Blueberry Coconut Breakfast Cookies

This is one of those recipe that I pinned on Pinterest but forgot about it. Once I re-discover it and baked it, we are hooked.

The first time I made these breakfast cookies, I made it with macadamia nuts. The coconut oil, macadamia nuts, banana, and vanilla baking in the oven smelled incredibly delicious. I have since tried with almonds and pecan, but the macadamia nuts version is the favorite in the household. Kaydn, usually is not impressed with "healthy" treats, but he'd eat these up straight out of the oven! I have to fight him off if I want to give some away.

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 

2 tablespoon golden flax seed meal

3 table spoons hemp seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts)

1/2 cup dried blueberries

Wet ingredients:

3 ripe regular size bananas, mashed

1/4 cup coconut oil, warm enough to be liquid

1 tablespoon raw honey or agave

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add all other wet ingredients and stir together until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until well combined. (Note: The mixture will seem a little dry once the coconut oil cools down and solidify but the cookie should hold the shape when it's removed from the cookie cutter.)

Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Press mixture into round cookie cutter (2 1/4 inch or 2 1/2 inch) and place on the cookie sheet. You can also use square or triangle baking pan. 

Bake 350 degree for 25 minutes or until golden. Let cool on cookie sheet. It's best when they are still warm and toasty and crunchy on the outside. Yield about 15 cookies. Store in a airtight container, reheat in toaster oven to serve.

Original recipt for the blueberry-coconut-pecan-breakfast can be found on http://www.kumquatblog.com/2012/03/blueberry-coconut-pecan-breakfast.html

Raw Vegan Chocolate Cream Cake

I found this recipe on Pinterest a long while ago from http://www.pure2raw.com/2012/02/raw-triple-chocolate-cheesecake-recipe/. It perk my interest because the picture of the little chocolate cheese cake looked so good and it is dairy free! I have  developed lactose intolerance recently (the last couple of years) so I immediately wanted to try the recipe. I was a little skeptic about how good it would taste since it is raw and vegan. But I was in heaven when I had my first bite. It has become one of my favorite treats, right up there with Alicia Silverstone's chocolate peanut better cups. This chocolate cream cake is smooth, rich, and creamy; so good!

By the way, I am so glade that Roland purchased the Vitamix blending station (the same thing at Jamba Juice). We always make fun of his obsession with blenders but I sure love using it.

Crust
Ingredients:

1 cup almond meal (original recipe called for pecans)

3-4 medjool dates

1/2 Tbsp maple syrup

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of Real Salt

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse till combined. The crust material should slightly stick together. If it is too dry, add a little more maple syrup. Scoop the almond chocolate crust into mini cheesecake pan and press down with fingers to form the crust firmly into pan. Set aside and make the filling.

Filling

Ingredients:
2 cups cashew pieces
1/2 cup maple syrup (or agave)
1/2 cup water (use half or less if you soak the cashews for a long time)

2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup raw cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder)

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted into liquid

Directions:
Soak cashews for about 10-15 minutes (optional), rinse well and drain. Place cashews into blender with maple syrup, vanilla, and water, and cocoa powder and blend until creamy. Add in the coconut oil  (make sure the coconut oil is in liquid form) and blend till smooth. Scrape down the sides if necessary so the filling is nice and smooth.

Scooping the filling into mini cheesecake pans and fill to the top. Place the chocolate cream cake into the freezer to set for a few hours before removing from pan.

I like the vegan chocolate cream cake as is but it is fun to have some optional toppings such as chopped almond and chocolate ganache (1/2 cup vegan semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips and 1/8 cup coconut beverage or any nut milk,  melted over a double boiler).

Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Kimberly and Cassidy wanted to bake something during the winter holiday so I suggested trying out the recipe "My Favorite Cupcake" from The Kind Diet. I loved the cupcakes; it reminded me of the light, springy, and not very sweet cakes from my childhood. However, Kaydn did not give a favorable review of the cupcakes. He was all excited when he saw the cupcakes with the pretty frosting, but after he took one huge bite he declared that it was the worst cupcakes he had ever tasted. "It is not sweet at all!" he said. A neighbor asked me about my blog one day and a couple of days later Kaydn told me that he feel sorry for his friend because his mom is going to cook some vegan food and it was all my fault. I had a great laugh about it; I seemed to always get into big trouble with the kids (mine and other people's kids) when I start to talk about healthy eating.

