Key Lime Pound Cake

1 cup Butter Flavored Crisco
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, room temperature
12 ounces cake flour (3 cups)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup bottled key lime juice

Glaze:
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons Key lime juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a standard size (12 cup) bundt pan.

In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening, butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add lemon zest and sugar and continue beating. Beat in vanilla, then one by one, beat in the eggs. Beat in salt. Add flour slowly, stirring by hand until fully incorporated. Stir in key lime juice; Bake for 1 ½ hours. Using a skewer, poke holes in hot cake.

Key Lime Glaze
In small saucepan, combine sugar, butter and key lime juice. Bring to boil. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Poke holes in bottom of cake and poor glaze over while it is still hot. Reserve some for after the cake is turned out.

Let cake cool for 10 minutes. Turn from pan and cool completely.

The recipe for the cake comes from Anna at "Cookie Madness".

Panna Cotta

2 ¾ tsp unflavored Gelatin
1 cup whole milk
3 cups heavy cream
½ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
fresh fruit for serving

In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over ¼ cup of the milk and let stand for 5 minutes. This will soften the gelatin.

Place the rest of the milk, cream, and sugar in a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil and remove from hear. Add about a ½ cup of the hot liquid to the gelatin mixture and whisk to dissolve, then pour the gelatin mixture back into the hot milk and cream. Add the vanilla and salt and whisk to combine.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a measuring cup pitcher, from here pour mixture into whatever vessel you want to serve it from. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 5 hours. Can be made a day in advance.

Citrus Variation:
Substitute 1 tsp of orange or lemon oil for the vanilla extract.

Tequila Lime Pie

For crust
1 pie shell, pre-baked.

For filling
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup tequila

2 egg whites
1 tablespoon sugar

Make filling:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Stir condensed milk and next 3 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Set condensed milk mixture aside.

Using electric mixer beat egg whites with sugar in large bowl until soft peaks form. Using rubber spatula, gently fold 1 1/2 cups condensed milk mixture into whites. Fold remaining milk mixture into whites until just incorporated.

Pour mixture into prepared crust. Bake until filling puffs up slightly and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist filling attached, about 40 minutes. Cool tart completely on rack. Chill until cold, at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours. Garnish tart with whipped cream and lime slices.

Butter Cookies

2 cups plus 2 tbsp cake flour
½ tsp salt
½ lb butter (2 sticks), softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together flour and salt on sheet of waxed paper.

Beat butter on high for about 5 minutes, or until pale yellow and fluffy. Add sugar and beat on medium high speed until mixture is very pale and very light, another 2-3 minutes. Scrape down bowl and add egg yolks and vanilla. Beat for 30 seconds or until incorporated. Add the flour and beat slowly at first for about 20 seconds.

Shape cookies for thumbprints, sandwiches, rolled or dropped. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-15 minutes.

Sugar Cookies

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ sticks butter, softened but still firm
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift the flour and salt onto a piece of waxed paper, set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, scarping the bowl down frequently. Add the egg and beat until incorporated, 20-30 seconds. Add the vanilla and beat another 10-20 seconds, or until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix on low speed for about 1 minute, or until fully mixed.

Bake at 325 degrees for 11-13 minutes.

These cookies can either be rolled or made as drop cookies. They need to be refrigerated for 2 hrs for rolling.

Chocolate Variation:

Replace ¼ cup of flour with cocoa powder, and add 2 oz of melted semisweet chocolate with the vanilla.

Citrus Variation:

Replace the tsp of vanilla with a tsp of citrus oil.