Lemon, Polenta, and Olive Oil Cake

Last year, I made Dorie Greenspan's Simple Almond Cake for the first time. I chose to make it for several reasons: number one, I'm a sucker for cake and if it's plain and simple, then I'm really all over it, and number two, the recipe is naturally gluten- and dairy-free. While I don't have any food allergies or intolerances, I'm always appreciative of gluten- and dairy-free desserts that don't call for obscure ingredients, because my mom does have to watch what she eats. Dorie's cake is made with just almonds, sugar, eggs, and a touch of vanilla, and it's incredible. It's become a household favorite, and it never fails to make an appearance on the dessert table at family gatherings and holidays. I've made it so many times now, that I've actually grown a bit restless by it. I love it, but I don't really want to make it again and again anymore, you know?

So this year, I set out to find a new gluten and dairy-free dessert that my mom and I would love enough to make over and over again–at least until next year!–and I think I found it. I came across a recipe for a Lemon Polenta Cake from the lovely Nigella Lawson, and the second I saw that it was made with just almonds and polenta, I knew it was almost perfect. She uses butter in her recipe, and while my mom does ok with dairy in baked goods, I really wanted to make her something that was completely delicious and also had no chance of causing any unwanted reactions. I decided to experiment and made the recipe with olive oil instead of butter. If you've never baked with olive oil before (I agree, it sounds a little strange at first!), I definitely recommend it.  Olive oil has a wonderful fruity taste to it that complements baked treats so nicely, and even better, it keeps everything you bake moist for days. And that was exactly what I wanted in this cake recipe. I wanted it to be the type of cake my mom could place on her kitchen counter and periodically come back to and snack on over the course of a few days, without the cake becoming dry in the process.

Lemony Almond Thumbprints

I don't know why, but for the last few weeks I've been really, really busy on the weekends. From housewarmings to planned full-day excursions to family gatherings and  those unavoidable, necessary cleaning days, I feel like I haven't had a weeks to just sit back and do nothing in a while. Even this weekend is jam-packed: my sister is home from college for spring break, a few of my cousins from Colombia are here for the weekend (one of them is running on Sunday's NYC half marathon!), and Sunday also happens to be my sister's 21st birthday. So, there's tons to do. I'm happy to be this busy, and am genuinely looking forward to everything we have scheduled: Korean food for dinner with my sister on Friday, souvlaki with the family in Astoria on Saturday, and marathon spectating early Sunday morning with a big celebratory/birthday Colombian meal to follow. Three days of delicious eats and time with some of my favorite people- it's definitely a good way to spend the weekend. But with scheduled Easter activities all of next weekend, it sort of feels like my do-nothing weekend is still so far off! 

It's one of the reasons why I've been having trouble getting recipes posted lately. I made this commitment to myself to get back in the blogging game and post delicious recipes only when I had the time or came up with something truly delicious, but I've been having trouble sticking to it. Every now and then I find myself getting caught in that old mentality of mine, where I HAD to post at MINIMUM once a week (because otherwise the blogging police would get me or something). It's taken some time to get used to the fact that I don't actually have to post on a strict schedule, and if I don't have the time to make a recipe  it's not the end of the world. So, that's that. I've had busy weekends with little time for baking and photographing, but luckily, I was able to squeeze in one recipe last Saturday. 

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt

I'd always been intrigued by Meyer lemons. I'd never actually had the chance of baking with them, let alone buying them until a few weeks ago, mostly because every year I'd completely forget about them until it was too late.  I wouldn't remember that it was Meyer lemon season until the very end of the season, and at that point, I always had to tell myself that next year would be different. Next year I'd try harder.  Next year, I'd actually remember.  It only took about three years of that for "next year" to actually happen. 

Meyer lemons are something of a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. They're rounder and more yellow than typical supermarket lemons, and are less acidic.  They're super juicy and have a thin, wonderfully fragrant skin.  They're really something special, and it's too bad they have such a short growing season!  When I went shopping for winter citrus a few weekends ago (see, when "next year" finally happened, I made sure to really follow through and stock up on all kinds of citrus!), I bought tons of Meyer lemons, without any sort of clue as to what to do with them.  The possibilities were endless but nothing seemed right.  I wanted my first experience with Meyer lemons to result in something truly delectable, and settling on something that was anything less than that was not an option.  

