Citrus Swirl Cake for Summer Celebrations

 

Let's begin with the inspiration!  You might remember the beautiful Pink Lemonade Picnic Cake from Tumbleweed Contessa that was a feature from June's Great Blog Train.  Hers is a gorgeous checkerboard!

 

 

I followed The Recipe at Tumbleweed Contessa and made just a couple of adjustments to suit our tastes.  First up, the original recipe was cut in half since it makes a really big cake!  Almond flour substituted for half of the cake flour.  This will be a very moist, dense batter.  I left out the lemon extract at this point, but it comes back a little later.

 

Once the batter was mixed, I added vanilla.  The batter was then divided into three somewhat equal portions.  In one, I added lemon extract and one drop of red food coloring for pink lemonade.  In a second bowl, I added the juice and zest of one lime along with one drop of green food coloring.  The third portion of batter remained vanilla with no food coloring.

 

 

Since I don't have a lovely checkerboard cake form, the three flavors were layered into a loaf pan.  Once baked, I drizzled lime glaze on top.  You can see I was too impatient to let the cake cool and glaze is all over the place!  ;-)  We love the warmth of vanilla swirled with the tart citrus of lemon and lime.

 

Yummy!

 

 

What are your favorite summer time desserts?

 

;-)  -Marci