Italian Cream Cake

Wow, is this something else! My brother in law took the family on a little trip one night to Needville, TX.  Sounds like the middle of nowhere, right? Um, it was. Took us a long while to get out there and it was pitch black. It was raining and cold that night just before Thanksgiving, when we ventured out but it was a night we all remember well because the trip was specifically for dessert.

Oh yes, we had some great barbecue at this old timer's diner run by a husband and wife team (sigh!). As far out from our home neighborhood as we were, I laughed each time someone walked up and patted my brother in law on the back, shaking hands, introducing family members, exchanging holiday greetings and sharing tips on which neighborhoods had the best holiday Christmas lights display. I jokingly call him the "Mayor" because everyone knows my brother in law. Doesn't matter where we are... at the grocery store, at the gas station, in the middle of bum-f*ck Egypt... someone knows him, my sister or the kids.

But on this particular evening we were all about the coconut cream pie and another of their specialties, the Italian Cream Cake.  My nephew looks across the table and says, "Well? What do you think, KK? Can you figure this out?"  Never one to backdown from such a confident challenge, I set out to do just that.

I made one for Thanksgiving and in a matter of minutes, there was only one piece left. Everyone at the table was very quiet and all of a sudden my other nephew says lovingly, "Oooh. You nailed it, KK!!"

Later that evening, when a playful but entirely serious argument ensued between my little brother and my brother in law over who would have the last piece, I quickly intervened to settle the debate. I offered to make a second cake the next morning, special, for the Mayor.  My brother wasted no time and in a devoted fashion, wrapped up the last piece for the 2 hr trek home to Austin. He said he ate only a few bites every day, trying to save it for as long as he could and asked me if I would please post this recipe. 

Long overdue, here goes little bro:

Cake Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil (I always substitute coconut oil and it works perfectly)
5 egg yolks, beaten
2 cups cake flour (or to substitute cake flour use all purpose flour, remove 4 tbsp of flour and add in 4 tbsp of corn starch sift well)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (I have successfully substituted 1 c. sour cream, also tried half c sour cream mixed with half cup whole milk and both worked well)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Separate egg yolks from the egg whites in separate mixing bowls. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, sift together all dry ingredients and set aside. Beat egg yolks with the other wet ingredients and slowly sprinkle in the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stay with me, this really isn't hard, just a matter of being organized... Fold in the egg whites but just until incorporated as you want this batter to be full and fluffy.

Separate batter into your greased and floured cake pans. See below for suggestions.

Bake:

I make (3) 8 inch round layers and cut the layers in half, making 6 thin layers all together. Sometimes, I will do different sizes for a taller, smaller version or small spring forms for mini versions. Cupcakes are super easy as well, just depends on what I'm in the mood for but the above recipe works well no matter which size you prefer.  

350 degrees F for 15-20 min.

Icing:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 lb confectioners' sugar

Optional Toppings:

1 cup chopped pecans or

1 can coconut

Decorate:

You can add pecans to the icing and ice each layer or you can just ice each layer and press crushed pecans or coconut to the outside or just to the top of the cake. Depends on how fancy schmancy you really want to get.

Word of warning: the icing is really addictive so I will usually make a double recipe and freeze any leftovers, if it so happens there are any at all.

Chicken Barbecued in Foil

Nothing says "I love you" like good home cooking.  I have been in need of spoken and unspoken I love you's lately... and because I am blessed with an abundance of loving people in my life, I have come out like a bandit in recent weeks!

Hubs and I have been going through some tough times. To be honest, all I really want is to make this dish for him but when life gives you lemons, make this dish. :) I know he would love it.

Recently my father's lovely girlfriend and life partner made this for me to patch the holes in my heart and feed my hungry soul.

What a beautiful and well balanced dish this turned out to be. Don't forget the mashed potatoes, because that was the perfect side dish for soaking up the gorgeous, savory sauce.

The following recipe serves 2-4 but we made a doubled the recipe for 4 gigantic Texas chicken breasts that weighed about 1 lb each:

Ingredients:
3 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 c. chopped onion
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/4 c. lemon juice or juice of 4-5 small lemons
1/2 c. ketchup
1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb) broiler-fryer, cut in half or (2) 1 lb chicken breasts

Prep:
Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, rub chicken with salt and pepper. Place each broiler half or chicken breast on a piece of heavy aluminum foil, large enough to tent-wrap each piece securely.  Put half of the sauce on each piece of chicken. Tent and fold tightly.

Bake:
Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) 1 hour, or on a very slow oven (200 degrees F) for 2 hours. Carefully open packages to avoid burns from escaping steam; turning back the foil slowly.

Broil chicken until browned. Serve the foil package as is or you can serve the chicken and sauce separately. We didn't bother removing the foil, we just put the foil packages on plates, opened and served them as is with awesome mashed potatoes.

**Of course, you can grill these for about 45 minutes but everyone's grilling experience is different so I won't cover any grilling instructions here except to say that heavy foil works best and a meat thermometer is always a good idea if you have a hard time controlling your grill temperature.  But baking is easiest when trying this recipe for the first time, so do give that a whirl.

4th of July Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Oh my GOOD-NESS.  I first made these cupcakes for my nieces and nephews because they have an amazing lemon tree in their front yard.   Every Thanksgiving, we do the key lime pies for Dad, of course, but because we had such a bountiful harvest of these perfect Rio Grande lemons last year, we decided to get creative.

What if, in addition to pies, we did a lemon meringue something or other?  Because we were inspired by the idea of owning a family bakery some day, we came up with the idea of a cupcake version of one of our family favorites. 

Just to give you an idea, we made 48 mini cupcakes but there was not a single crumb left 10 minutes after the last tray came out of the oven. No lie! DESTROYED.  So, I would say this is a great bet for parties or heck, just a bunch of hungry kids no matter how young or old they are.

But now that I live in the tropics, I also had an abundance of lemons from my own Meyer's lemon tree so we decided to make these again for our 4th of July celebration picnic by the beach! Once again, they went in the blink of an eye and only a trail of crumbs were left to tell the tale.

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
zest of a lemon

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes in a greased muffin pan.  We used mini muffin pans but any size muffin should work fine.

Icing Options:

You can use either a classic meringue or do what we did, we made our own TexMex Valley lemon curd because we had an abundance of lemons.  Bake the cupcakes first and either let cool or pipe lemon curd to the warm cupcakes. 

We never got that far... I put a spoon in a bowl of lemon curd on the table and turned my back for a minute. One of the kids dumped the cupcakes out right on the cabinet and another had a spoon of lemon curd in their mouth before I turned back around! So, forget about making them pretty when kids are around. None of that fanciness is required, just make sure there are plenty of spoons for the curd or there will be squeals and words exchanged over whoever has the lemon curd while the others are trying to wait for it to hit the table again.

Meringue:
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon Bakewell Cream or cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites and dry ingredients to stiff peaks.  Use a piping bag to pipe the meringue onto unbaked cupcakes. **Tent a piece of tin foil over the top if they appear to be getting too brown before the cupcakes are done.