Since I "mess around" with recipes all the time, I can't help but increase the ww flour/flour ratio and replace the original frosting recipe with a chocolate cream cheese frosting that I derived form my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe.

Dry ingredients:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:
2/3 cup hemp or soy milk
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
1/3 cup safflower oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:
3 oz Tofutti milk free cream cheese
1/2 cup vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
          
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the milk and the apple cider vinegar together in a medium size bowl and set aside for at least 5 minutes, the mixture gets a bit lumpy.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the milk/vinegar mixture and stir to mix. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture and mix well until there is no lumps. Pour the batter into lined muffin tin (the batter makes 12 cupcakes) and bake at 325 F for 18 - 20 minutes or until a inserted tooth pick comes out clean. Set on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Whipped all ingredients together until fluffy.
This frosting is not very sweet; the original cream cheese frosting recipe called for 2 cups of powder sugar so the sugar has been drastically reduced. If a sweeter frosting is desired, increase the agave nectar to 2/3 cup or add some powder sugar. For a frosting that taste milk chocolate rather than the dark chocolate, increase the agave nectar to 2/3 cup, use 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/3 cup non-fat milk powder or soy or coconut milk powder for non-dairy frosting.

Brownie with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Since I become lactose intolerant and pretty much stop eating milk products, this dessert has become one of my favorites. It's quick and easy and not too sweat so I don't have to feel guilty about eating it. Roland can eat a whole pan by himself in one evening; I think he must believe that low in sugar + whole grain = no calorie. The original recipe is called "Coffee Fudge Brownies" from The Kind Diet. Since I don't like coffee flavor of anything, I modify the recipe to be just brownies and changed the glazing to a less fattening chocolate ganache glaze. I was going to call it "Healthy Brownies" but healthy and brownies just did not sound right together.

Dry ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour (I grind the rice flour in my wheat grinder but I am sure you can get them in the health food store)
1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder
3/4 cup date sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
3/4 cup rice milk or coconut milk beverage
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil or other types of vegetable oil

Optional:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
1 1/2 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
1/4 cup rice milk or coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 325 F and oil a 8x13 baking pan.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Mix wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients. Stir and mix well and then add the walnuts if desired. Pour the batter into an 8x13 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool.

Melt the chocolate chips and the rice milk using a double boiler, stir continuously until the chocolate chips have melted the the sauce is smooth. Spread the ganache evenly over the brownies and let cool completely. If you don't have a double boiler, you can use a medium sauce pan and a large glass or stainless bowl. Bring one cup of water to a soft boil in the medium sauce pan. Place the chocolate chips and the rice milk in the glass bowl and set on top of the sauce pan to make the ganache.

My favorite alternative for the ganache during the Christmas holiday is to use the chocolate truffles dusted in coco powder from Costco instead of the chocolate chips ( about 24 truffles with 1/4 cup of coconut milk). Yum!!! My kids wanted to eat the truffles but I hid them deep in the freezer so I can use them on my brownies a little longer.

Valentine's Treat

Kimberly and I wanted to make some treats for our friends for Valentine's day so we made these cute white and dark heart brownies from smitten kitchen /http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/02/white-and-dark-hearted-brownies/. It was really fun to cook with Kim; I never thought she would turn out to be so interested in domestic affairs; I mean the measuring, the mixing, and cutting duties. She was always interested in helping so she can sample her way through the cooking process. ; - )

It was not so easy to cut the brownies into the exact same size; we wonder if the smitten kitchen had rulers and squares rulers on hand to measure and cut. I also decided that we need a "thicker"heart shape cookie cutter; our cookie cutter is not quite as tall as the thickness of the brownies and it was a trick to cut all the way through and remove the cookie cutter from the middle of the brownies. However unevenly our brownie squares were, they turned out pretty cute. The kids love the brownies; I did not have any since I am not suppose to eat milk product or cane sugar. It was fun to give these Valentines away!

