Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey

I've been busy, lately. Like...mega-busy. I feel like September disappeared almost as fast as it began. For this reason, I am going to try and play "catch-up" with my blog. I do have some exciting news, though. I officially launched my cupcake business the first week of September. I am officially a home-based vendor, and my business is called 'Sweet Little Affair.' Cute, huh? I thought so. Basically, I'll be baking cupcakes and selling from my home. I am hoping to drum up some business during the holidays, so you'll probably see quite a few Fall & Winter themed cupcakes within the next few weeks, in preparation of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This cupcake came together really quickly, and it really wasn't planned. My friend had mentioned she wanted a lemon cupcake, so I picked up a bag of lemons and head home, hoping I could throw something together. This cupcake was very dense, but delicious. The lemon flavor came through the cake wonderfully, and the frosting did a great job of highlighting it as well. The recipe only made a dozen cupcakes, but the frosting could have possibly frosted 2 dozen, if you decide to double it.

Lemon Cream Cupcakes
inspired by The Baker Chick

For the Cupcake:
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese
2 Tbsp lemon zest (about 2 small medium lemons)
2/3 c sugar
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

For the frosting:
5 oz pkg cream cheese
2 c confectioners' sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp lemon

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and prepare your cupcake pans, by lining them with cupcake papers.
In your mixer bowl, cream together the cream cheese, lemon zest, and sugar. Beat for 2-3 minutes, or until smooth, then add eggs, one at a time. Combine flour, baking powder, and sugar in a separate bowl. Reduce mixer speed to low, and slowly add flour mixture. Mix for about minute, or until  just combined.

Scoop batter into cupcake pan, and bake at 325 for 20 minutes, or until tops are firm. Make sure you touch the tops, as these cupcakes are very pale, and they really won't brown on top, like others do.
Allow to cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then cool on wire rack.

While cupcakes cool, prepare your frosting. Combine cream cheese, zest, juice, and vanilla in mixer bowl. Beat until creamy, then add confectioners' sugar. Beat until smooth. You can add more sugar, if frosting is too soft, or more juice if too stiff.

Pipe, or spread on completely cooled cupcakes, then ENJOY!

Lemon and Raaaazz-berry Beret....

I have a confession. I don't love raspberries. I barely like them. I'm not a super huge fan of the taste, and I am FAR from a fan of the seediness. (Is that a word, 'seediness'? I'm sure you catch my drift) So why would I make a raspberry cupcake, you ask? Well, it's a lemon cupcake and I *heart* lemon anything. Plus, I like raspberry filling in donuts. Maybe it would be like a raspberry filled lemon donut...? 

The result was surprisingly delicious. The homemade raspberry curd concerned me, initially, because it was pretty tart, but when it was combined with the sweetness of the lemon cupcake and the frosting, everything evened out. How awesome was it to see the shock an awe on the faces of my coworkers when they bit into it, just to find a raspberry treat inside?!? These were great - a real hit for both raspberry loves, and non-lovers. I think these would make perfect wedding or baby shower treats due to their sweetness and semi-fanciness! 

Raspberry filled Lemon Cupcakes

Inspired by Smells Like Home

For the raspberry curd:

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and dried

5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 c granulated sugar

pinch of salt

For the Cupcakes:

2 1/3 c cake flour

2 3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

5 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 1/2 c granulated sugar

5 Tbsp lemon zest

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 c whole milk

For the Lemon Buttercream

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 c shortening

2 Tbsp lemon zest

3 c confectioners' sugar

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream

Let's start with the raspberry curd. 

Melt butter in medium saucepan, then add raspberries, egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Cook at medium heat, while mashing berries. Make sure you stir constantly, because you don't want your eggs to scramble! Continue to stir until mixture is nice and thick, about 15 minutes. Set a mesh sieve over a bowl, and pour mixture into it, working it through with a wooden spoon. Once you've extracted as much juice as you can, discard of solids, and set aside to cool. Curd will thicken as it cools, but to help it along you can put it in the fridge until you are ready for it. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl - set aside. In a clean mixer bowl, whip egg whites at medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and increase mixer speed to high. Whip until stiff peaks form. Transfer meringue to clean bowl and set aside. Rinse out your mixer bowl,  and replace whisk attachment with paddle attachment. Beat butter until smooth, then gradually add sugar. Add lemon zest, then beat mixture until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with flour. Once incorporated, remove bowl from mixer and mix in about 1/4 of the whites with a spatula. Once blended in, fold in the rest of the whites, gently. Continue folding until you see no more white streaks. 

