Who needs lemonade when you can make lemon pound cake!

I've been trying to catch up with my blogging lately.  It's super hard when you have all these pictures to filter through, and some I haven't touched in so long I forgot where I put the recipe and what I changed in them =(.  If you ever plan on blogging - about anything - I would definitely suggest to have a designated place for your recipes and pictures...bookmarks, print outs, voice recordings.  Anything that will help you out if you have a busy and dynamic schedule.  Cause sometimes you just need to bake/cook and relax immediately after (with a glass of wine of course ;P)  Take it from someone who knows...I have tons of recipes (pictures actually) from last year that i just can't remember the ingredients for.  OK, I'm done venting!  Back to business..

If you're anything like me, you'll understand when I say that some days I love to get out of the house and relax somewhere else with a cup of tea or coffee and a great book.  At times like these, I often find myself at the local coffee shop sipping on my latte and munching on a pastry.  One time in particular, I remember eating an iced lemon pound cake and thought, "dang...if this becomes a habit, I'll be in debt before I know it."  Then, it hit me...why don't I just make my own!  Duh, right...seems to be a no-brainer.  So I scoured the internet looking at other blogger's renditions of their coffee shop favorites.  It's pretty ridiculous how easy these items we pay $3+ for are to make yourself.  Since my addiction at the time was Starbucks' Lemon Loaf, I found a great recipe online, and added a few modifications.

INGREDIENTS

POUND CAKE

1/2 Cup  Unsalted Butter, softened

1 Cup  Sugar

2  Eggs

1 tsp  Grated Lemon Peel

1 Tablespoon  Fresh Lemon Juice

1 1/2 Cups  All-purpose Flour

1 tsp  Baking Powder

1/2 Cup  Non-fat Milk (you may use any type of milk)

ICING

1/4 Cup  Lemon Curd

1/4 Cup  Powdered Sugar

1-2 Tablespoons  Lemon Juice

DIRECTIONS

1. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and lemon peel).  In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar till smooth.

2. Add eggs and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and mix till incorporated.

3. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately (starting and ending with dry ingredients) till incorporated.

4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour batter in.

5. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes then cool completely on a rack.

6. Once cooled, spread lemon curd over the top of the loaf.  Mix powdered sugar and remaining lemon juice and ice away =).

Now slice and be happy eating this knowing that you're saving tons of money =).

Blueberry Lemon Muffin

There was a point last year when I would bake muffins and cupcakes galore, lol.  I was also working somewhere that had these really tasty and moist Blueberry Lemon Loaf, but all of a sudden the company stopped selling them!! =(  So I decided to get my blueberry lemon fix by changing up a muffin recipe I had on hand.  All I did was toss some lemon juice and zest into the mixture to produce a batch of citrus-y blueberry muffins.  The verdict...not bad, considering that I wasn't sure what I was doing, ^^.  I think next time I will switch out the Greek yogurt for regular blueberry yogurt to give it a more pronounced berry taste.  The texture was on point with just the right amount of moisture so it wouldn't crumble all over the place.  Pair it with a bowl of fruit and you have yourself and pretty darn good breakfast.