Cooking - Easy Lemon Cake

Lemon Snack Cake

I grew up eating snake cake and naturally assumed that everyone knew about them.  Turns out, not everyone knows.

A snack cake is a small cake that's easy to make.  They usually serve 6-8 people and they can be mixed and baked in the same pan.  It's literally so easy that a child could do it.

This cake makes a great mid week dessert.

This recipe comes from the Land o Lakes page and I've been making it for YEARS!

LEMON SNACK CAKE

Preparation time: 15 min Baking time: 30 min
Yield: 8 servings

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Egg
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (optional)
1/4 cup butter or Margarine, melted OR canola oil
3/4 cup milk

Glaze Ingredients:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter or Margarine, melted
2 to 3 teaspoons lemon juice

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.  While you could mix and bake this cake in 1 pan, I usually don't.  In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt lemon zest, butter and milk.  Mix well with a fork.  Break up any lumps.

3.  Lightly greased an 8-inch square baking pan. Pour batter into the pan.

4.  Bake 30 minutes.

Once you remove the hot cake from the oven begin mixing the glaze.  For the glaze combine powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice in a bowl.

You can pour the glaze over the hot cake or wait for the cake to cool and spread it over the cooled cake.


Variations:

Lemon Coconut cake - substitute light coconut milk for regular milk.  For a deeper richer favor you could use regular coconut milk.  DO NOT use coconut cream!

Vanilla Cake - omit the lemon zest in the cake batter.  Use milk instead of lemon juice in the glaze.

Cake for a crowd:  If you're serving more than just a few people, double this recipe.  Bake in a 13x9 cake pan.

Breakfast Cake:  Bake the cake in a loaf pan.  Cool completely and slice for a light breakfast treat.

Unglazed Cake in 9" pan

PRO TIPS:

*  This cake can be made with soy or any other non-dairy milk.
*  This is a great first cake recipe for kids who are learning to cook/bake/measure.
*  When its warm, this cake is very soft, slice with care.
*  I've tried this recipe with a variety of juices (orange, grapefruit, lime and lemon).  While it tastes fine with other juices lemon definitely yields the best result.

This post is courtesy of Mocha Kathy W.

For more recipes and cooking tips, click HERE!

Wellness - Friends and Family

Happy Wednesday Mochas!

Hope everyone is enjoying this Easter week with your family! Whether your minis are on spring break and you've taken little a time off to spend with them, you are home, or you are back at work after the easter holiday weekend. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the company of your friends and/or family! Usually around the holidays, but most importantly, year round, it's good for your health to make the time to spend with people in your life that you love. 

"The best times are when friends and family gather round." 

Health Benefits Of Friends And Family: 8 Reasons Why It's Healthy To Spend Time With Loved Ones:

1. Parenting lengthens life- being a parent, especially a mom, can help us live longer. Giving birth and raising our children promotes longevity and encourages us to take care of ourselves to be there for our children for the long run.

2. Having different social networks are good for our health and are great ways to converse, take a break and rejuvenate whether it's just with friends or just with family.

3. Decreases loneliness- having family and friends around and spending time with people we know and love prevents depression or feelings of loneliness.

4. Friends and family are highly influential and make a difference in our health habits, for example, what we eat for dinner as a family or doing activities together to stay active.

5. Lowers stress- having other people to talk to that are close to us such as family or friends, our mothers, fathers, or siblings can lower our stress levels about any situation. 

6. Makes us feel happy! When we are around good people, we're bound to have a good time!! Relaxing and laughing just happens and we feel happy!

7. Creates growth- family and friends are awesome support networks, providing wisdom and advice that can help and enable us to grow.

8. Builds relationships-the more time we spend we someone, the closer we get with that person, good or bad. We learn each other's ways, but overall, it helps us to truly get to know a person and builds the relationship we have with have that person. 

Enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones, immediate family, distant family and friends! It will keep you healthy and well :-)

For more Wellness Topics click HERE!

This post is courtesy of Mocha Tiffany K.

Easter Party 2015

Bergen County Mocha Moms

TEANECK — On Saturday afternoon at the Richard Rodda Community Center, the sound of children’s giggles intermingled with the warm greetings and soft words shared by unrelated women who call each other family.

Though it was the children who crawled under tables searching for boiled colored eggs and constructed floppy bunny hats out of paper, it was their mothers who seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

Tanisha Day, a human-resources consultant from Teaneck, smiled broadly as her 8-year-old son Nehemiah played, and friends asked about her week.

Mocha's Tanisha D and Kathy W. 

Chapter President Tiffany K and Family

“The key word is genuine,” said Day, one of 55 members of the Bergen County chapter of Mocha Moms, a national group that describes itself as a sisterhood of women bonded by motherhood. “We like each other, and we have a lot of fun.”

Otise, Tanisha, Ivory and Patrice

Eight years ago, Day separated from her husband and moved from Virginia to New Jersey alone, a transition that she said put her at her “lowest point.”

“When I needed help, I didn’t have to ask,” she said. “They saw me struggle with a lot of things.”

Day previously served as president of the local group, founded in 2006 as a chapter of the national organization originally designed as a support group for stay-at-home moms of color.

Mocha Dana reads to the kids

Mocha Sisterly Love

The Bergen County chapter is unique — most of its 55 members are working moms, and many are single, according to current President Tiffany Kerr of Wood-Ridge.

And almost all have settled in New Jersey from other parts of the country, said Vice President Otise Schuk of Bogota.

Mocha Shawana and Family

Mocha's Michelle, Dana and Tanisha

For Day and others, the support comes in many forms: offers to baby-sit, child-rearing tips, deep discussions about motherhood, stories about reentering the workforce and help seeking new jobs and career opportunities.

Schuk, who moved to New Jersey in 2007 from Atlanta, where she worked as an analyst for the federal government, said she got a recommendation for a job from a Mocha Mom.

“Whether I know somebody who knows somebody, or somebody else does, the group has been really helpful,” she said.

The group’s events include monthly meetings at a Paramus library and celebrations like a Mother’s Day event next month.

As her 3-year-old daughter Alyssa toddled around with a friend, Teaneck Mayor Lizette Parker said she joined Mocha Moms seeking help with work-life balance and play dates for Alyssa.

Mocha Kids

The Honorable Lizette Parker - Mocha Mom and Teaneck Mayor

Program for the Day

“It also provides great stress relief with events for just moms,” said Parker, who joined in October 2012. “It’s an opportunity to just enjoy each other’s company.”

Parker said she often peruses an online forum for members, who discuss everything from preparing lunches to handling temper tantrums. “If you need it, Mocha has it,” she said.

The chapter also has an informal group of Mocha Dads, who get to know one another and bond at chapter events.

More Mocha Moms

Mocha Tanisha and Family

David Radney of Wyckoff said he’s grateful his wife joined the chapter, as his family moved to the area about a year ago from Dallas. “I have like-minded dads I can talk to,” he said. “We share our experiences and learn from each other.”

Mocha's Ivory and Kathy

Mocha Kathy W.

Tanisha and Christian Alicea of Ramsey have attended chapter events for the past nine years, often bringing along their now-9-year-old daughter Olivia.

“It’s important for little kids of color to see their peers in a setting that’s positive,” Christian Alicea said.

The Aliceas relocated from New England, leaving behind a wide support system of maternal and paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, he said.

“This has been an extension of our family that has allowed us to build our own family,” he said.

BY MARINA VILLENEUVE - Staff Writer, The record

Mocha's Dana, Kathy and Lizette

To see pix from other Mocha Events, click HERE!

This article is courtesy of  NorthJersey.com