Many of you know each week I chat with Matt Swaim on the Sonrise Morning Show, Sacred Heart Radio. Today we talked about the miracles with food that were performed during Bible days.

For example, water turned into wine at Cana.

Another example: 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah visits the home of a poor widow and her son. He says to her, “Make me something to eat!” She responds, “As the Lord lives, all I have is a little meal in my jar and a little oil in my vessel. I’m gathering some sticks right now to make something for me and my son before we die!”
Elijah instructs her to first make a cake and bring it to him and then to feed herself and her son, adding: “For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be spent, and the vessel of oil shall not fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” And it happened. Her little jar of meal and vessel of oil miraculously continued to produce until it was no longer needed.

So with Memorial Day right around the corner, I wanted to share what I call cakes that feed the multitudes – a big crowd. Don’t worry, though, if you have leftovers. These are good keepers, too.

BERT‘S EASY CITRUS CAKE WITH SECRET GLAZE

Some of you remember those vintage chiffon cakes that are making a comeback. These “from scratch” cakes contain a good amount of oil and eggs. Well here’s one that has the light texture of a chiffon cake but with none of the work. My friend, Bert, when we were catering together, often made this cake in the summer for our clients. If you like citrus, you’ll love this cake.

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9×13 pan

Beat on medium speed about 4 or so minutes, then pour into pan:

1 box lemon cake mix (I used Duncan Hines lemon supreme)

3 oz. box lemon gelatin, not sugar free

4 large eggs3/4 cup water

3/4 cup Canola oil

Meanwhile, make a glaze:

Glaze

The secret here is the oil – it makes a glaze similar to a glazed donut!

Whisk together:

1 tablespoon Canola oil

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 generous cup confectioner’s sugar – enough to make a pourable glaze 

Bake 30 minutes or so until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

After cake comes out of the oven, immediately poke it all over on top with a fork to make holes, not quite halfway down through the cake. Pour the glaze over the hot cake, letting it seep into the holes. Let it cool to set the glaze before eating. (If you can wait that long!).

What happens if you can’t find lemon cake mix? As sometimes happens when I put a recipe in the paper using a store bought ingredient, the stores run out. If that happens and you can’t wait until they get more in, a yellow cake mix works OK.

7 UP CAKE FROM SCRATCH

For Tom, who cut this out of the Enquirer a while back but lost it. I haven’t made this cake but it sure looks yummy.

Preheat oven to 325. 

Prepare pan: Grease /spray and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan or tube/angel food pan. (After adding flour, turn pan upside down to shake out excess – I make sure there’s a thin coating of flour inside of every crevice of the pan. Or use baking spray that contains both oil and flour).

3 sticks real butter, unsalted or regular, room temperature (12 oz.)

3 cups sugar

5 eggs, room temperature

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup 7 Up, not diet

Cream butter and sugar together for 10 minutes or so. That’s a long time, I know, but will give great results. You can even go up to 20 minutes if you like!

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Add flour, salt and extracts.

Fold in 7-Up.

Bake for 1 to 1-1/4 hours.  When a toothpick inserted deep into the center comes out clean, it’s done. Check after about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Lemon glaze #1

Whisk together:

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice