Mother's Day Dessert: Lemon Blueberry Marble Cake

I began maternity leave last week and we are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of our daughter!  Last week, I spent a morning searching recipes for a cake to bake for Mother's Day, assuming our baby didn't have other plans.  I came across this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Marble Cake from Lick the Bowl Good Blog.  The blog shared that the original recipe came from the book Sky High.

I chose this recipe because it sounded nice and refreshing for a hot spring day!  While looking over the recipe, I decided I would use the short cut used on Lick the Bowl Good for the blueberry jam.  So I purchased nice blueberry jam, squeezed in the juice of one lemon and then pureed it.  Remember, I am 40+ weeks pregnant!

Then I knew I would need to change the lemon frosting recipe because the original one uses raw eggs. I've never made a recipe that uses an entire raw egg before- just egg whites.  I am curious to try it, just not while pregnant.  Luckily, I have my own lemon buttercream recipe that I LOVE.  It's the same recipe that I use for my Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes which can be found here.

Blueberry Jam from Lick the Bowl Good

Ingredients:

-1 jar of nice blueberry jam (I used Bonne Maman)

-juice of a lemon

Squeeze the juice from a lemon and puree with the jam.  

Now on to the recipe from Sky High:

The Cake

Ingredients:

-2 sticks of butter, softened

-2 C. sugar

-2 tsp. lemon zest (I zested an entire lemon and didn't measure)

-1 1/2 tsp. lemon extract (oddly, something I always have in my baking supplies)

-7 egg whites

-3 C. cake flour (read below for my substitution)

-4 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

- 1 1/4 C. milk

Cream together the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and extract.  Mix in a few egg whites at a time.  Once well combined, add in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk.  

I hate to get  a second bowl out to mix the dry ingredients. What I always do is mix in the baking powder and salt (or whatever small amounts of dry ingredients are needed).  Then I alternate adding the flour with the milk.  That saves me from having one more dish to wash! (I'd like to insert again, remember I am 40+ weeks pregnant, but I have always done this...)

Then you scoop out 1 C. of the batter.  Evenly distribute the batter between three 8" cake pans that have been greased, floured, and covered with parchment paper.  Using the reserved batter, mix in 2 1/2 Tbsp. of the blueberry jam.  Next, spoon in the blueberry batter and swirl it around to give it the marbled effect.  I used a skewer, which was recommend on the blog to swirl the batter.  I don't think it was the most effective method.  Next time, I think I would use a spoon and fold the blueberry batter in to make the cake more marbled.

Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes at 350.  Allow the cakes to cool for about ten minutes before flipping them from the pan.  Then allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.

Use the remaining blueberry jam (I thought it was quite runny after pureeing the jam so I put it in the refrigerator it to allow to firm up a bit) to spread in between the layers of cake.

The Buttercream from me!

-1 cup butter, softened
-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 tablespoons heavy cream
-juice of 1 lemon
-1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

With an electric mixer, cream together butter in a bowl. Add a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time. Mix in one at a time, vanilla, cream, lemon juice and lemon extract. Scrape the sides of the bowl in between adding the ingredients. Beat on high for 10 minutes until frosting is light and fluffy.

This made enough batter for the cake since you use the jam in between the layers of cake. Frost the cake and decorate.

Don't forget the crumb coat when frosting! I think this was one of the most useful cake decorating tips I've ever received!

As always, enjoy!

Garlic Lemon Chicken Kabobs

I've been wanting to write a post with this recipe for awhile now.  This recipe is for our most loved chicken kabob recipe.  We make others when we want a break from this one, but this one just wins big every time.  This recipe for Garlic Lemon Chicken Kabobs comes from Annie's Eats blog.  This is a quick and flavorful meal.  We usually just eat the kabobs with peppers and onions and a side of some sort of fruit.

Ingredients:
-3 Tbsp. EVOO
-Zest of 1 lemon
-juice of half a lemon*
-3 cloves of garlic
-1 Tbsp. parsley (fresh or dried*)
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
-1/2 tsp. pepper

-1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 red bell pepper*
-1/2 green bell pepper*
-1 white onion*

Combine the first seven ingredients into a medium bowl.  Cube the chicken and add to the marinade.  Annie's Eats says to marinade for at least two hours.  I can tell you many times where we completely forgot and let it marinate for about 15 minutes and it still as flavorful.  Then, cut the onions and peppers into large chunks.  Skewer the marinated chicken, along with the onions and peppers.  Grill until done (about 10 minutes).

We do add some freshly squeeze lemon juice to the marinade because you are already zesting a lemon, so why not squeeze in some juice?  We don't always have fresh parsley and have had to substitute dried parsley which also works fine.

This is a recipe you want to be sure to try soon- it'll become a summer regular.  Enjoy!