If life gives you lemons, bake with them!

I'm all into lemony stuff recently... I really wanted to learn how to make whoopie pies and new year's eve was the perfect excuse... but my list of lemon desire included lemon poundcake, which wento to one of my labmates.

Lemon whoopie pies

Maybe not on the beautiful side but definitely on the tasty one...

For the pies:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest, finely grated

1 egg

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk

For the filling:

Half a package cream cheese (4 ounces)

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Juice of a lemon

Note: I added also a tablespoon of concentrated lemon juice (the store bought one). The amount of lemon and sugar is totally relative to how much you like to taste both the cream cheese and the lemon. Adjust to taste.

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat together sugar and butter until fluffly. Beat in the egg, vanilla and lemon zest. Add the milk and mix well. Stir in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until all the flour is incorporated. Do not overmix.

Place tablespoons of dough into a greased pan and bake for about 10 min, until golden on the edges.

To make the filling beat together the cream cheese (better if softened at room temperature), sugar and lemon juice. Place by tablespoons or with a piping bag on one pie and cover with another pie. If the filling is too liquid, harden by refrigerating for half an hour.

Lemon poundcake

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

Zest from 1 lemon

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cream cheese

Preheat oven to 325 F

Cream butter and sugar together. Stir in the lemon zest. Add the eggs one by one and the vanilla extract and keep mixing. Mix in the cream cheese until smooth. Add the flour. Place dough into a greased loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hr and 15 min. Or until a toothpick comes out clean.