Lemon Drops

Our close friends from Sonoma have a wonderful large meyer lemon tree in their backyard. on our last visit we picked tons and brought them home. My daughter and husband spent some time squeezing them all and them we went to town making goodies....lemonade and of course lemon drop cupcakes :D Vanilla lemon cake, filled with lemon filling, and lemon buttercream! I have to say these for sure are my new favorites. The lemons were so sweet and fresh they made them amazing.



My friends have started telling me to stop giving out all me recipes but I have to give you guys something so here's the recipe for the lemon filling that goes inside :D

3/4 cup fine granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold filtered water
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
Juice of a medium lemon (about 1/4 cup) and finely grated zest (I left this out for my kids)

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until well blended. Whisk in egg yolks, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool to room temperature, without stirring. Before using mix a little. To fill cooled cupcake, cut the center of each cupcake. Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon filling into the cut-out center.
1 Tablespoon chilled unsalted butter

S'mores Cupcakes

I had this idea to make s'mores cupcakes. I found a few recipes online but finally just had to do it my way, it actually took 3 tries to get the frosting just where I wanted it but it finally worked :D

I was going to share the recipe but after having my friends try them they told me I should keep this one to myself as a specialty :) But, I will give you some ideas so you can experiment. After all that's half the fun!

Of course you have to have all the s'mores components: start off each cupcake with a gram cracker crust, top that with devils food cake, them fill them with rich chocolate fudge. Finally, top them off with marshmallow frosting, torch it with a kitchen torch and add a little piece of Hersey Chocolate.

Not only are they super cute but they are camp fire fun in a cupcake form !!!!

Chocolate Strawberry

Tonight for my daughter's girl scout meeting I made chocolate strawberry cupcakes. Basic devils food cupcakes with strawberry butter cream. They came out really cute and the girls loved them :D

Strawberry butter cream:
•1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
•1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract (optional)
•4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
•2 tablespoons milk (if needed)
Several drops of red or pink food coloring (I added one drop of blue to make it that raspberry color)

Slices of fresh strawberry and chocolate sprinkles to garnish

Cupcake Valentine's

This year we decided to pass out Cupcake Valentine's in my daughter's 3rd grade class. We made chocolate cherry cupcakes and decorated them with some adorable accessories we found :D We got Wilton's Valentine Cupcake Wraps'n Pix and Wilton's Valentine Small Treat Box ....we couldn't find enough of those so we used them for the girls and I got these really cute Valentine's Chinese food style containers at Michaels craft store for the boys cupcakes :D

They came out adorable and best of all we had so much fun making them :D

Chocolate raspberry

I decided to do a little twist on my basic butter cream and make a raspberry butter cream. Just made basic chocolate cupcakes and butter cream, added in some pink food coloring, raspberry extract and topped it off with a piece or raspberry filled Ghirardelli chocolate square :D

Cupcakes for Haiti !!!!

The other day I asked my 8 year old daughter if she knew about the awful disaster that had happened in Haiti. She told me she'd seen a commercial about it; how sad she was for them and that she wanted to do something to help. So, we decided to put our love of baking to good use.



We baked 100 cupcakes (from scratch none the less...I'm exhausted just writing to you LOL) and sold them for Haiti relief. My husband sold to his coworkers and our favorite local store,Children's Orchard, generously let us set up on their front counter for the day. In the end we were able to raise $99 (which is being donated to the Red Cross) She's SO proud of herself and I'm thrilled that she now knows she CAN make a difference.

Green tea with almond buttercream

It was a rainy Sunday so after taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese today we stopped by the Asian market and picked up some green tea powder (Matcha) to make the green tea cupcakes I've been wanted to try :D

I made a silly mistake and missed the fact that I didn't have quiet enough flour for the recipe, not wanting to send hubby or myself out in the rain I made a substitution. Needless to say the cupcakes themselves didn't come out quiet as visually appealing as I would have liked (they spread out more like a cookie than cake and got a little overly brown) but they tasted amazing !!!!! One or two more tries with all the flour I need and I'll have them just right. Plus, the almond butter cream was amazing...already thinking about what other cupcake I can put it on :)

Green Tea Cupcakes:
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablespoons of Edible Green® ground green tea (I used 2, might do 2 1/2 next)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and green tea. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes for standard size cupcakes (less for mini cupcakes), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
The batter is rather dense

Almond butter cream frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
1-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1-2 teaspoons almond extract (I went with 2 I liked it stronger)