

However, I love Winter IN Winter. By the time April arrives, I'm over it. Over. It.

Bring on the sunshine, bring on the lemonade, bring on the lemon cake!

This is a simple lemon pound cake (it starts with a box mix) with a tangy lemon glaze.

Not too lemony. Just right lemony. As my friend Lori likes to say, too much lemon "tastes like Pledge". And let's be real life here. No one wants that.

Just right lemony with strawberries.

Welcome, Spring!

Strawberry Lemon Pound Cake

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1 lemon cake boxed mix

1 package (3.4 oz) vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped, and set aside in a bowl.

Zest one lemon and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

Grease and flour tube or bundt pan, set aside.

In mixing bowl add the cake mix and pudding mix, stir to combine. Spoon a couple tablespoons of this over the strawberries to dust. This will help them from all sinking to the bottom while baking*. Set strawberries aside again.

Add the oil, water, and eggs. Beat until well combined. Add in the juice and zest. Mix well. Fold in the strawberries last. Pour into pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to fully cool before glazing.

*they still like to sink, but this will help some.

Lemon Glaze

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 Tablespoon lemon zest, divided

hot water

Stir together powdered sugar and melted butter. Add in lemon juice. Stir until glossy. If desired consistency is not reached, add hot water 1/2 teaspoon at a time. Stir in 1/2 Tablespoon of lemon zest.

Drizzle over cake, immediately sprinkle the other 1/2 Tablespoon of lemon zest over the glaze.

If you like more glaze, double the recipe above.

Friday, March 29, 2013

{Bunny Feet Cookies}

Easter is a crazy busy time of year around here. I'm sure it is at your house too.

The Bean's birthday is always close to Easter (April 9), so since the whole fam damily is already here for Easter dinner, we just have his family party the same day. His huge, massive, 20+ teenager blowout comes in May when it's warmer and drier in Ohio, cause, yeah, they aren't all partying in my house.

No.

Anyway, I have much to do today (treats for 15 Easter bags, sculpt more fondant items for the Bean's birthday cake, make Hot Cross Buns), but I had to take a second and post these for you.

Cause I love you.

These are made with a basic rolled sugar cookie dough, buttercream, plain sugar, and pink chocolate (or white chocolate tinted pink).

To get the foot shape, I used a cheap Easter egg cutter that I squished it a little. For the toes, I used the medium flower cutter in this set by Wilton.

I think that the little toes the flower makes are super cute, but I'm fully convinced that these would be cute just with the egg shape if you cannot locate the flowers.

After that, I melted up some pink chocolate, and piped toe pads and paw pads onto parchment paper.

As those dried, I iced the cookies in a buttercream, and topped with tons of sugar!

Cause sugar.

Once the chocolate was dry, I peeled them from the paper and placed 3 toes and 1 pad onto the cookie. I used the back, flat side of the chocolate.

And that's it! Bunny feets!

Delicious, delicious bunny feets!

Hoppy Easter!

(Yeah, I just went there.)

Hope you have a fantastic Easter filled with sugar and joy!

Tina

Bunny Feet Cookies

Needed:

Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

Buttercream Recipe

Cookie Cutters

More Sugar for Topping

Pink Tinted Chocolate

Saturday, April 23, 2011

{Peeps de Résistance}

Hey! Tomorrow is Easter!!!

I’m betting this slipped your minds.

I mean, it’s not like the stores have chocolate coated, pastel aisles or anything.

Remember when there were chocolate bunnies, Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, Cadbury Eggs, and Jelly Beans?
A small section of one aisle contained the above plus some Easter Baskets and some of that creepy green grass. (You know it’s creepy- and my cat likes to eat it. He’s creepy too).

Holy Consumerism, Easter Bunny! Now there are about 4 aisles chock full of stuff that no kid needs, but every kid wants!

I will admit, I do enjoy trolling the Holiday sections at the store. I’m usually looking for candy and items good for baking.

Shocking, I know right?

Anyway.. it is far, far too wet around here to have a Easter Egg Hunt. We’ve had a deluge of rain in the past weeks.

And of course, the ones hunting the eggs would also be far to old to do so (17, 15, and 14), with the exception of my 8 year old nephew, that is. But don’t tell them that. They like to hunt eggs.

Who can blame them? It’s good, clean fun. And always entertaining when we find that last egg, smashed, melted, and moldy in our yard in mid-July.

You know you find them too, don’t judge!

In the attempt to pull said teens away from the video gaming console, I’m having them spend 5 minutes making these.

I've seen the same made many times with chow mien noodles, but I choose pretzels.
Cause they taste better with chocolate. You know they do.

Chocolate Bird’s Nests.

Here's what you'll need:

a bag of thin pretzel sticks

melting chocolate (chocolate chips should work too!)

jelly beans

and, of course, Peeps.