Scoop batter into cupcake lined pan, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until tops bounce back when touched. Remove from oven, cool in pan for 5 minutes, then cool the rest of the way on a rack. 

While cupcakes cool, and curd continues to thicken, make your frosting! In your mixer, beat butter, shortening, and zest until light and fluffy. Begin adding sugar, about 1/2 a cup at a time, and add lemon juice as needed to reach a semi firm consistency. Add whipping cream and whip for about 2 minutes until it's very light and cloud-like. 

To assemble, core out the center of your cupcake with a cupcake corer (or a paring knife - the corer is easier and more fun!) Use a piping back to fill each core. The curd will seem almost too thin to be a filling, but it will continue to thicken within cupcake (I know -- weird!) 

Once cupcakes are filled, pipe frosting on top, garnish with a fresh raspberry, then dig in!!

Strawberry cheesecake forever......

I love cheesecake, but I'm always nervous about baking it. I've prepared a few cheesecakes, and almost all of them turned out great. Every once in a while I have a flop. For some reason their process just intimidates me! That's crazy, right? Why would a type of food be intimidating? Well...it just IS. You know what else is intimidating? Pie crust. Yup....I have a billion of those "no fail" pie crust recipes in my kitchen, but I'm afraid of them. My husband loves pie, but I am scared of the crust, so I don't make it...then he gets no pie. That makes him sad. What else scares me? FRYING. Yeah....hot oil scares the heebie jeebies out of me. Well, it's not that I'm afraid of the oil (unless it splatters and burns me) it's the actual frying part. I mean, if the oil is too hot, the outside burns, the inside is raw....if the oil is to cool, then the stuff doesn't cook right. I'm just not comfortable enough with myself to successfully fry something.

Okay....getting back to the point I initially started on....cheesecake. It's good, and intimidating....so how about we make a cupcake version instead? There are a few different cupcake-cheesecake recipes I'd like to try, but this one was the first. It wasn't tough..and really, the cheesecake part of it is the frosting, so actually, it was easy.

PLUS to take this baby over the top, I filled it with some strawberry-rhubarb jam. Mmmm....delish!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cheesecake Cupcakes
Inspired by Doughmesstic

For the cupcake:
3 c cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c sugar
5 eggs
1 1/4 c buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 c unsalted butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, softened

4 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp water, if needed

For filling:

Strawberry-Rhubarb jam (I found this at my local farmers market, but if you can't find this, I'm sure that just Strawberry jam will work, too)

For the garnish:
Strawberries, halved

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line cupcake pans with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Scrape your vanilla bean into your mixer, and cream seeds and butter together, for about 4 minutes, until light and creamy. Scrape down your bowl, and mix for another 2 minutes, or so. Slowly add sugar to butter, about 1/4 c at a time, scraping bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time to mixer bowl, making sure that they incorporate well. Once eggs are mixed in, add vanilla and beat for another minute, until everything looks incorporated. Set mixer to low, and begin alternately adding dry's and buttermilk into mixer bowl....starting and ending with the drys. Once mixed in, switch off mixer and mix with a spatula, to ensure all is blended in.

Grab your scooper, and scoop batter into your cupcake pans, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 18 minutes, or until tops bounce back when touched. Cool in the pans for about 7 minutes, then remove to rack to finish cooling.

While they cool, make your frosting!

Combine butter, cream cheese, and vanilla in mixer, and beat with paddle attachment, until smooth, which for me was about 2 minutes. Making sure mixer is on low, add powdered sugar, about 1/4 c at a time. If frosting is too stiff, add a few drops of water.

To assemble these beauties, I cored them out, and filled them with the jam. If you don't have a corer, you can use one of the filling frosting tips, and squeeze some filling in center of each cupcake. If you are squeezing it in, squeeze until cupcake looks like it's cracking and going to explode. If coring, then just fill the hole. Once your cupcakes are filled, pipe your cheesecake frosting to cover hole, and garnish with a strawberry.