First off, Happy Birthday to my beautiful mom!!!! Found time to type this up to greet her here with a cake delicious enough to be served on a birthday!
Breakfast Cake!
I mean, that totally got my attention! Italian food is one of the best food in the world, hands down, but did you know they actually have a breakfast cake? As in a cake traditionally eaten for breakfast?? 😋 The few Italians I know who grew up in Italy remember eating a citrusy cake for breakfast. Must be so nice!
I can’t wait to try this as when I mentioned it to my son, he was equally excited to try it too. He said “why can’t WE eat cake for breakfast too?” And I told him I’ll make sure we will have it for breakfast one day!
1. Separate the eggs, placing the egg whites in a clean, medium sized bowl. Set egg whites aside.
2. Place the yolks into a large bowl.
3. Add in the sugar,
4. the salt,
5. and the lemon zest.
6. Beat well, using a hand mixer or a wire whisk.
7. It’ll look like bight yellow granulated sugar.
8. Add in the vegetable oil,
9. and the milk. Beat well.
10. Add the flour,
11. and baking powder and mix everything together until it is well combined.
12. Go back to the egg whites we set aside earlier. Using a clean hand mixer, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
13. Fold in half the egg whites into the yolk mixture.
14. Fold everything together carefully until blended.
15. Fold in the rest of the egg whites until well mixed.
16. Pour the mixture into a greased 10-11 inch(28 cm) ring-shaped baking pan (a bundt pan or angel food cake pan will do in a pinch) and bake at 350F for about 40-45 minutes.
17. Leave the cake to cool before removing from pan.
I really did NOT need another kitchen gadget but this amazing lady I follow (Impulse to Legend on FB and instagram) started using a Sun Oven and posting the results on her page. It was nothing short of amazing.
I snapped one up right away! I definitely can see the many uses of this:
1. In the summer, it’s often too hot to use the oven. But the sun’s intensity during these months will make using the sun oven outside a brilliant idea.
2. Sunlight is abundant almost year round here in Southern California, a totally eco-friendly alternative to gas or electricity.
3. Sunlight is free! I can bake to my heart’s content without using precious resources. As long as you can cast a shadow on the ground, you can cook!
4. It is super portable, it folds up like a small suitcase and weighs just a bit over 20 pounds.
5. It is perfect for camping, no fuel required and no fire danger issues! A great plus specially in high fire danger areas like here in California.
6. Food won’t burn. I still do not understand how this works but yes, I left a pan of my bread rolls there for over 2 1/2 hours (not on purpose though, got busy and forgot about it) and it was just perfect.
7. Food won’t dry out. It cooks/bakes with moist heat, unlike the oven, but it is not wet like steam cooking. You can see moisture accumulate on the inside of the glass door when you cook. The chicken I baked was cooked through but moist and tender.
8. Emergency situations when power is out. A perfect excuse for me to get this item, like mentioned above, as long as there is sunlight, I can cook and bake.
9. Cooking/baking while on the beach anyone? I see people lugging grills and stoves and even a pizza oven once! I am not one of these people but you could totally bring this too! Me, I just take some drinks, fruits or chips, and sometimes sandwiches. I like to just chill on the blanket or body board at the beach.
I love this oven so much that I asked Sun Ovens to allow me to market these and they gave me a special link. These are affiliate links, where in I might earn a little commission when someone buys the oven using my link, without affecting your purchase price at all. It helps keep my blog going, and I truly appreciate any support.
Click here to attend a free webinar that runs every Tuesday and Thursday evening. During the webinar, each participant will be emailed a link to a special offers page where they will be able to purchase an All American Sun Oven with $118 worth of free products! This includes a free oven cover and their latest cookbook: https://www.sunoven.com/brighter-way-webinar/ref/bluedolphins_tere@yahoo.com
I made it into 24 rolls, and placed 12 dough balls in 2 13×9 pans. I placed the pan in the Sun Oven, stacking the second pan on top. Of course accidents happen and it dropped straight down, flattening the rolls below. Oh well…..I guess flat bread is still bread.
It baked for less than an hour before it was golden brown and the fragrance of baking bread was wafting in the backyard. Time to get it out!
When I removed the pan, I realized that bread in the bottom pan was not browned so I adjusted the oven and left the second pan in there. I forgot about it and got it about 2 1/2 hours later. I’m happy to report that it browned and even though I left if too long, it did NOT burn.
Next was a whole chicken. Now, this I had to finish browning in the Ninja Grill as I started past 4 pm. I spatchcocked the chicken, rubbed it with salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary. Grabbed a lemon from the yard and sprinkled lemon juice over it before placing it in the preheated oven.
I left it for about an hour, but by then my backyard is no longer sunny, as a matter of fact, it is completely shaded by the house. I moved the oven to the front yard and left it for a few minutes but decided to finish it up in the Ninja Grill. It took about 20 minutes to brown the chicken nicely and cook it thoroughly.
I replaced the brown sugar with Splenda brown sugar, used sugar free chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. Poured the batter into 2 greased loaf pans and into the preheated Sun Oven they went.
It was in the oven from 1:27pm to 2:19pm and it was done!!! Golden brown and smelling delicious!
It does look like it was baked in a regular oven but the bread is moist and very flavorful. Not dry at all.
Look at the slices below! They are absolutely beautiful!
So next, since it was still a bit sunny, I decided to cook this Spaghetti Squash that is in my panty. I cut it in half lengthwise, removed the seeds using a spoon to scrape it away, placed it cut side down on a baking pan, and placed it in the oven.
I decided to leave it there until past dinner, hoping the residual heat will cook it through. I wasn’t mistaken. It cooked wonderfully!
See how it looks like spaghetti? The video below is to show you how tender it was.
I totally recommend this oven if you are like me and want to bake in the middle of summer! I will keep experimenting with recipes that I can bake in it, hoping to use it all year long.
