When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Bars!

If you think about what people want most in life, your thought process will eventually end at one concept: Happiness. For me, sometimes it is tough to be that very word! The stress of school, work, and life in general is a lot to endure. For me, the key is to do the things I love, which is to bake. That us why I must travel home once a week to access a working oven!

When I think of the perfect delight that will make me energetic and well happy, I think of lemon. Lemon cake wake up the senses like no other! I decided that besides myself, my bosses would love to have some lemon bars monday afternoon.

This recipe is from scratch, but it is one of the easiest recipes you will venture to make!

The Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners sugar

Pinch salt

2 sticks butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing

The Filling:

4 eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon of lemon zest

6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 by 13 inch pan with butter. Make the crust by combining the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter to make a crumbly mixture. Press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the filling, mix the eggs, granulated sugar, flour, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Pour this over the baked crust and bake for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar to add the perfect touch.

Secret 1: Use your hands when cutting in the butter, don't be afraid to get them dirty!

Secret 2: Zest the lemon before you cut it. This will make it a whole lot easier and less slippery.

Secret 3: Take a butter knife around the edges of the pan 10 minutes after the pan comes out of the oven.

Secret 4: Let the bars cool completely before cutting, and when cool use a very sharp knife.

The Taste:

Lemonlicious! No really, they were deliciously lemony. The lemon zest adds the right tartness to the bars so they are not too sweet, and the crust is nice and light, also a bit flaky. These bars are my favorite pick me up!

I brought the bars to work and they all loved them, which is the usual when I bring something in. It makes me happy making other people happy. The feeling is incomparable, and I think that is why I love to bake so much. The happiness that I bring to others, however small it may be, is the biggest source of my joy. And as I said, Happiness is everything.

Birthdays

It was my best friends birthday a couple of weeks ago and I most definitely was going to bake her a cake as usual. I have made numerous cakes, anywhere from the ordinary cake to snoopy to male genitalia. Yes, I have had a lot of experience with cake and its properties. I am a fan of fondant but in all, the stuff is expensive. So whenever I can, I try to create a cake without using it. My best friend absolutely adores pigs. I do understand her love, I mean they are adorable. This birthday I decided to make her a pig cake. I baked the cake the day I was going to serve it.

As usual, I whipped together the normal cake mix, using 2 round pans. Once the cakes were cool, I put them on separate plates. I leveled one of the rounds so my cake would not fall over during stacking. Keep the scraps! Cut them in fourths like a pizza. Take 2 of the triangles and stack them together, using a little icing to hold them. Do the same with the other 2 pieces. Set aside. I used a half a can of chocolate icing to fill the two rounds and iced everywhere but 1/2 inch from the edge. I stacked the other cake on top of the leveled one. I colored 1 can of white icing with a vibrant pink. I put a little more than half of the icing onto the rounds and iced as usually, using long strokes. You can use a butter knife to do this, I did! Then I put the ears in their proper place and iced them with icing. This may seem tough but it is doable! For the snout of the pig I took a rice krispie treat and formed it into an oval. I iced it with the pink icing before I placed it onto my pig. For the eyes and nostrils I used a packaged black tubed icing which can be found in any supermarket, cutting the icing with a sharp knife to the desired size. Make the eyes a tad bigger than the nostrils. Also jellybeans or licorice would work. And whala! You have a fun pig cake =)

Secret 1: Dye the batter with food coloring! It always adds a nice surprise. I dyed my cake a soft pink.

Secret 2: Beat the batter for 3 minutes, not any less.

Secret 3: Butter and flour your pans! Your cake will never stick.

Secret 4: Let the cakes cool completely, and I mean that!

Secret 5: Level your cakes for easy stacking.

Secret 6: When filling with chocolate icing do not ice right to the edge. This can cause color bleed with the pink icing when you later ice the outside of the cake, and it will look messy.

Secret 7: When needing to add a shape like circles or an oval, rice krispie treats are great for molding!

The Taste:

I'll be completely honest, I was not expecting much from this cake but the look. In actuality, it may have tasted better than it looked! The cake was so moist and the amount of icing was perfect. I usually don't like cakes filled with too much icing, but definitely don't skimp with this one. Making the cake the day that it will be served is a smart idea because it will retain the maximum amount of moisture and not dry out one bit. Also, the icing will stay creamy and just plain delicious.

I never have shame in using a boxed cake mix because in all there are endless possibilities to make it your own. Adding the smallest touches can make the biggest differences.

Happy cake making, enjoy!

-The Curious Cook