Lemon Perfection

Look at this cake. Isn't it beautiful? I didn't make it, you can find it here. I needed a picture to go along with the lemon bundt cake I made because in all my haste to get it out the door of this sometimes crazy household I forgot to take a picture of mine. I had to give you the recipe though since it is one of my all-time favorites. If you are a cake-lover but you hate what it does to your body this recipe will be your friend too. It's simple, budget-friendly, figure-friendly and delicious! It's also low-fat, low cholesterol and low calorie. There is something nice about being able to bake a great dessert that won't put everyone into a high calorie nose dive and your friends and family will appreciate that you're looking out for them too. I actually made this for a class that I'm attending at my church about eating right! So go ahead and bake up some love for the people in your life this season! Their waist-lines will thank you for thinking of them.

Lemon Bundt Cake

1 box of lemon cake mix

1 whole egg

2 egg whites

12 oz can of diet lemon-lime soda

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar

Juice of 1 lemon (approx. 2 TBSP)

Mix, bake and cool cake according to box directions using the ingredients above. After inverting cake out onto a serving plate, mix glaze and pour over cake. Slice and serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 servings.

Cake Pop Eyeballs

Here they are, the cake pop eyeballs I promised! These babies were slightly more difficult than I anticipated but the end result was worth it. Cool to look at and sweet to eat, they were a hit at the Halloween party I took them to and my kids couldn't keep their hands off of them! Well, who can blame them? It's not everyday you get to eat something like this.

So here are the products I used...

...and here is the process.

First, make your cake. Just a 13x9 pan will do since it doesn't matter what it will look like coming out of the oven.

Then, crumble it in a bowl and add some FROSTING!

Right here I'm thinking "I could skip all the work and just use that spoon to eat it like this and I'd be a happy girl" (did I mention I LOVE cake?) But my mom has drilled into my head "delayed gratification" all my life, so I restrained myself and pressed on.

This is what it should look like when it's all mixed together (that's one cake and one can of frosting). Not as appetizing to look at but let me assure you it tastes just fine. I had to taste it, for YOUR sakes!

Then roll into balls and place on a piece of wax paper and chill in the freezer. The colder they are the better they will hold their shape when you dip them.

I stuck some of them with sticks to make pops but most of them I left as just "cake balls".

I AM NOT HAPPY HERE!

The candy coating didn't melt in the microwave THE WAY THE PACKAGE SAID IT WOULD!

So I moved it to the stove and added some shortening because it looked dried out. Pretty soon we were back on track.

That's more like it!

The rest of the steps aren't photographed and I'm sorry about that. I got very focused on getting these things to look right (it was my first time doing anything with candy coating) that I forgot to take pictures. Just dip the frozen cake balls into the coating, spoon over the cake if needed, and lay on wax paper to dry. Bakerella suggest sticking the pops in a block of Styrofoam to dry upright, I agree with her.

Before they dry, stick an M&M in the middle to be the pupil and then let them dry completely.

The red frosting is just powdered sugar, a little water and food coloring piped on.

After a while I got tired of making eyes and decided to do some pretty sprinkles on the advice of my daughter who is a big sprinkles advocate.

The final presentation.

They were fun but I think it will be a while before I do this again,

maybe when the kids can help more :)