Pecan Praline Pound Cake

Our annual company Spring Fling was held today. As in years past we have a bake-off. This year's category was pound cake. I defended my title for the last 2 years and won first place. It was a fun day. I kind of combined 2 of my recipes from other cakes and came up with this one.

PECAN PRALINE POUND CAKE

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup toasted chopped pecans

Grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Alternately add the flour and heavy cream to butter and sugar mixture ending with flour. Add vanilla and pecans.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Put into a preheated oven at 325 degrees. Bake for 1 hour and a half. Check for doneness because mine took a little longer. Remove from the oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes. Invert cake onto cake plate.

GLAZE
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup toasted pecans

Bring butter, milk, and sugar to a boil. Glaze will thicken as it cools. When cool drizzle over cake and sprinkle pecans.

Lemon Nut White Chocolate Cookies

When life gives you lemons they say make lemonade. In this case I went for lemon cookies. Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Life just got a little out of hand for me. Hopefully there will be more occasions for me to post something a little more often. These cookies have only a subtle lemon taste and I don't know if it is because it is humid here today, but they are soft not crispy.




LEMON NUT WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 12 ounce package white chocolate chips (I had a chunk of Ghiardelli white I chopped up)
1 cup walnuts or cashews (of course I used good old Texas pecans)
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and lemon juice; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels, nuts and lemon peel. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake in preheated 375° F oven for 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes 3 dozen.