Oatmeal Cookies

I bake these healthy oatmeal cookies and loved them. Kaydn and Roland discovered them and they were vanishing fast from my pantry.  I wanted Cassidy to try them before they were gone, so I asked her to have a taste. She politely said "no, thank you." Later on, I try to get her to eat these cookies again when she was reaching for some corn bread. She had a funny look on her face and said "thanks, but I am not in the mood for oatmeal cookies." I really wanted her to try it so I followed her around in the kitchen and kept saying "try it, you've got to try it." It was almost like the book Green Eggs and Ham, I followed her around and repeatedly say "try it, try it, you will like it, just take one bite!" She said the cookie looked "funny", too chunky, and "too healthy." I should started to quote Green Eggs and Ham and made a joke about it but my drill sergeant instinct won and I tried to "order" her to eat the cookie. Of course this did not work. Roland heard the commotion and came upstairs to see what was going on. He was able to persuade Cassidy to have a bite. Once she had one bite, she was hooked. I tried to stop her from finishing the rest of the cookies but she said they were so good and she could not stop eating them. The recipe is adopted from Alicia Silverstone's Oatmeal, Walnuts, and Dry Plum Cookies recipe form The Kind Diet.

Dry ingredients:
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour (from white wheat)
1/3 cup date sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Real Salt

Wet ingredients:
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon molasses

1/4 cup chopped dried plum (dried plum = prunes or other kind of dried fruit)
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350F and line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
If your date sugar is clumpy, place the 1/3 cup date sugar in a blender with 1 cup of flour and pulse until date sugar and flour are well blended with no clumps. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate medium size bowl, mix well and add to the dry ingredients. Stir the mixture well and fold in the dried plums and nuts. If the cookie dough is to crumbly, add 1 - 2 teaspoons of water, one teaspoon at the time, until the dough stay together.
Use a small ice cream scooper and drop the dough onto the cookie sheet. Lightly press down to flatten the top. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Make about 30 cookies.

I think we should re-read the Green Eggs and Ham together as a family :-D
I would not, could not, in a box.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Celebrity Sherbet

Aunt Cindy made this ice cream at Bear Lake a few years ago and it has been one of my kids favorite homemade ice cream ever since. Lately I have been having trouble with dairy product so I made it with coconut milk and it is still so yummy!

1 1/2 quarts Half'n Half  for non-dairy version use So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk Beverage
1/2 pint whipping cream Thai kitchen or other brand canned coconut milk or light coconut milk
18 oz pineapple juice
juice of 9 oranges
juice of 4 1/2 lemons
6 cups sugar   use agave for those who are trying reduce sugar consumption; I use half the amount

Mix all ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Put in a large ice cream maker and follow the ice cream making instructions. I like to use Cuisinart ice cream maker because there is no salt or ice involved and much easier to clean up. If you have use the Cuisinart,  use 1/3 of the recipe and it fit perfectly.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

When Kimberly was training for the Park City half marathon, she asked me to be supportive of her training and her effort of to eat health which means "stop making sweet treats". I agree to be helpful and decided to drastically reduce sugar from of our diet and make treats with as little sugar as possible. Cutting white sugar and high fructose corn syrup years ago was easy; I replaced them with organic evaporated can juice. But how do you make treats with very little or no organic cane sugar?
This recipe came to the rescue for me since I like peanut butter and chocolate. The recipe is adopted from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone but I must give a word of caution for those who feel incline to read the book since I have mentioned many recipes from this book on my blog. Even though this book has great recipes, it is not for people who love, enjoy, and plan to eating meat and dairy; her recipes are either vegan or are based on the macrobiotic diet. But her philosophy about dessert is great: "You may not think of desserts as health foods, but I beg to differ. By eating scrumptious vegan desserts on a regular basis, I maintain my mental health, for there is no life without dessert!"

I prefer the mini muffin tin to the regular size tin and one batch makes about 30 mini cups. I can have one or two mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup at night and be happy and satisfied.

3 Table spoons vegan butter; I use 4T if using malt sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener  I use 1/4 cup malt sugar since maple sugar is expensive.
3/4 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter, unsweetened and unsalted; I use Costco's organic creamy peanut butter
10 graham cracker squares or 16 Health Valley amaranth graham crackers, crushed (use a ziplock bag and wooden rolling pin). I prefer the Health Valley graham crackers; they are so good that I tend munch on them for snacks.

