Meyer Lemon & Olive Oil Tea Cakes

Foodie Friday!

Please click the logo above to learn more about Foodie Friday, hosted by dear Michael on her blog "Designs by Gollum".

One of the things I particularly miss about my home state of California is
homegrown citrus. Citrus just doesn't thrive in the Pacific Northwest, so to get around this I grow a few citrus trees and bushes in large pots and bring them in to overwinter indoors.

I have a couple of Meyer lemon plants (in 6 gallon pots), the more mature of the two plants rewarded us with almost 6 pounds of fruit (!) this season.

The fruit is ready to pick in the cooler months, and the good thing about having the plant is that you can leave the fruit on the tree or bush for a few months, picking as needed. The shot above is a portion of the recent harvest.

Grocery store lemon & Meyer lemon. (Meyer lemon is on the right side.)

By now probably everyone knows the difference between regular supermarket lemons (Eureka, Lisbon, etc.) and Meyer lemons... but if not I cut them open side-by-side so you can see the difference in the skin and flesh. The Meyers are usually a little smaller, and have a much more delicate perfume, and flavor. The flesh from the homegrown ones yield more juice per lemon, and the tender skin contains more citrus oil in my experience.

The plants really require very little care, just regular watering when the soil becomes nearly dry, I feed mine 2 or 3 times a year with an all-purpose plant food. Just place them in a sunny spot, and bring them indoors during the colder months. They do not tolerate freezing weather.

One thing to keep in mind, if you grown your own ~ if you leave the ripe fruit on the plant beyond spring the plant will not produce as many blossoms so your yield the following season won't be as plentiful.

It was time to pick the remaining Meyers, so I'll be making several "lemony" things in the next few days...

Today I began with these yummy tea cakes.

They are quite delicious, you can make them into these little bite-size cakes, cupcakes, or a single layer tea cake. And the GOOD news is that you can either make the cake from scratch, or flavor-up a boxed yellow cake mix. The results are pretty darn similar.

The recipe I usually use can be found HERE... but this time I used the boxed layered cake mix, and I doubt anyone could tell the difference unless they were served side-by-side.

To make it the short-cut way (with the boxed yellow-cake mix), substitute 1/2 cup of lemon juice for half of the 1 cup of water called for (1/2 cup lemon juice & 1/2 cup water), replace the oil with olive oil, and add a tablespoon (or more to taste) of finely grated lemon zest to the batter.

They are moist, lemony and positively irresistible!

If you try them, I hope you love them as much as my family does.

And if you have any desire at all to grow your own citrus, I hope you'll give it a go ~ it's very rewarding.

Thank you for stopping by to visit today, and Happy Foodie Friday Everyone!