Key Lime Cupcakes

Last year I offered my baking services to the Sacramento Children’s Chorus and pledged to bake a dessert each month for the highest bidder in a silent auction.  I’ve actually loved fulfilling my commitment because the winner has requested some desserts that are not in my regular arsenal.  This month, he requested a key lime pie.  As I set out to baking said pie today, I looked around my kitchen.  I had lime juice, zest, and enough whipped cream topping to act as frosting!

And the Key Lime Cupcake was born.

I wanted this cupcake to be super light, so I decided on a white cake as the base.  This also work well since I only used egg yolks for the key lime pie.  Yay to me for being efficient with my ingredients!  The white cake, kicked up a notch with lime juice and zest, turned out fluffy and cloud-like.    Because of this, I’m really glad I decided to use a whipped cream topping.  Anything else, like a butter cream or cream cheese frosting, would be so heavy I swear these little cakes would collapse.

With the frosting, I’m trying something new: stabilized whipped cream.  I found instructions for it here and it claims that the addition of the gelatin adds a bit more body and prevents the melting of the whipped cream as the cakes sit and wait to be eaten.  Because I’ll be taking these to share with co-workers and fellow volunteers tomorrow, I think that this whipped cream was the perfect choice.

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Piña Colada Cupcakes

It is summer time!  My school year is almost complete – just two more finals to give to students – and then I will be FREE for a few months.  I have wonderful trips planned to Alaska and Europe, so there will be few cupcake posts this summer (not like there have been many recently).

Anyway, to celebrate the end of the school year, some colleagues and I are throwing a BBQ.  I asked them what flavor cupcake they wanted, and piña colada was the answer.  A good summer cupcake, me thinks.

In fact, these were some of my best in a LONG time.  The cupcake was fluffy and moist (thanks to the crushed pineapple), and I whipped the frosting into a nice consistency.  One of my coworkers, with whom these were shared, described the frosting as being light and yet rich.  Score!

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Happy Spring! Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Saddened by the cupcake not looking that pretty…but they tasted wonderful!

I’ve been dreaming about that Swiss meringue buttercream since I made the Andes Mint Cupcakes!  The texture was so silky and light, like a cloud.  I knew I had to do another cupcake with it, so I did.

In my CSA produce delivery box I received both strawberries and lemons this week.  So, that became the theme for today.  I usually use all of my CSA delivery to inspire my dinners, and I rarely use it in baking.  But this just made sense.  I mean, spring is starting, today was Easter Sunday, and a strawberry and lemon cupcake will be absolutely perfect.

Also, my parents recently purchased a stand mixer.  Having never even played with one before, and as I was making cupcakes at their house today, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out a Swiss meringue buttercream the “easy” way.

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49er Faithful – Black Forest Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

It has finally happened – the San Francisco 49ers have prevailed and will be playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday!  My father has claimed that his children have always brought the 49ers luck.  A month after my brother was born, our boys won their first national championship.  Just 15 days after I was born, they won their second.  They have been undefeated since then in their five Super Bowl games.  I am just hoping with all hope that this Sunday they can make it six!

To celebrate, I have developed a deep, rich, and tangy cupcake to show my love for my team.  I am borrowing my all-time favorite chocolate cupcake recipe (developed for a Super Bowl party three years ago), filling it with tangy and boozey cherries, with a topping of red and gold pride in the form of a rich cream cheese frosting.  Start the cherry filling a few days ahead so the cherries can reach full re-hydration and flavor.

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Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a friend’s wedding shower.  I do have to admit that I’m still having problems with the density of my cupcakes when I put alcohol in them.  These were delicious and fresh, but were a little dense and muffin-like.  The lime really shone through, and you can taste the rum in the frosting.  If you prefer a stronger rum flavor, add more rum in the frosting, but be sure to counteract it with powdered sugar so your proportions don’t get off!

These are pretty and perfect for summer!

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This Year’s Easter Dessert – Mimosa Cupcakes!

Mimosa Cupcake

I made a cupcake similar to these for a friend’s birthday during the break from the blog.  But here they are now, ready for Easter!  I don’t know about anyone else,  but our family celebrates any holiday with some wine, beer, or any other drink.  So, mimosa cupcakes are great for our Easter dessert.

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Gluten Free Cupcakes: Lemon Almond

Lemon Almond Gluten Free Cupcakes

A friend of mine who recently had a birthday has  a twin sister who is gluten-intolerant, so when the invite for the potluck party was made, it was pretty clear that I was going to make gluten-free cupcakes.

Since it is finally summer in this city, it seemed like a citrus-combo cupcake was a best-fit for the weather and a backyard barbeque.

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Coconut Chili Lime Cupcakes

Ignore the sloppily-applied shaved coconut decoration

I suspect that I’m feeling fanciful and antsy because…well, probably because I’m an energetic person who has a hard time focusing when I don’t get out DO incredibly active things every day.  I suspect this is why bicycle commuting works so well for me.

That’s really neither here nor there; what’s actually relevant is that I wanted to do something unexpected.  I had been planning to make Chili Chocolate, and then I realized that would be very similar to Mels’ Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, and somehow that ended with me telling everything within IMing distance that I was going to make Coconut Chili Lime Cupcakes.

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Lemon Gluten-Free Vegan Cupcakes with Lemon Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

The pink is so pink!

Okay, so, gluten-free vanilla cupcakes I suspected might be a wee bit dodgy, so I decided to doctor them up with lemon extract and lemon zest.

As it turns out, this was a really good decision, not the least because of the oddly intense yellow that the corn flour lends to the cupcakes.  Not that you can quite tell in the photo to the left, but trust me: they are quite quite yellow.

I have mixed feelings on the texture…it felt a little gritty, but that might be because I hadn’t ground the flax seeds well enough?  Unclear.

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Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Lemon & White Chocolate Whipped Cream

Man, the chocolate shavings are pretty.

D Clark won our 100th comment contest, and since D Clark has also made it clear for months that I need to make Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes, a la Trader Joe’s cookies that I have never had, that is what Mels and I will be working with.

Recently, while trawling other baking blogs, I ran across this recipe at Smitten Kitchen (where I also found the inspiration for the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombs) and knew immediately what I wanted to do.

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