Lemon Lemon Loaf Cake

Hello, and Happy Labor Day!  It's hard to believe that the summer is officially over, because it feels like it never really even arrived.  We had a mild summer, at least in New York, so it  hasn't quite hit me that the summer is ending and that fall and cooler weather will be coming in just a few short weeks.  It's even stranger to think that because I'm not in New York right now, but am actually in Florida!  My parents are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary (today!) and they wanted to take a family vacation to celebrate.  We'll be in Florida for a week to do the typical Florida vacation at Disney World and Universal Studios, and I am pretty excited.  It's been a long time since I've been at the parks, so I can't wait to see how much they've changed.  When I found out that we'd be in Florida for the first night of Disney's Halloween celebration at Magic Kingdom, I basically turned into a five year old, freaked out, and begged my parents that we absolutely had to go.  Fortunately, my mom is as much of a Disney freak as I am, so it was a pretty easy task.  Since I'll be adventuring across the various magical lands of Disney and Harry Potter (the ten year old in me CAN'T WAIT), I'm going to make this week's posts short and sweet.  There will be lots of pictures and only a few words, but I'll be sure to document my adventures closely on Instagram, so stay tuned to that!

Before I leave my computer though, let's take a second to talk about this Lemon Lemon Loaf Cake.  It's something special, truly.  My sister spied this lemony loaf in my copy of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, and has been asking me to make it for the longest time.  Since the summer is almost over and I'm not quite ready to bid farewell to summer flavors, I figured I would make one last bright treat.  This lemon loaf cake was exactly what I needed!

Lavender and Lemon Scones

Mother's Day is tomorrow!  I hope everyone has something special planned for their mamas, grandmas, aunts, cousins, and all the other special ladies that we would be lost without.  If you're still unsure about what to do for this important holiday, or if, *gasp* you somehow forgot about it (shame on you!), don't worry.  I have you covered. All you need are a few minutes of your precious day, some dried culinary lavender, a lot of butter, and some hot tea and you'll be in the clear for Mother's Day.  You may end up being a bit covered in flour, but that'll be completely irrelevant once you have a taste of these lavender and lemon scones. 

Scones are one of those treats that everyone just seems to love- I don't think I've ever met anyone who would turn down a buttery and flaky scone.  They're simple to make and are a really wonderful treat to enjoy for breakfast, brunch, or afternoon tea.  In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to keep these little scones nice and simple and dainty.  I wanted them to be on the slightly sweet side and to have a pretty and delicate flavor.  Lavender seemed to be the perfect solution- it's subtle, floral, pretty, and sophisticated...and soapy.  This wasn't my first time cooking with culinary lavender, but it was the first time I was actually happy with the results of my lavender-infused confections.  Last summer, I bought a big bag of culinary lavender at the farmer's market, with my little heart set on making a batch of rich and creamy lavender and earl gray ice cream.  It sounds like a perfect flavor combination, but I miscalculated the amount of lavender I needed to use in the custard, and I ended up with a beautifully creamy and soapy tasting ice cream.  It was an unfortunate failure that left me nervous about working with lavender again, but I knew that it would be the perfect flavor to use for my delicate little scones.  Fortunately, like most dried herbs, lavender has a very long shelf life, so when I went back to that little brown satchel holding my dried lavender buds, they were as fragrant as the day I bought them so many months ago.  Having a little restraint when mixing in the lavender proved to be the key to giving these scones a delightfully delicate and sophisticated flavor to them. 

Honeydew-Lemon Soda

Hello!  I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  I had a really nice weekend, complete with a layer cake adventure (if you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen a few pics!) that I will discuss and share with you in much greater detail next week, an awesome brunch, and many laughs with friends who I hadn't seen in a while.  It was a lot of fun, but I'll admit, I was pretty pooped when it was all finished!  Given that, I needed something to prepare myself something nice and refreshing that was also really simple to put together, with the really simple part being the most important.

Now that we're in spring, I've been craving all kinds of seasonal spring flavors more and more, and it's such a bummer that the weather is windy, rainy, and still cold.  I've decided to pretend like the outside weather isn't happening, and fully embrace spring anyway.  I'd been looking forward to making some kind of fruity, refreshing drink, and since I had a pretty hectic weekend, Sunday afternoon was the perfect time to mix up such a drink.  I decided to make a homemade fruit soda, because really, what could be more refreshing than that!?

