Happy Mothers Day! I hope you all took the time today to thank and celebrate the mothers, grandmothers and aunts that are part of your life! Family is such an amazing thing and personally, my family means the world to me! This post is dedicated to all those mothers out there! :)
So the usual mothers day routine in my household is that I buy the card, my brother buys flowers and we plan a cute little brunch as a family. This year went a little differently due to my brother not being home, and my family having some other obligations this weekend. So I decided to spend the small free time I had on Saturday to think about the special kind of cake or treat I wanted to make for my mom. I know that she is a huge fan of lemon cakes, because they're so rare and have such distinct flavor. I'm leaving for India in a few days so we have a lack of ingredients in my house so I was forced to use a box mix, unfortunately. I knew that since I was using a boxed cake mix, I would have to add another touch to the cake to make it more special. I went with a 2 tier lemon cake with a strawberry vanilla frosting/sauce for the middle and top of the cake. My goal was to make the frosting/sauce thick because no one likes a soupy frosting, but thin enough so it falls from the top of the cake to the bottom when poured onto the top.
Ingredients
1 box mix of Lemon Cake
5-7 Strawberries
1 lemon (for juice and zest)
3 tablespoons ROOM TEMP butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
3 table spoons of ROOM TEMP MILK
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a small pinch of salt
Since I just followed the box recipe of the cake mix, things were a little easier. Make sure to follow whatever box mix you chose to use, or you can even use this recipe of lemon cake, if you have the time that I did not.
While the cakes were in the oven, I began to create my frosting/sauce mixture. In a bowl I put the butter and confectioners sugar together and mixed it quickly enough to create some fluff. After, I slowly added the milk making sure to mix after ever spoonful, then the vanilla extract and the small pinch of salt. A lot of people might wonder why you would be adding salt to a sweet treat, but the salt actually helps bring out some more of the sugars in whatever you're using. Continuing with this, I chopped up some fresh strawberries (YAY SPRING!), making sure they were small enough to not be chunky but big enough to not get lost. I threw this into the frosting mixture and also added about a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest. A trick to this is to roll your lemon a few times on the table or on your counter, it helps the skin come off a little easier and gives you a hella lot more juice! Mix in the juice and the zest and the strawberries carefully, you do not want to start mashing the strawberries nor do you want to have half the mixture on top of your clothes. Put this mixture in the refrigerator while the cakes are in the oven/they are cooling.
The decor in which I wanted the cakes to be was: cake, icing, cake, icing. So I placed one of the cooled cakes on a plate, and poured some of the frosting mixture on top of it. I sort of splish-splashed it around to act like a glue for the top cake and then placed the 2nd cake on top. I poured a little bit of the icing around the edges of the top cake, just so it wasn't completely empty.
My family isn't too traditional with what a real meal is so...we devoured the cake for breakfast! Hope you all are having a great weekend and a great mothers day!
UPDATE: my next few blog posts are going to be all the way from the motherland, India! I hope I can show you all the variety of food that my culture holds true too! Get excited!
So the usual mothers day routine in my household is that I buy the card, my brother buys flowers and we plan a cute little brunch as a family. This year went a little differently due to my brother not being home, and my family having some other obligations this weekend. So I decided to spend the small free time I had on Saturday to think about the special kind of cake or treat I wanted to make for my mom. I know that she is a huge fan of lemon cakes, because they're so rare and have such distinct flavor. I'm leaving for India in a few days so we have a lack of ingredients in my house so I was forced to use a box mix, unfortunately. I knew that since I was using a boxed cake mix, I would have to add another touch to the cake to make it more special. I went with a 2 tier lemon cake with a strawberry vanilla frosting/sauce for the middle and top of the cake. My goal was to make the frosting/sauce thick because no one likes a soupy frosting, but thin enough so it falls from the top of the cake to the bottom when poured onto the top.
Ingredients
1 box mix of Lemon Cake
5-7 Strawberries
1 lemon (for juice and zest)
3 tablespoons ROOM TEMP butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
3 table spoons of ROOM TEMP MILK
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a small pinch of salt
While the cakes were in the oven, I began to create my frosting/sauce mixture. In a bowl I put the butter and confectioners sugar together and mixed it quickly enough to create some fluff. After, I slowly added the milk making sure to mix after ever spoonful, then the vanilla extract and the small pinch of salt. A lot of people might wonder why you would be adding salt to a sweet treat, but the salt actually helps bring out some more of the sugars in whatever you're using. Continuing with this, I chopped up some fresh strawberries (YAY SPRING!), making sure they were small enough to not be chunky but big enough to not get lost. I threw this into the frosting mixture and also added about a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest. A trick to this is to roll your lemon a few times on the table or on your counter, it helps the skin come off a little easier and gives you a hella lot more juice! Mix in the juice and the zest and the strawberries carefully, you do not want to start mashing the strawberries nor do you want to have half the mixture on top of your clothes. Put this mixture in the refrigerator while the cakes are in the oven/they are cooling.
The decor in which I wanted the cakes to be was: cake, icing, cake, icing. So I placed one of the cooled cakes on a plate, and poured some of the frosting mixture on top of it. I sort of splish-splashed it around to act like a glue for the top cake and then placed the 2nd cake on top. I poured a little bit of the icing around the edges of the top cake, just so it wasn't completely empty.
My family isn't too traditional with what a real meal is so...we devoured the cake for breakfast! Hope you all are having a great weekend and a great mothers day!
UPDATE: my next few blog posts are going to be all the way from the motherland, India! I hope I can show you all the variety of food that my culture holds true too! Get excited!