Chocolate Sauce
1 cup grain sweetened, non dairy chocolate or carob chips (I love unsweetened carob chips but my kids do not, so I stay with the grain vegan sweetened chocolate chips)
1/4 soy, rice or nut milk; I use So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk beverage
1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts

Line a 12 cup muffin tin (regular size) with paper liners and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture form the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 table spoons per cup, among the muffin cups. Be sure to let the mixture completely cooled before you continue the next step.

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

My friend Judith gave me the recipe but I am not sure which cook book it is from. When there are lots of zucchinis coming from your vegetable garden, it's time to make this cake. In the peak zucchinis season, I shred the zucchinis and freeze them in the zip lock bags so I can make this cake in the winter time.  I like to use the frozen zucchini to make this cake. I think freezing the zucchini release water and this make the cake moist and delicious.

1/4 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 cup apple sauce + 1/2 cup oil)
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour milk (or milk with a little vinegar)
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated zucchini (I tend to use very over heaping cups or should I just say 3 cups)
3 cups of flour (whole white wheat)

Mix all ingredients together, place in a 9 x 13 pan, sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts (1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped nuts) on top and bake for 40-45 minutes in 325F oven.

Banana Cake, Bread and Muffins!?

My mother-in-law Linda gave me this recipe years ago and this is one of those that I have altered many ingredients but the cake still come out really good. I usually freeze bananas that are going to ripen soon and put 4 bananas per zip lock bag. On baking day, I take out a bag of bananas and leave it on the counter for a couple of hour to thaw and then dump the entire content of the zip lock bag into the mixer. I think the freezing process release the moisture from the bananas and make the cake moist. My kids like the cake without nuts but Roland & I both like the nuts. Lately it takes me a long time to get enough frozen bananas to make the cake because my kids are really into making shakes in Roland's "Blending Station Advance" Vita-Mix machine. This Vita-Mix blender looks like the ones Jamba Juice use in their stores; complete with the plastic cover to reduce the noise level. It's big, bulky, noisy, but sure blends well.

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup sugar, I like to use 3/4 cup blue agave
1/2 cup oil, I often use a mixture of coconut oil and safflower oil)
4 eggs or two large eggs, I go for the four eggs for extra protien
4 ripe banana
1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour (I use white wheat flour - if using red wheat flour, I would use half whole wheat and half white flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 cup rolled oats (coarsely grind in the blender or use instant oatmeal)

Topping:
1 cup chocolate chips (I like to use some semi-sweet, some milk, and some double chocolate chips)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix all dry ingredients and set aside. Mix all of the wet ingredients together, place in a 9x3 pan, sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts on top, and bake for 40-45 minutes in 325F oven. I have use 2 regular bread pans or 4 mini bread pans to make banana bread or muffin tins to make muffins.

Since my kids don't like nuts in sweet bread, I skip the nuts but add some ground flex seed and some hemp seed to this recipe to make a healthier version.

Lemon Berry Muffins

I read about the Lemon Berry Muffins in Penzey's Spices Spring 2010 catalog (pg 51) a while ago and had always wanted to try it. One day while I was at Harmon's visiting my credit union branch, I bought "one" wallaby organic lemon yogurt planning to try this new recipe that night. In the back of mind, I knew I was going to get into trouble when I only bought one, but the wallaby yogurt are way more expensive than any other yogurt and I had a lot of other yogurts at home (a case of them to be exact). I was not able to get to the muffing-making that night and told the kids to stay away form the lemon yogurt because I needed it to make muffins. The yogurt was in the fridge for about three days until the night I had a couple of hours of free time to make the muffins. I opened the fridge to reach for the yogurt and it was gone! Of course Roland did not get the "important message" and he just wanted to try a different flavor of yogurt that evening. I went "ballistic" (PMS for sure) and Roland had to go out to the store that night to buy a wallaby lemon yogurt. To my family members who were home that night, especially Roland, - sorry about going crazy over the lemon yogurt, but the muffins were yummy! I did not modify the recipes much - I used fresh lemon zest instead of the dry lemon peels.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs fresh lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:
1 cup lemon yogurt (I love wallaby organic yogurt)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Berries
1/8 cup flour
1 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries, cherries or raspberries, alone or mixed