Mini Coconut Macaroon Tartlets

Happy Spring everyone!  The season that seemed like it was never going to arrive finally has, and it was about time.  At least, I think it has.  It might be spring on paper, technically speaking, yet I'm still wearing a coat and scarf every time I go outside, and there's supposedly snow coming today at some point.  While the weather seems to have missed the memo about the change of season, I definitely haven't.  I'm fully ready to embrace spring!  I love spring, as I'm sure most people who don't like the winter do.  It's such a refreshing change from cold dreary days.  Now that it's spring, I'm getting excited about churning out lovely spring recipes that are simple, refreshing, fluffy, light, cute, pink, tart, lemony, berry-filled, etc, etc.

For my first spring celebratory recipe, I've made a super simple dessert featuring coconut, lemon, and blackberry. This perfectly spring-inspired flavor profile all comes together in these super adorable Mini Coconut Macaroon Tartlets.  Aren't they cute?!  I took a basic coconut macaroon recipe, which happens to be one of my favorite coconut treats, and used it to create little tartlet shells, which I then filled with lemon curd and topped with a fresh blackberry.  They're simple and infinitely adaptable, which makes them a great idea for springtime get-togethers. This recipe is being featured today on the Make and Takes blog, so head on over there for the full recipe and more photos!

Lemon and Mascarpone Sandwich Cookies

It's the end of August, and things are getting weird.  To start, I haven't packed a single suitcase, bought a new set of extra-long twin bedding, or brought my mini fridge up from the basement.  I haven't done any of those things because, a little thing called "commencement" happened only short three months ago.  It didn't really hit me then, that I was actually finished with college, and that I wasn't moving back, but it's certainly hitting me now.  I'm not moving back to campus this weekend, and I'm not starting classes next week.  What is this?!  It's weird I, tell you.  

There is something EVEN weirder taking place right now, though. 

My little sister is leaving for her first year of college in just about 10 days.  WHAT.

It's unbelievably bizarre to think that the ever-growing pile of new bedding, towels, storage bins, and the other random junk associated with college move-in that's in my house isn't actually mine, but my little sister's. She's currently off on a five-day camping trip in New Hampshire as a part of Dartmouth's freshman orientation program, but she will be back next week to finish packing up all of her things before finally making the official move to Hanover. My house has certainly been much more quiet without her in the past 24 hours, a change that I'm not totally complaining about, but I'm sure it will take some adjusting to when she actually leaves.  Aside from obviously missing her, I'll be without my go-to baking consultant, and I'll actually have to live alone with my parents (while they're still as awesome as ever, they've certainly started going a little crazy...).  Things will be getting a little weird around here I bet. In any case though, I'm very happy for my sister.  She seems to be really excited, and I don't blame her.  As cliche as it sounds, my four years in college were some of the most memorable years that I've had in my relatively short life, and I'm sure that they will be for her too, even if she is going to school in basically the middle of nowhere (I tease her about this all the time, since I went to college in NYC, which is essentially the opposite of where she's going to be studying).

Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes

Alright, I promise that this will be the last sour-citrus/berry flavor combo recipe for a while (I think so anyway, I'll be honest and say I haven't planned that far ahead yet).  I've already posted two blackberry-lime recipes (see here, and here), and one of them was the post directly before this one.  At least this time it's a different citrus and a different berry!  And, more importantly, the flavor combination has manifested itself in the form of a beautiful, delicious, and summery cupcake.  

It's been a long time since I posted a cupcake recipe.  The last batch of cupcakes I made for the blog were these fabulous Banana Caramel Cupcakes, which ended up being a really popular post (hooray for awesome and unconventional flavor combinations!).  Hopefully this cupcake recipe will be as popular.  I can't see why it wouldn't, though.  Picture it: fluffy and tart lemon cupcakes, with a surprise raspberry center, topped off with bright, lemony buttercream and finished off with a fresh raspberry.  Too cute.  Too yummy.  Too perfect. 

These cupcakes are a perfect summer treat, and speaking of summer, I really cannot believe it's August already. When did that happen!?  I've been living at home as a college graduate for a little over TWO months now, and it's really really really bizarre.  Time has just been flying by, and I can't believe that we're already in the last month of summer.  I feel that there's still so many summer treats that I want to make, and with only a month of so left of the season, I better get moving.  I have to take advantage of all the fresh berries that are around, summer is the perfect excuse to churn up some ice cream, and I better get my grilling fix on.  There's no time to lose!

