Steak & Cake

The weather is absolutely beautiful! Last night we cooked out and had the last of the lemon cake I made last week. I got a big ole tri-tip from the store and did a rub/marinade with spices & olive oil. Then grilled it sloooooww & low on med-low heat for about an hour & 15 minutes.

Rub/Marinade
(Sorry these are not exactly precise measurements, I kind of eyeball stuff like this!)

In a bowl large enough for the steak
aprox 2-3 tsp Kosher Salt
aprox 1-2 T Black Pepper, I prettty much lightly coated both sides of the tri-tip, not sure exactly how much
Garlic Powder same as above
Paprika same as above
Finely chopped garlic 3-4 cloves
Olive oil drizzled a bit over it and rubbed it all into the steak- let marinate for 30+ minutes, grill to taste (medium rare is 130-135 degrees)


Lemon Cake
Here's the deal with my oven- IT'S TERRIBLE!!! We've been trying to get the landlord to replace it since we moved in, no luck yet. If a recipe for says 350 for 30 minutes it really means 225 for 22-26 minutes- I am finally starting to learn it's tricks, it isn't 100% consistent in it's suckyness. Therefore since the disaster that was my usually super-fun Christmas baking (we moved in Thanksgiving weekend, this has been a nightmare) this lemon cake is the FIRST thing that hasn't burned in some way shape or form. It's barley even a recipe since I was really just continuing to experiment with the temp and also I got a new Williams-Sonoma bundt cake pan keeper and wanted to use them! So....here's the UN-burned Lemon Cake
(I will double this next time because it made 1/2 a bundt!)

1 Box of yellow cake mix (also the oil, water & eggs)
2 tsp lemon extract
1 Lemon (for zest & juice)

Prepare cake according to box, except after adding the oil squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add 2 tsp lemon extract to the measuring cup- then add water to equal the correct amount (did that make sense?)
Then after eggs are mixed in add the zest of the lemon
Bake according to box

I frosted it with cream cheese frosting (my fave) and most of it went down Friday night after a celebratory dinner with friends.