Streusel Topping:
2 Tbs all purpose flour
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
3 Tbs vanilla sugar
1 Tbs cold butter

Directions:
Combined all dry ingredients and mix well in a large bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to to dry ingredients bowl and mix until just moist. Toss barries with flour and fold into batter. Spoon into lightly greased muffin pans, fill 2/3 full.

Combine the streusel topping ingredients and cut the butter into the mixture with a fork until crumbly.  Spoon evenly over the batter in the muffin pan. 

Bake 375F for 20-22 minutes or until golden.

Recipe from: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysLemonBerryMuffins.html

Lemon Buttermilk Poundcake

Kaydn's friend Parker made this poundcake for his family and it was almost legendary. Kaydn had a slice at Parker's house and talked a about it a lot. With so much positive reviews, I just had to try this recipe. The first time I made the cake, it was on a Sunday. I did a quick inventory/ingredients check and was short one egg. I sent Cassidy to borrow an egg from my neighbor Debi while I started the butter, sugar, flour, and the baking powder in the mixer. Everything went well until I started to combine the wet ingredients and read the line after 4 large eggs - 3 egg york - what?! I could not go borrow another "three" eggs and the batter was already going. I think there is nothing worse then when you are in the middle of cooking, thinking you have everything you need, and then find out that you are missing one ingredient. What do you do, especially when it was a Sunday? I looked through my fridge and decided to use 3 table spoons of plain yogurt in stead of the 3 egg york. I regrouped and finished the cake. After the cake was baked, Cassidy and Kaydn was waiting with great anticipation for the cake to cool so I could unmold it. Of course, I could not get the cake to come out of the bundt pan in one piece no matter what. Well, I was trying to teach Cassidy how to grease and flour the pan but I guessed I should have double check her work. The cake was great even though the top half was missing.

About two weeks later, I decided to give this recipe another attempt. This time we had our little Japanese exchange student Mashiro staying with us so she was helping me. I made sure that I had enough eggs, made sure the bundt pan was well greased and floured, and I was sure the cake would turn out perfect. Well, it did not.  I thought the batter looked funny after the mixing but then I thought maybe it was the difference between "3 egg york" and "3 table spoons of yogurt".  What really happened was that during my chatting and giving instructions to the Mashito, I did not put in enough flour. Of course the cake would not "unmold"; it was as good as glued to the bundt pan. We had to eat the cake right out of the pan. Surprisingly, the cake turned out delicious but quite heavy. I think Roland loved it and ate most of it.

So, after another week, I gave a third attempt.  I followed the recipe exactly and even made the lemon glaze. Finally, this cake turn out perfectly. Everyone except Cassidy were not too craze about the lemon glaze; I think there was too much glaze and made the cake a little soggy.  We may have to give it another try using less lemon glaze and make the berry compote to go with the cake. Better make the compote first before the cake since it has to sit in the refrigerate for several hours; otherwise there may not be any cake left to go with the berry compote.

All I know is that it was a lot of lemon buttermilk poundcake in one month; a lot of fat and calories to process.

Batter Ingredients:
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 large eggs

3 egg yolk
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon strained lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup strained lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Berry Compote:
1 pint strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint blueberries
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:
Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Butter a 10-inch bundt pan and flour the buttered surface, shaking out the excess. Combine butter, sugar, flour and baking powder in mixer with paddle. Beat on low speed 2 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients and add to mixer in 3 additions, beating 1 minute between each addition. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour, until cake is well risen and well colored and a knife inserted between the edge and tube emerges clean. Place cake on a rack in pan. For glaze, combine water and sugar and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and vanilla. Unmold cake and brush glaze evenly all over outside of cake. Cool and wrap for storage. The berry compote, combine all ingredients, cover and refrigerate several hours, serve slices of the cake with the compote.

Recipe from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cooking-live/lemon-buttermilk-poundcake-recipe2/index.html