Easter Dinner

We went quite traditional, although we missed the potatoes au gratin because the casserole J was going to cook them in shattered, full of potatoes, after the burner it was sitting on was accidentally turned on. That was a little too much excitement for me! We did a spiral ham, steamed asparagus, broccoli cheese casserole, reheated mashed potatoes from the other night and biscuits. I also made a lovely 3-layer citrus cake. I jotted the recipe down from some magazine or book and forgot to write down which one. How frustrating! But, it turned out delicious!

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

6 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. flour
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 & 1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets & steamed
3 eggs, beaten
Topping:
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. dry breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter. Add flour and mix until smooth. Add soup. Cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add cheese & stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add broccoli & eggs. Put into greased casserole or 13x9 baking dish. In small pan, melt 1 tbsp. butter. Add breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake 30 minutes.

3-Layer Citrus Cake

1 c. butter, room temp
1/4 c. Crisco
2 c. sugar
5 eggs
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter and Crisco with sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix the flour, baking soda and powder and salt together. Add to butter mixture, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry mixture. Add extracts. Pour into 3 greased & floured 9" round cake pans. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting (I actually had to double this recipe to cover the whole cake, which gave me extra for the kids to eat between graham crackers):
1/2 c. butter, room temp
3 tbsp. orange juice (freshly-squeezed)
3 tbsp. lemon juice (you can sub some key lime juice for part of this)
1-2 tbsp. fine orange zest
1-2 tbsp. fine lemon zest
1 tsp. lemon extract
5-6 c. powdered sugar

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add juices, zests and extract. Gradually add powdered sugar until you have a good spreading consistency. I actually also added just enough red and yellow food color to make a beautiful pale orange color. It was a beautiful Easter cake, seeing as I didn't have my lamb pan out of storage.