Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe

1 ½ cups butter, softened
3 cups sugar
1 (8oz.) package cream cheese, softened
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. almond extract
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup strawberry glaze

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese, beating until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
2. Gradually add flour to butter mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed. Stir in almond and vanilla extracts. Pour one-third of batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (14-cup) tube pan. Dollop 8 rounded teaspoonfuls strawberry glaze over batter, and swirl with wooden skewer. Repeat procedure once, and top with remaining third of batter.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 hour 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 10-15 minutes; remove from pan and completely cool for about an hour.

Lavender and Lemon Pound Cake

This is a wonderful pound cake to make for teatime or just for a dessert. It has a wonderful delicate flavor of Lavender. The essence of Lavender will really surprise you with every bite.

Your guest won’t recognize this flavor but will be wanting more. Once you tell them that this is Lavender, they will probably be shocked. Even ones that don’t really like the Lavender scent will find this flavor very pleasing and soft.

One thing that I can’t stress enough is to chop the Lavender very fine. If you don’t, you will think you are eating soap. That’s what happened to a neighbor.

This is a fabulous pound cake to freeze and save for a special occasion. You can also make cupcake with this and use a vanilla icing. But really, this cake can stand-alone. It’s that good.

Lavender and Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

¾ cup whole milk
1 tbl. finely chopped fresh lavender leaves
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup (1stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tbl. grated lemon zest
2 large eggs

Steeping the lavender in milk infuses this cake with an intense and beautiful aroma.

1. Combine the milk and lavender in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a simmer, transfer to a glass-measuring cup and let cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease the inside of a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Combine the butter, sugar, and zest in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Add ½ of the milk and mix until incorporated. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, ending with the flour. After the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite magazines “ Easy Desserts). This is on page43.

Banana Nut Bread

Have you ever had ripe bananas at home and didn’t want to throw them out because you knew you had time to make banana bread? Well that was me this week. So many times I have bought too many bananas and put them in the refrigerator when they were too ripe. I had planned on making this delicious banana bread each time. But in the end, I threw them out because they were beginning to look like a science project.

This time was different. I wanted to make a banana bread to take on vacation. I wanted to bake this “different” delicious banana bread. You would think with the “10,000 cookbooks” I have, no problem. However, finding a recipe that sounded good to me was difficult. So I turned to my trusty computer. Thank-you Food Network.

This recipe look interesting because it used Crisco instead of butter and also I love macadamia nuts. I think they have a much richer taste than any other nuts.

This banana bread was super easy and quick to make. I used the Crisco flavored with butter. This bread was so moist and flavorful. The nuts had a delicate crunch and were very delicious.

Banana Bread Recipe

½ cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
¾ cup mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups flour
½ cup macadamia nuts
pinch of cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Oil and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and sugar. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the bananas and mix well. Add the baking soda, salt, flour, nuts and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. The dough with be sticky.
4. Our the dough into the prepared pan and bake for about one hour or until the center is brow and set

Salmon with Orange-Fennel Sauce

I was looking through a few magazines for a dish that I could make for dinner that wasn’t time consuming. This salmon recipe looked like one that was simple but had lots of complex flavors. The one caveat was that I don’t east seafood, much less salmon. So Michael was the guinea pig tonight.

I never broil salmon, so this was new to me. I had to get out the owners’ manual to figure out the right way to broil in my new beautiful oven. I really had fun preparing this dish so I hoped Michael was going to give it “a thumbs up”.

There are a few quick tips for you: Prepare the marinade up to one day in advance and refrigerate in an n airtight container. Also, Be careful not to marinate longer than 20 minutes as the citrus marinade can “cook” the fish. Crush the fennel seeds with a mortar and pestle if you have one. If not, place them in a zip-top plastic bag on a cutting board and crush with a heavy pan.

Michael really liked this recipe, however he wanted you to know that the flavors were very complex and sophisticated. With that in mind, the marinade was delicious and he would have this recipe again. He never had broiled salmon, but he gave me two “thumbs up”.

Salmon with Orange-Fennel Sauce Recipe

2 tsp. grated orange rind
½ cup fresh orange juice
1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
4 (6-oz.) salmon fillet (about 1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a zip-lock bag; add fish. Seal and marinate in refrigerator for 20 minutes, turning once.
2. Prepare broiler
3. Remove fish from bag, reserving marinade. Place fish, skin side down, on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
4. Bring reserved marinade to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce head, and simmer 3 minutes. Serve sauce with fish.