Lemon Squares

My sister is the type of person who will get obsessed with the most random things.  One of her recent obsessions is reading online reviews- for everything.  Not just food recipes, or movies, or things like that, but for every gadget and gizmo you could think of, for restaurants, make up, literally, everything.  While I normally laugh off her silly obsessions and other weird habits, this is one that I don't really mind too much.  Sure, I still think it's a bit ridiculous, but she has become my go-to person whenever I find myself in some sort of shopping dilemma or state of boredom.  I just have to ask her for an opinion, and she can instantly go on and on about whatever it is that I'm asking her, based on reviews that she has read.  Her advice, or I guess, her knowledge of other people's opinions, has come in very handy in recent days.  

For instance, my sister was the one who knew exactly which case I should get to protect my iPad mini (I got a DODOcase, and I can't wait for it to come in the mail!).  She is also the person who suggested that I buy Benefit's High Beam highlighter, a purchase which I have really grown to just love, and am using much more frequently than I thought I ever would.  She is also the one who I usually go to first when I am stumped about what to bake for the blog, or, when I need the perfect recipe suggestion.  She loves reading recipe reviews and combining components from 6 different recipes in order to make the ultimate "fill in the blank." Remember the recipe I posted a few months back for super fluffy buttermilk pancakes?  That was her own invention, based off of I don't even know how many different buttermilk pancake recipes.  My sister's buttermilk pancake recipe is my favorite buttermilk pancake recipe, and I've made it tons of times, with great success each time.  

Easter Egg Meringue Nests

Time for a super quick post (again).  I feel like I say this a lot, and every single time that I say I'm going to write a super quick and short post, I end up writing wayyy more than I meant to, and the post ends up being as long as any of my other posts.  But this time, I actually really, really, REALLY mean it.  I'm super busy, and super behind on work, but I couldn't let Easter pass me by without one more cute dessert idea. 

In the meantime though, let me tell you about why I'm super busy.  My senior architecture portfolio is due a week from Monday, and I still feel like I'm not even close to finishing.  There's just too many drawings to edit, too many new drawings to be made, and too many options for layouts, and this, in conjunction with my horrible indecisiveness, is giving me a lot to stress over.  I've been working in studio nonstop, every chance I can get, working late nights, and drinking tons of coffee, yet I always feel like there's still so much left for me to do.  Part of it is my own fault, for not being organized with my past work (I literally just can't find a lot of the work that I've done, so I've had to redo some of it), but regardless, portfolios just take so much time to put together!  It'll be worth it though, and I can't wait until it's finally printed.  That will be such a happy day. However, there's still a week left until that happens, and there's only a couple of hours left before Easter, so let's get back on subject!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce

Breakfast foods are really starting to grow on me.  Remember way back, several months ago, where my New Year's resolutions were to get back in shape and eat breakfast everyday?  I'm happy to say that both of these resolutions have been kept!  Exercise and breakfast are still a part of my daily routine, which is a really, really good thing.  Especially when my breakfast food changes a bit from my normal everyday breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit, to something a bit more exciting, like Belgian Waffles or pancakes.  Regular buttermilk pancakes are good and all, but they can become a routine choice.  I mean, if the idea is to diverge from the normal and everyday breakfast menu, I'm definitely going to get a little more creative when whipping up stack of pancakes, that's for sure!

Lemon-Poppy Yogurt Muffins

I felt pretty lazy on Sunday morning.  Yeah, I said it.  I mean, I’m not going to lie to you and say that I’m always in the mood to make something elaborate or something that requires me to go to the supermarket to buy something especially for one recipe.  Chill. Those kinds of days require special moods, and on Sunday I just wasn’t feeling it.  I wanted something that was easy to make, something that I already had all the ingredients for in my kitchen, and something quick, with little clean up at the end.  Muffins seemed good.

But what kind of muffins…that was the tricky part. I wanted something with berries, since it was summer, but a problem presented itself right there. I had no berries, fresh or frozen, and the goal was not to leave my kitchen.  I returned to pondering my muffin strategy when I spotted a lemon just casually laying on my kitchen counter.  Hmmm…lemons are good…and this automatically made me think of poppy seeds, because: lemons = poppy seeds, and lemons + poppy seeds= lemon poppy seed muffins.  I also saw a large container of plain Greek yogurt in my refrigerator…this turned the equation into: lemons+ poppy seeds + Greek yogurt = lemon-poppy yogurt muffins, a winning combination!