Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake with Strawberry Sauce

Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake with Strawberry Sauce.  That sounds amazing!  And... my life group can tell you that it was!  Moist, delicious, lemony pound cake with fresh strawberries and a fresh homemade strawberry sauce... and don't forget the lemon glaze!  Is your mouth watering?  Mine is!  Maybe it's just because I know how good this actually was!

Pound cake is traditionally a cake made with one pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs and sugar (thanks wikipedia).  The original recipe makes a HUGE cake so the recipe is usually pared down quite a bit, but the idea is that the 1:1:1:1 ratio is preserved.  Of course, in many cases today, we change the recipe and add extra ingredients... like sour cream and in this case, FRESH LEMON JUICE.

It's also strawberry season.  I LOVE strawberries and Florida strawberries are the best!  I like to add strawberries to everything that I possibly can... and this cake was perfect for eating with strawberries!!

And I couldn't stop with fresh strawberries... so I also made strawberry sauce!  It was a beautiful blend of strawberries and sugar.  What could be better?

Necessary Ingredients:

2 lemons
1 pint fresh strawberries
1/8 cup sugar (for strawberry sauce)
1 1/2 cups sugar (for cake)
1/4-1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 pinch baking soda

Sour Cream Pound Cake

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour and 8x4 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add sour cream and eggs.  Add juice from 1/2 of one lemon.
3. Add flour and pinch of baking soda.  Mix well.  Pour into loaf pan.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean (from my experience, this cake is ready is slightly less than an hour).

Lemon Glaze:

Pour juice from 1/2 of one lemon into a bowl.  Add 1/4 cup of the confectioners sugar and mix well.  Keep adding sugar until the glaze is the consistency desired. (Note: you will have to stir for a few minutes before the confectioners sugar begins to become incorporated with the lemon).

Strawberry Sauce:

1. Wash strawberries and cut the tops off (save a few fresh strawberries for garnish).
2. Put strawberries, 1/8 cup of sugar and juice from 1/2 of a lemon in blender and blend well.
3. Pour the mixture into a pot and cook on medium heat until it begins to boil.  Cook for another 10-15 minutes.

The Ultimate Sugar Cookie

Our Life Group meets at our house every Tuesday night, and every night I have tried to have some kind of snack or dessert available.  I tend to plan last minute, and this past Tuesday night was no different.

I needed something that I could make with the ingredients in the cabinet so I scoured my dessert board, "Just Sweets," on Pinterest, but found nothing that I could make without a trip to the Grocery store.  Next I began searching cookbooks.  I found this sugar cookie recipe that I had saved from a package of Crisco Shortening.  I had never tried this recipe and didn't actually know that I had it (I wish I did because last time I made sugar cookies, I searched for a recipe online and the one that I found didn't work out very well).

These cookies lived up to their name, "Ultimate Sugar Cookies."  They were relatively simple to make and tasted great.  They can be decorated in many different ways, and I tried several different toppings: sprinkles, decorating sugar (pictured), plain and Nutella frosting (made using Nutella, confectioners sugar and a little bit of cream).

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
2 eggs
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Decorations of your choice

1.  Heat over to 375 degrees F.  Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.
2.  Combine sugar and Butter Flavor Crisco in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended.  Add eggs, syrup, and vanilla.  Beat until well blended and fluffy.
3.  Combine 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add gradually to creamed mixture at low speed.  Mix until well blended.  Divide dough into quarters.
4.  Spread 1 tbsp flour on large sheet of waxed paper.  Place one-fourth of dough on floured paper.  Flatten slightly with hands.  Turn dough over and cover with another large sheet of waxed paper.  Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut out with floured cutter.  Transfer to ungreased baking sheet with large pancake turner.  Place 2 inches apart.  Sprinkle with granulated sugar or colored sugar crystals, or leave plain to frost when cooled.
5.  Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375 degrees F for 5 to 9 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.  Do not over bake.  Cool two minutes on baking sheet.  Move cookies to foil to cool completely.  Frost if desired.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies

Note:  I found the optimal baking time to be 6 minutes, but this may vary depending on the thickness of your cookies.

Anyone have a great idea for this Tuesday?

for more great ideas.