2nd Time Around

So as mentioned in my first post, so far I have only had one failure, Lemon Cupcakes. I don't know if it's because I let I guy help or I just wasn't on my baking game, but it just didn't work. So yesterday I had a pretty lousy day, except for the fact that my awesome boyfriend got us early screening tickets to The Dictator :-), any way baking something just needed to be done! I wanted to give the lemon cupcakes another go. Instead of redoing the recipe I had done before I wanted something new. I checked out Brown Eyed Baker , she is kinda awesome when it comes to baking and I'm sure I will be trying all of her recipes. She has and AMAZING Lemon Limonchello Cupcake and according to my co-workers AKA my food testers, they are perfect.

And I don't know if you know this but I love cooking with booze...here is the special ingredient

Here is what you will need:

For the cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons limoncello
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice
Zest of one lemon

For the lemon curd:
Zest of 2 lemons
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

For the cream cheese limoncello frosting:
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon limoncello
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

So fo you beginner bakers I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Lemon Zest is grating the lemon rhine. The first time I was using this I thought it was a product...looked up and down the produce and baking isle for ten minutes, even asked a clerk for help. Glad I wasn't the only one. Finally I called my mother and she que'd me in. I felt extremely dumb. So here it is:

Next Juice your lemons I found that three lemons is just enough. And if you want to go the lame route, you can just buy it. But you don't want to be lame do you?

Yeah that's right. You're looking at my freshly juiced lemons flowing into my Princess Leia Star Wars glass...

And I continue...

Set your oven to 350 please. Then in a bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt whisk it a bit then  set it aside. In another bowl take an electric mixer (if you don't have one I don't know why you are hear 

:-) ) beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. I don't know what it is but not added them all together really makes a difference.

 Add the limoncello and beat an additional minute.  Add 1/4 of the flour mixture and 1/4 buttermilk alternatively until all is added. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix. Add to papered pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.

ON TO THE LEMON CURD!

In a medium saucepan, stir together the lemon zest, juice and sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Whisk the lemon mixture into the eggs. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking CONSTANTLY until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool completely. It should look something like this:

AND ONTO THE ICING!!!!

 With your electric mixer beat the butter and cream cheese until light and creamy. Add the limoncello and beat for an additional minute. Reduce the speed gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

 Now use you're imagination as to how to get a tiny crater in your cupcake. The consistency of these cakes are a bit different than the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. So I really couldn't just take my 1 tsp and shove it in there. This time I took a meat thermometer and just pressed it down about half way...hey it worked.

Here is a piping bag tip:

Shove the bag into a glass and fold the bag over the lip. That gives you two hand to get your frosting in the bag. It's super easy!

I took this pic after I had pulled up the sides. So just imagine the access folded down the side of the glass!

This is the tip I used, but you use anyone you want!

 Here is them Iced:

I decided to get a little fancy and add a quater of a lemon slice. If you want to do this, dry them out on a towel first. if you just cut 'em and stick 'em the juice from the lemon will make it soggy

and it will slouch.

And here is the final product!

I think they turned out wonderful. And I will defiantly make them again!

Keep Mixing,

Jessica