Sick of winter?  Tired of cold and ice?  Ready to pack away your coats and sweaters?

This cake won't move the calendar, but it will definitely bring thoughts of summer to you.  Lemony and refreshing, moist and buttery.  Close your eyes while you eat it and dream of green grass, warm sun, and bringing this cake to a cookout.

Lemon Pound Cake
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Cake:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Glaze:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9"x5" loaf pan with butter and dust with flour.

In medium bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder and salt.

Melt butter in microwave or in saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk to reincorporate any milk solids.

Put sugar and lemon zest in food processor and process in five 1-second pulses.  Add lemon juice, eggs, vanilla and process 5 seconds or until combined.

With machine running, pour butter through food tube in a steady stream until combined.  Pour mixture into a large bowl.

In three intervals, sift dry ingredients over egg mixture, gently whisking after each addition just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown and tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Set pan on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

While cake is cooling in the pan, make the glaze:  Heat sugar and lemon juice in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 2 minutes.

Turn out cake from pan onto wire rack set in a sheet pan (to catch drips).  Use a toothpick to gently poke holes all over the surfaces of the top, sides, and bottom of cake.  Carefully turn cake upside down and brush with 1/3 of the glaze.  Turn cake right side up and brush remaining glaze on all sides and top of cake.  Let cool completely before slicing.

I know the food blogosphere is overflowing right now with pumpkin recipes (scones, cupcakes, and soup) but when I saw this recipe, it immediately went on my "Must-Bake-Now" list.  Warm and spicy, super moist from the pumpkin and applesauce, and with a yummy crumbly topping.  I brought this to my office this morning and it was gone in a flash.

Pumpkin Crumb Coffee Cake
adapted from Noble Pig and All You

Topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

Cake:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Make the topping:  combine flour, dark brown sugar, pinch of salt and cinnamon in medium bowl.  Add cold butter and combine until crumbly.  Put in refrigerator until cake batter is ready.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9" x 13" pan.

In bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

In large bowl, combine oil, applesauce, pumpkin, vanilla, sugar, and dark brown sugar.  Whisk together.

Add eggs and whisk to combine.

Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with the topping.  (The next time I make this, I will probably sprinkle a layer of topping in the middle of the cake as well...it was so good!)

Bake 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool 20 minutes before cutting.

Is there anything better than the smell of cinnamon on a Sunday morning?

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
adapted from McCall's Cooking School

Topping
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Batter
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease an 8x8 pan.

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl.  Mix with a fork until crumbly.

In medium bowl, beat egg with whisk until frothy.  Add sugar and butter and beat to combine.  Stir in milk and vanilla and mix well.  Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix.  Batter will be thick and creamy.

Spoon half of batter into prepared pan and spread to evenly cover bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle half of streusel topping evenly over the batter.  Spread remaining batter on top, then sprinkle rest of the topping.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until light golden brown and tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean.  Let cool 10-15 minutes before cutting.  Serve warm.

By the way, I haven't forgotten my new (supposed) regular feature...Finger Food Fridays.  I was sick all this past week so there was no cooking or blogging of any kind at our house.  I have a great recipe all ready for next week, though, so stay tuned!

Until now, I had never made or even eaten a pineapple upside-down cake.  JD has always talked about how much he loved them, so I had to give it a try.  The result?  Very moist, yet light cake, with juicy pineapple in every bite.  Very yummy, but honestly, I don't know what the fuss is about.  I'm just glad it turned out pretty...I was worried about some big mess when it came to turning out the cake.  And JD declared it a hit, so that is a success for me!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
adapted from a recipe at allrecipes.com

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 fresh pineapple, sliced into rings (or canned pineapple rings)
maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Melt the butter and brush a 9 inch cast iron skillet with a little of the butter.

Combine 5 tablespoons of the melted butter with the brown sugar and 1/4 cup of the pineapple juice.  Pour into cast iron skillet. 

Arrange the pineapple slices into a nice pattern over the brown sugar mixture.  Place a maraschino cherry into the center of each pineapple slice.

In a small bowl, comine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Beat two of the egg yolks until lemon yellow.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup pineapple juice, vanilla, and remaining melted butter.

Add the flour mixture and combine.  Gently fold in the egg whites.  Pour batter over pineapple rings in skillet.

Bake at 400 degrees 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and set in the middle.  Mine was a little runny in the center, so watch for this!

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Cover with serving plate and carefully invert cake so that pineapple slices are on top.  Let cool, slice, and serve.

Our good friend Barry is a wonderful cook and the official chef of most of our neighborhood parties.  He splurged and bought a Big Green Egg last year, and we reaped the benefits of that purchase all summer long.  I think houses in our neighborhood should get a 10-20% bump in price, just for the privilege of having Barry down the street.

This recipe is a neighborhood favorite.  Whenever Barry makes it, we all start singing "Barry's great!  He made us chocolate cake!" like that old Bill Cosby routine.  So when Bridget at Bake at 350 announced that Chocolate was the theme for February, this was the first recipe to come to mind, and Barry was kind enough to share.

Barry's Chocolate Cake

Cake:
1 box devil's food cake mix
1 3.9 oz package instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup warm brewed coffee
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Ganache:
8 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.

Mix together the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil and coffee; beat for one minute. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. 

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 45-50 minutes.  Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Prepare ganache:  Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Heat the cream to a simmer, then pour over chocolate.  Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.

Pour over cake.  Enjoy.

If you would like to move to my neighborhood and meet Barry, let me know.  You won't regret it.

Check out all the other Flavor of the Month chocolate recipes at Bake at 350!