Lemon Buttercream Cakes from Teatime Magazine

What could be more lovely for a Spring Tea Party than

scrumptious flower adorned Lemon Buttercream Cakes?!

Today's recipe is one of my favorite little cake recipes

 from TeaTime Magazine. 

It's an easy cake recipe that uses a lemon cake mix and

an equally easy lemon buttercream frosting that you can

throw together in 5 minutes! 

These sweet little cakes graced the cover of TeaTime

Magazine's 2017 March/April issue, and were topped 

with pretty little white Begonias. 

My cakes are adorned with little pink begonias from

my garden. The flowers are actually edible, very 

easy to grow, and make your cakes look so lovely!!

I wanted to decorate my cakes with both pink and 

yellow buttercream so I made the buttercream, 

then transferred half of it to another bowl and 

tinted one half pink and one half yellow.

 Then I placed the buttercream into 2 piping bags

fitted with a Wilton 2D or 1M tip, and just swirled

the buttercream onto the cake rounds.

I love the ruffles that the buttercream makes! So pretty!

I used a smaller cookie cutter than the recipe suggested

and would NOT recommend this to you because the

smaller size of the cakes made them unstable. Teatime

Magazine suggests using a 2 1/4" cutter.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM CAKES

adapted from TeaTime Magazine

Ingredients:

1 (18.25-ounce) lemon cake mix, such as 

Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme

3 large eggs

1 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup sour cream

1 recipe Lemon Buttercream (recipe follows)

Garnish: fresh primroses, begonias or other

edible blossoms

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 17x11 inch rimmed

baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray with non-

stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, water, oil, and

sour cream. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer until

moistened, approximately 30 seconds. Increase speed to 

medium, and beat for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as

necessary. Pour batter into prepared pan, and level with a

spatula. Rap pan on the countertop sharply several times

to reduce air bubbles.

Bake until cake is golden brown and a wooden pick inserted 

in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cake cool

completely in pan. (I found it easier to cut the cakes out after

chilling the cake in the freezer.)

When cake has cooled, cut 24 rounds from cake, using a 

2 1/4-inch round cutter. (I used a smaller cookie cutter,

which I don't recommend because it was difficult to get

the cakes to stand straight.)

Place Lemon Buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a

large open-star tip (Wilton #1M).  Pipe a circle of

buttercream onto 12 cake rounds. Top each with another

round of cake, pressing lightly to adhere. Pipe a

decorative rosette of buttercream onto top of each

cake round. Garnish each cake with an edible flower,

if desired.

**Cake may be baked in advance, cut into rounds, and

frozen in an airtight container, with layers separated by

waxed paper, for up to a week. Let come to room 

temperature before frosting. Store, covered, in the 

refrigerator until ready to serve.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM

Yield: 3 1/2 cups ~ Prep: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter, softened

6 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

Yellow paste food coloring, such as Wilton lemon yellow

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine butter, confectioners' sugar, 

lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract.  Beat at low

speed with an electric mixer until combined, scraping

down sides of bowl as necessary. Increase speed to high, 

and beat until light and fluffy. Add food coloring until

desired shade of yellow is achieved.

Use immediately, or refrigerate in an airtight container

until needed. Let buttercream come to room temperature

before using, and beat at high speed with an electric

mixer for 1 minute.

Mini Pink loves to make mini treats for her Barbie Teas

with whatever recipe I'm making that day and I thought

that these tiny frosted cakes turned out really pretty!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Happy Baking!!

Strawberry Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches from TeaTime Magazine

If you are looking for a fabulous spring/summer tea
sandwich, look no further! Today I'm sharing with you
TeaTime Magazine's Strawberry Chicken Salad Tea 
Sandwiches. They are just as pretty as they are
delicious!!

I also used some Fillo Shells that I had, and put a
small scoop of the chicken salad in them! Heaven!!

My family loved this recipe! It's just the perfect blend

of ingredients!! So good and perfect for Spring or
Summer entertaining!! The recipe is very simple and
uses a rotisserie chicken, so you don't have to worry
about cooking!!

Just chop some rotisserie chicken (I just used the white meat), 

strawberries, toasted pecans, mandarin oranges, celery and 

green onion. Then make a yummy Poppy Seed Dressing 

using Mayo, champagne or rice vinegar, poppy seeds, and 

a bit of sugar, salt & pepper. 

Combine all of these beautiful ingredients and you're 

ready to make some tea sandwiches! 

Using your cookie cutters, make some pretty flower 

shaped sandwiches or just trim crusts and slice diagonally!

STRAWBERRY CHICKEN SALAD

TEA SANDWICHES

adapted from here

1 loaf Pepperidge Farm thin white bread

2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken (I used the white meat

from a rotisserie chicken)

1 cup chopped strawberries

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped green onion

1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained & chopped

1 recipe Poppy Seed Dressing (recipe follows)

Garnish:  sliced strawberries

Poppy Seed Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise, such as Hellman's

1 tablespoon champagne or rice vinegar

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients, cover

& refrigerate until needed. Dressing can be made

a day in advance.

Instructions:

Using a small flower shaped cookie cutter, cut shapes

in the middle of half of the bread slices. Cover with damp

paper towels, or store in a resealable plastic bag to keep

from drying out.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, strawberries, pecans, 

celery, green onion, mandarin oranges, and Poppy Seed

Dressing, stirring to blend. Refrigerate, covered, until cold.

Place approximately 3 tablespoons chicken salad on a slice

of bread without a cutout. Top with a slice of bread with

a cutout. Using a 2 3/4" flower shaped cookie cutter, cut

out a shape from the middle of the sandwich. Repeat 

with remaining bread and chicken salad.

Using the small flower cookie cutter, cut shapes out 

of outside slices of strawberries. Place one shape on

top of each sandwich.

Sandwiches can be made earlier in the day, covered

with damp paper towels in an airtight container, and

refrigerated until serving time. Garnish sandwiches

just before serving.

I garnished my tea sandwiches with a strawberry

heart that I made using some tiny cookie cutters.

Your guests are gonna love these tea sandwiches!!

Make sure you have the recipe to give out!!

Thanks so much for visiting!! xo!!