Citrus Poppy Seed Cake

This citrus poppy seed cake is tender and moist. It is drenched in a citrus glaze for a cake that will stay fresh for several days.

This cake resembles a lemon poppy seed cake, except it combines lots of citrus flavors both in the cake and the glaze. This cake includes the flavors of grapefruit, lemons, and oranges, but you can substitute whatever citrus you have on hand.

Triple-Citrus Mousse Cake

This Triple-Citrus Mousse Cake includes the flavors of limes, lemons, and oranges folded into a delicious mixture of mascarpone, sweetened condensed milk, and whipped cream.

Each of the layers of this triple-citrus mousse cake are flavored with a different citrus flavor, including limoncello, orangecello, and a lime syrup or lime liqueur.

Margarita Sour Cream Muffins

These Margarita Sour Cream Muffins are light and fluffy....  and flavored with tequila!

Sometimes, cocktails are appropriate. At cocktail hour for example. They may not exactly work for breakfast. That's why you need Margarita Muffins! Do they contain tequila you ask?

Fork Cookies (or Fork Biscuits)

Fork biscuits are, according to the interwebs, a traditional English tea time treat. They are a butter cookie made with just three ingredients: butter, sugar, and self rising flour. They are crumbly and "sandy" in all of the right ways. They are also incredibly easy to make.

The dough is rolled into balls and then pressed down with a fork, the same way we make peanut butter cookies.

"Where is the salt?" you ask. So did I. You see, I do not live in one of the lands of self rising flour. Evidently self rising flour contains pastry flour, baking powder, and salt. Fortunately, you can make your own!

I also added the zest of a tangelo to give these cookies/biscuits a faint citrusy flavor. You can also make a chocolate version.

I found these cookies on Ros's blog, The More Than Occasional Baker. It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day, and I was assigned her blog, a chronicle of her passion for baking. It is filled with an amazing number of baked treats. If you love baking, you definitely need to spend some time on her site exploring all of the goodies.

Self Rising Flour

This makes enough for this recipe, plus a little left over. 

1 1/2 C (6 ounces) pastry flour (you can mix cake flour and all purpose flour if you can't find pastry flour)

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/8 tsp salt

Fork Biscuits

Makes 16 cookies. Ros adapted this recipe from Mary Berry.

Ingredients

4 ounces (one stick) unsalted butter, softened

50 grams sugar

The zest of one orange, tangelo, lemon, or tangerine

150 g self rising flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F and line one cookie/baking sheet with parchment.
2. Beat the butter until creamy and light. 
3. Slowly beat in the sugar and zest. 
4. Mix in the flour on low until just incorporated. Stir with a rubber spatula to finish blending. 
5. Scrape the dough onto a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap and form it into a rectangle or log. Cut into 16 equal pieces and roll them into balls. 
6. Press each ball down with a floured fork to flatten.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. 
8. Cool on a wire rack. 

Bittersweet Martini

The basis for this Bittersweet Martini is Aperol, a low alcohol Italian digestif made from bitter oranges, sweet oranges, rhubarb, and other root vegetables. It is somewhat like Campari, but with half the alcohol, and a much milder flavor.

It is best know as an ingredient in "The Spritz," an Italian cocktail with Aperol or some other bitter liqueur, procecco, and soda on the rocks.

This cocktail is so refreshing, with just enough bitterness to give it an "adult" flavor, but just enough sweetness to make it easy to sip on a warm evening.

Bittersweet Martini

Adapted from A Cocktail Life, makes one cocktail.

Ingredients

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce Aperol

1/2 ounce tangelo or tangerine juice (you can also use orange juice)

1/2 ounce lime juice (I used Bearss lime juice)

1 1/2 tsp frozen lemonade concentrate

Grapefruit, tangelo, tangerine, or orange twist

Instructions

1. Fill a shaker with ice and add the gin, Aperol, juices, and lemonade concentrate. 
2. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 
3. Twist the zest over the cocktail and drop it into the cocktail.

Enjoy!