Tuesdays with Dorie - Swedish Visiting Cake

I saw my first hummingbird of the season this afternoon! I have had my feeders out since Monday of last week. And watching for hummingbirds every time I looked out the window. Which is a lot, as my window is at the kitchen sink and I spend a fair amount of time in my kitchen.  Actually the hubby saw it first. He was washing his hands at the sink and looking out the window and said "Hello Mr. Hummingbird". And, I said, "What! Really! There's a hummingbird out there?!" And, pushed him out of the way so I could see my first little guy of the season. I have been watching and watching, and nothing.  And, he sees one first. Hmmm. :]

Now that I have that out of the way, welcome to another addition of Tuesdays with Dorie. This week the recipe chosen was Swedish Visiting Cake and Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs  chose it.  Nancy has a great blog. She posts all kinds of wonderful recipes and always has "n.o.e's notes" in which she shares tips and/or changes she has made to the recipe to make them her own, and she always ends with "the verdict", sharing her opinion of the recipe. Not to mention the beautiful photos she shares of each dish she makes.

Nancy picked a real winner (at least in my opinion) with this cake. It was simple to put together. It baked quickly in a cast iron skillet. And, it was delicious! Chewy, moist, crispy, lemony, nutty, delicious!  I left it on the counter in the skillet and each time I happened by it in the kitchen, I cut off a small slice. And, another slice. And, another...and... suddenly it was all gone! Well, it took a couple of days before it was gone , but it was gone far too quickly for me. Fortunately it was easy to make. Extremely so. One bowl, one skillet. My kind of recipe. :)

Nine simple ingredients. Sugar, lemon zest, eggs, salt, vanilla and almond extracts (optional), flour, butter and almonds. I didn't have any usable lemons in the house. I had two, but they had been around long enough that they were more like little baseballs then lemons. So, I used some lemon extract in my sugar. I also added both the vanilla and the almond extracts. My skillet was a 10" instead of the 9" called for in the recipe, but I just baked my cake a few minutes less.

In the recipe Dorie states that her friend says you can start making this when you see guests coming up the road and be serving it when they are sitting down to coffee. That is not too far from the truth. I would say it took only 15 minutes max to mix the batter up and no more than 25 minutes to bake it. Within an hour, I was savoring the first of many slices of this wonderful, chewy, moist,crispy, lemony, nutty cake. (Is there an echo in here?)  And, you could be too! Head over to Nancy's blog for the recipe and swing by TWD and see who else baked this wonderful cake.

And, now, I want to thank Chaya of My Sweet and Savory for the sweet awards she gave to me on Friday the 9th. At least I think she passed them both on to me. :} I "met" Chaya several months ago when she invited me to join Have the Cake  and submit a Red Velvet cake I baked with SMS. She is one busy lady, involved with I don't know how many different blogs and she posts a fabulous recipe just about every day, with lots and lots of step by step photos. Always something yummy! She didn't say there was any rules about the awards or that you had to pass them on to a certain number of people, but I would like to pass them on to a few of my blogging friends.

First of all, Julie of Little bit of Everything. She and I have become friends and not only keep in touch via our blogs, but we email each other at least once a week. I always smile when I see a comment from Julie. Can't wait to hear about the cake classes Julie!

Michelle of Flourchild is another friend who makes me smile. Not only do we share a last name (Murphy) but it turns out both of us are married to men named Steven! We have to meet someday Michelle! I'm willing to come to Idaho for a visit. :)

Leslie, of Lethally Delicious is one of my friends from Tuesdays with Dorie (or was it Sweet Melissa Sundays where we met?). She always has something nice to say whenever she drops by (which is often). Thanks for being a friend,  Leslie.

Lastly, but not least,  is Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. I get a lot of artistic ideas from the fabulous pictures she takes, tons of yummy recipes to try that she has already tried, and, whenever she drops by my blog she always has something nice to say. I'm so glad we "met" Tracey!

Okay, that's it. I have to get to bed as I have three houses to clean tomorrow. And, when I get home, I have to start making 4 different fillings and 4 different cupcakes for a bride-to-be's cake tasting on Thursday. I have several recipes I have made in the past week, dinners and desserts that I want to post. I don't have to work at Starbuck's until Thursday night, so I am hoping I can post a little in the next day or two. :)

Sweet Melissa Sunday - Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake

This weeks recipe, chosen by Raeann of Basically, Baby Boots, is Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake. I had this one marked as a possible choice for my pick in March, but wasn't at all unhappy to make it ahead of time. :) While the hubby isn't a big fan of lemon, I love it in all kinds of baked goods...muffins, breads, pies, cookies. It always lends such a crisp, fresh flavor to everything. I don't normally bake anything lemon flavored because he won't eat it, but since it was for the group... :}

I have a pretty yellow bundt cake pan that is usually too small for most bundt cake recipes. I decided to bake this pound cake in it instead of using a loaf pan.

In no time I had the batter mixed up and in the oven baking. It's pretty basic; flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice, along with a few other simple ingredients.

I baked mine in the bundt pan for the full hour and 15 minutes. It smelled wonderful as it was baking, and I couldn't wait to try it.

I skipped the glaze listed in the recipe and instead made a simple powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze that I drizzled over the top after the pound cake cooled.

I found this cake to be fabulous! Moist, with a nice crust on the outside. The lemon flavor was strong, but not too strong, and delicious. The walnuts added just the right amount of texture to the crumb of the cake. I would definitely make this one again. I noticed one of the SMS bakers used orange and pecans. That also sounds delicious and I may have to try that combination in the future. If you would like to see what the rest of the gang thought, head over to SMS and check it out! 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I love blueberries...blueberry pie, blueberry yogurt, blueberry muffins, anything with blueberries in it is yummy. Add lemon and you have a sure winner. I once baked for a small coffee shop and one of the most requested items I baked were blueberry lemon scones. I almost couldn't bake them fast enough.

I had some blueberries in my freezer and they were burning a hole in my pocket so to speak. So, I went searching through my endless supply of recipes and came across a recipe for a blueberry cream cheese pound cake. Now, I bake a sour cream pound cake that is a real favorite of mine. In fact, I won a ribbon at the county fair with it several years ago. So,when I found this recipe I knew I had to try it.

It was simple to put together. All the ingredients were on hand. The aroma of it baking in the oven was mouth-watering. My husband came into the house while it was baking, and though he is not ususally a pound cake fan, even he commented on how delicious it smelled. When I took it out of the oven, the top was crusty and golden brown. I flipped it onto a cooling rack and stalked it until it was cool enough to cut into. I decided before cutting it that it needed a little something on top, so I stirred up some confectioners sugar, lemon juice and milk and drizzled it over the cake.

It was the perfect compliment to the subtle lemon flavor in the cake itself. It also added just the right touch to an otherwise plain looking cake. Well, plain looking from the outside. Inside the texture was wonderful, firm but moist, and the dotting of blueberries inside was perfect. I have made three of these in the last week. One for myself, one I sold to customer who had already ordered a baby shower cake from me and the last one I took with me when I visited Susan  yesterday. You can't visit someone for the first time and not bring some kind of gift or goodie. I think this may be my new "go to" cake when I need a quick but delicious dessert.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature

3 sticks of butter at room temperature

3 cups white sugar

6 large eggs at room temperature

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups frozen blueberries

In a large mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese, butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the flour, one cup at a time, mixing well after each cup. Stir in the lemon and vanilla extract. Gently fold in the blueberries. Spoon into a greased bundt pan. Smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and bake for another hour, or until it tests done. Enjoy!