?? An easy recipe for Lemon Coffee Cake ??

[Steady Habits]

...or muffins, bundt cake or a simple loaf bread ?? Just something other than lemon pound cake I can whip up for breakfast? Nothing fancy, just good lemon flavor and quick to do. (I've searched this board and google and for some reason, I'm not coming up with many choices. I thought it would be an easy find. TY if you can help.

[AnnieAmie]

I have an easy recipe using a cake mix.

Buy a white, yellow or even lemon cake mix. Any brand will do. Make the cake mix according to the instructions except use butter instead of the oil. You can melt it before mixing or just use room temp. butter. (If you like the richness of a sour cream cake, you can add a 1/2 cup of sour cream, substituting it for 1/2 cup of water called in the cake instructions.)

To the cake mix, I add 2 TB of grated lemon zest and 3 TB of lemon juice. I like nuts so I add a 1/2 cup of well-chopped walnuts.

Using a 9x13 inch pan that is either spray-coated with a non-stick spray or use the new Reynold's Non-stick aluminum and line the inside of the pan before using and place your batter in the pan. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes until the cake done. You can stick a knife into the center of the cake to see if its done.

You can glaze this but its great plain. If you want to glaze the coffeecake, use 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 TB of lemon zest, 2 TB of lemon juice and mix well until the icing is smooth. If its too dry, add a TB or two of cream or milk.

Enjoy!
Anne

[Joebob]

My aunt Florence taught me to make a Duncan Heinz lemon cake mix, put it in a 9X13 pan, put lots of cinnamon, sugar, and pecans on top, mash them in well, and bake as per directions. That's easy.

[Steady Habits]

So, Joebob, what do you mean by "mash them in well"? Do you literally mash them together or press them down into the batter?

I don't usually have mixes in the pantry, but when I do use them, I usually put a little more oil in them than called for in the directions, or maybe instead some yogurt, and they turn out pretty well.

Btw, I like your topping and think coconut would be delicious with it and the lemon cake, too. Have you done that?

[Joebob]

You're right. I meant press down into the batter, but it must be pressed in more than one might think.If the topping stays on top too much, it's no good at all.
Never tried coconut, but why not? Other than coconut doesn't say coffee cake to me. But that's just old-fashioned me.

[Steady Habits]

Hmm...you might be right about the coconut, joebob. Sounds more like a "goody" cake (not that those don't have their place). Thanks for the instruction. Sounds good and I think hubby would like it.

[Joebob]

Please let us all know how it turns out (with your improvements, of course).

[jazzy77]

I just made Ina Garten's Lemon Cake recipe in a bundt pan - it was phenomenal. Extremely lemony and took maybe 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Plus, if you want to turn it into a coffee cake by adding the topping to it, the batter for this cake should be stiff enough to hold it.

http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipe...

[Steady Habits]

rudysmom and jazzy, these both look great. Yogurt and buttermilk always seem to help my cooking, sweet or savory, and really lemony is what I want.

I found a recipe online last night and made it to surprise hubby this a.m., who's begun his Christmas vacation and is crazy about lemon muffins, etc. Eh. Nothing to write home about. I don't think it had enough liquid in the recipe, even after I increased it a little bit by replacing the 1 t. extract it called for with the juice of two (beautiful juicy) lemons. The flavor was wimpy, too, even with the zest I added.

I could tell from the batter that it was a mediocre recipe at best, and tried to step it up a bit by adding chopped white chocolate bits and walnuts, and poking it while warm with a lemon syrup. Good thing I did, but I'd rather try these two recipes, instead. Thank you both!

[CeeBee]

I second Ina's Lemon Cake. I made it for Christmas dessert and it was a hit! Very moist. Great lemon flavor. I, too, made it in a bundt pan.

[addicted2cake]

Google lemon olive oil cakes. I made one by Pierre Hermes which was delicious and recently, I tried a recipe I found on epicurious.com for lemon olive oil cake, also delicious and very easy to make. These cakes melt in your mouth and are great witih coffee at breakfast - or any time.

[Steady Habits]

TY for the suggestion, addicted.

I sometimes make a zucchini quick bread for dinner that utilizes olive oil and balsamic. Very healthy, very light and cake-like (but not too sweet). I'm interested now to see what olive oil will do for lemon cakes.

[rudysmom]

lemon muffins

in small saucepan, combine 3 T sugar, 1/2 c water,1 t lemon zest, 3 T lemon juice.
bring to boil, stirring, to dissolve sugar. simmer 4 minutes, then set aside.

batter:
2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
3 T melted butter
1 1/2 t lemon zest
2 T lemon juice
2 eggs
1 8-oz container lemon yogurt (low-fat is OK)

preheat oven to 400 & grease 12 muffin tin cups.
in large bowl, combine dry stuff.
in small bowl, combine wet stuff.
add wet stuff to dry stuff & stir just until moistened.
fill muffin tins (sprinkle a little sugar on top, if you want). bake about 17 minutes or until golden.
remove from oven and spoon syrup over muffins while still hot. leave in muffin tins until syrup is absorbed & muffins are cool.