When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make Lemon Pound Cake! Sadly, Pipkin's most recent baking adventure resulted in a mushy, gloopy mess. He'll have to give it another try, but that particular cake was for a party and Pipkin needed to bake another cake right away. He had a lot of lemons so...Lemon Pound Cake sounded good, with a lemon glaze and lemon zest. A big dollop of whip cream and some berries on top and Pipkin's already forgotten about...was there something to forget about? Click here for a printable recipe.

Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze
Cake Ingredients:
1 cup butter, plus more for the pan
3 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
3/4 low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Up to 2 cups of confectioners' sugar

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in the lowest position. Grease and lightly flour a 12 cup bundt pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. With mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three parts alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two part, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just smooth, but do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, for 50 - 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the lemon glaze, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar into the lemon juice until you reach the desired consistency, which should be thick, but pourable. Pour slowly over cooled cake. Before the glaze dries, sprinkle cake with lemon zest. Serve after glaze has hardened, and keep in an airtight container.

Yield: One 12 cup bundt cake pan, 12-24 slices, depending on how big you like your slices!

Labbits Like: Lemon Zucchini Risotto

When the labbits' friend Teresa isn't touring around North America on her BMW 650GS, storm chasing in the midwest or researching extreme weather in the Arctic, she takes time to share one of her favourite recipes: Lemon Zucchini Risotto. Even superheroes have to eat, after all!

If you're a fan of risotto (and who isn't? It's like elegant mac n' cheese) be sure to check out the beet risotto from last week. Risotto, you'll learn, is a basic formula of oil, onion, arborio rice, and slowly stirring in hot broth. What you add to it is up to you. Print out the recipe here.

Lemon Zucchini Risotto

Ingredients:
5 cups vegetable stock
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 onion, finely chopped
1 2/3 cups arborio rice
1/3 cup dry sherry
3 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp lemon juice (about the juice of one lemon)
12 oz courgette zucchini, diced
1 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley (optional)
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Lemon zest for garnish
S+P to taste

Preparation:
Place the stock in a large saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and keep at a low simmer.

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, add the onion and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until softened. Reduce the heat, stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1/2 cup of hot stock stirring until all the stock is absorbed. Continue adding stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly, for 20 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed. If the risotto gets too dry, add a little extra stock or water.

Stir in the sherry, lemon zest, lemon juice and zucchini. Cook over low head for a further 5 minutes, or until the risotto is tender, with a slight bite to the inside of the grain. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir in the parsley and half the parmesan. Garnish with lemon zest and remaining parmesan.

Serves: 4 - 6 labbits