Like many of the things I intend to do on a regular basis…International Food Fun kind of fell by the wayside for a while.  But, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to revive it.  So (drumroll please) here you go:

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I have an anonymous quote on the front of my menu planning binder that reads, “Stressed is dessert spelled backwards.  Coincidence?  I think not!”

I’ll give you a moment to ponder that one.

I grew up in a home where some form of dessert was served every night.  Dessert ranged from applesauce sprinkled with crushed graham crackers, to canned fruit in a pretty dish, to delicious made from scratch cakes.  Looking back, I’m impressed that my mom went to such effort.

I don’t.  We don’t eat dessert every night at our house, but when we do, we definitely enjoy it.  Here was a recent diet-day-off dessert that I invented.
(Mangoes were on sale at our local grocery store, can you tell?)

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I’m playing in another round of the Game On Challenge this month.  As part of the challenge, we get to select one day off of the diet.  Sometimes is frightens me how much planning I put into my day off.  I tend to cook like a fiend on that day, because I can take tastes!  For my day off last week, I made one of my family’s favorite meals that is decidedly not diet friendly, but it is easy.

We call this pasta dish Hay and Straw.

My friend Nicole introduced our family to Hay and Straw.  She came to take care of my children for a week during one of Lily’s long hospitalizations.  My children loved this dish, and begged for it for months afterward.  At the time, it was so unusual for all of them to like any one food at the same time, that I was happy to oblige.  It continues to be a family favorite.

We celebrated my belated birthday this weekend.  The Bionic Man and our children were off the hook for cake making, because I needed a good excuse to try out a cake recipe I found.  The original recipe and accompanying gorgeous photographs can be found here.  The original recipe, however, seemed a little tricky to me, so I modified it and came up with a somewhat simpler version of my own.

Pretty, hmmm?  And, admittedly, very tasty, too!  This is how I made it:

The cake layers and frosting were made of some basic ingredients

and a very few not-so-basic ingredients.

Lemon Blueberry Cake Ingredients:
1 (18 1/4 oz) package yellow cake mix
1 (4 oz) package instant vanilla or lemon pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cooking oil (I prefer canola)
1/2 tsp pure lemon extract
4 large eggs
12 oz. fresh blueberries (about 1-1/2 cups)

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients–except blueberries–into a large mixing bowl.

Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  On medium speed, continue to blend for 2-3 more minutes, until the cake batter is smooth.

Pour 1/3 of the batter into a greased 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.

Add blueberries to the remaining batter.

Gently fold into batter, being careful not to squash the berries.

(Note:  next time I make this, I’m going to try placing the berries on top of the batter, once it is in the cake pans.  All my berries sunk to the bottom of the pan while the cake was baking, when I did it this way.  It tasted fine, but it didn’t look as pretty.  Let me know if you have any great tips for keeping the berries spread out, or if you try it and my “next time” method works!)

Divide the remaining batter among two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.  Bake the three cakes at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (time varies depending on your oven).  Once baked, remove from oven and allow to cool.  Remove from pans.

Now it is time to make the frosting.  I’m normally not a fan of frosting, but–let me tell you–this is the yummiest frosting I have ever encountered.  Definitely a lick-the-bowl-clean kind of frosting.  The tangy lemon flavor really balances the sweetness of the frosting.

Zesty Lemon Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 package (2 lbs.) powdered sugar
milk or heavy whipping cream (I used milk, but I imagine cream makes this even more heavenly, if possible)
yellow gel food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Soften butter and add the zest of one lemon.

Using the whisk attachment on your electric mixer, cream the butter and lemon zest for 2-3 minutes.  Add lemon juice and lemon extract, blend well.  Add about 1/3 of the sugar and mix well.  Add remaining sugar, along with milk or cream to thin consistency of the frosting as necessary.  Beat well on med-high speed for 3-4 minutes until very fluffy.  If using color gel, add a drop or two, then beat until blended.

I added a little gel coloring to mine, which gave it this pale, sunshiny yellow color that I love.

Once the frosting was made and my cakes were cool, I placed one blueberry layer onto my cake stand.  I put a small amount of frosting into a pastry bag, and snipped the pointed end off with my scissors, so there would be a fairly wide hole at the end.

Then, I piped this frosting around the top edge of my first layer.

This made a little frosting “dam” so that the filling wouldn’t leak out of the sides of the cake.  Isn’t that a neat trick?

I then spread a generous amount of lemon curd onto the top of the cake–the filling.  I chose a lemon curd that didn’t have a lot of extra, filler ingredients, including artificial color.  If you like, there are other brands that have more of a brighter yellow shade.  And yes, my cake did get a little dark–but it tasted fine.

I repeated that step with the next layer of cake, which was the lemon-only layer, without blueberries.  I placed the last blueberry layer on top, so that I had a stack of three {blurry} layers.

The last step was generously frosting the top and sides of the cake.  It was too messy to take pictures!  I garnished the top of the cake with more lemon zest.  Ta da!

If you’ll notice, the day grew later and later as I worked on this cake.  It was too dark for pretty pictures by the time I finished.

So, naturally, I had to take it outside the next morning for a little photoshoot in the sunshine.  (Naturally?  What is natural about that?  I’m sure my neighbors think I’m C-R-A-Z-Y!  I can just hear it, “Look Herb, she’s out on the deck again, taking pictures of food!  Do you think we should call someone?”)

As a sidenote….food bloggers.  How do they do it?  My kitchen was in total disarray by the time I’d finished.  And I made this cake from a box.  Obviously, despite the use of a cake mix, the cake was yummy.  We ate a lot of it.

While this was a delicious cake, the frosting was hands-down the best part.  If I were to do it over again, I’d use yellow sprinkles instead of lemon zest.  Or leave it plain.  The zest–while pretty–was just a little too much.

Back to the frosting.  I think I need to try some variations on this frosting, like orange (orange zest and juice) and lime (lime zest and juice).  It would be a delicious–and pretty-way to jazz up vanilla cupcakes.

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