Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake (version #2)

This was Maida Heatter's second attempt at the lemon buttermilk cake after the first one was published with faulty instructions. I'm glad she re-worked it for the New Book of Great Desserts, because it is a really wonderful cake. Unlike so many lemon desserts where all you taste is sugar, this really does have a strong lemon flavor. The cake lasts well, tightly wrapped.

 I was looking for a way to display the cake slices when I remembered this fold-out cake tray I bought in Iowa last summer.

The penguin tea towel came from Lincoln last weekend.

Danny's always been fond of penguins. When he was very small (maybe two?) he used to check my bed at night for penguins. This procedure involved turning down the bed, lifting the pillows, and poking about with a straw until he was satisfied the bed was penguin free. One day, I told him there were penguins in the bed trying to bite me, so springing into action with his trusty straw, he set about locating the culprits. What he didn't know was that earlier in the day I'd purchased some chocolates wrapped in foil to look like penguins. As he pulled back the pillows I heard a gasp, then saw the look of disbelief spread across his face. "There really ARE penguins in your bed!" he screamed. I had to explain that they were chocolate.

I was going to re-type the recipe from the book when I came to my senses and put Google to use (it is too late to be sitting here re-typing recipes). I found a copy from someone who not only knew Maida Heatter, but had been someone that wrote to her explaining that the original recipe had failed. I'm not about to ignore that level of brush with fame, so go here:
http://www.ruths-kitchen.com/recipes/desserts/lemon_bm_cake.html

I have to show you one last recent purchase I never would have brought home if my son hadn't urged me to.

 Get it? Rocks! I remember this stuff from the early 80's. There wasn't a room in the house that didn't have something made from Lucite in it.

Since we have the glasses out, here's a recipe for strawberry lemonade I made today. You can serve it on the rocks.

Strawberry Lemonade:

Juice of 4 lemons, strained
2 quarts strawberries, roughly chopped
1-2 cups sugar (we used 1 but that makes for rather sour lemonade, so adjust to your taste)

Place the chopped berries in a bowl and cover with sugar. Cover and let stand about 2 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.

Place strawberries in a food processor (or a blender, or lacking that, get out a potato masher) and puree until liquid. Strain through a fine sieve to get the seeds out. This is tedious, and you'll need to keep stirring it around to get it through. Fiddly, but worth it. Pour in the lemon juice and add 2 quarts of water (again, you can adjust this to taste). Stir well, and serve cold...on the rocks. With buttermilk lemon cake.