Gluten- Free Lemon Cupcakes

Recently I threw a big beautiful baby for a friend and co-worker of mine recently. The theme was Children's Books with a gray and yellow color scheme. Since the mommy-to-be's MIL has a gluten intolerance, I did my best to accommodate and provide some food and dessert options for her.  

 

I made a regular Strawberry cupcake with Strawberry buttercream frosting and then make a semi-homemade Gluten-Free Lemon Cupcake with Lemon Buttercream.

 

 

Semi-Homemade Lemon Cupcakes

 

1 box (15 oz) Betty Crocker® Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup water
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, stir cake mix, water, 1/2 cup melted butter, the eggs and lemon peel just until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

Gluten Free Lemon Frosting 

• ½ cup butter at room temperature
• ¼ cup cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar (make sure it’s made with corn starch)
• 2-3 tablespoons half & half
• a drizzling of more freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

• Whip butter and cream cheese together using a standing mixer with the paddle attachment: whip together at medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Slowly add sifted sugar to icing on slow speed, gently increasing to medium speed for 5 minutes.
• Mix in other ingredients and continue mixing until smooth, fluffy, and creamy.

Hawkeye Graduates

Another school year has come to an end....congrats to all the new graduates of 2012!!

This weekend the University of Iowa is holding their commencements and we know two wonderful students who will be receiving their diplomas.

  These two special students requested chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I adorned these yummy graduations cupcakes with tiny little graduation caps, cute little diplomas, the U of I Tigerhawk, and a “2012” pennant. I think they turned out adorable!!

Congrats Matt and Casey on your huge accomplishment!

Hawkeye Cupcakes

This past weekend we celebrated the home opener of the Iowa Hawkeye's Football season. I made themed cupcakes to match.

These are Chocolate Chip cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream and a marshmallow fondant "I"

These are a Lemon cupcake with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting and a marshmallow fondant tiger hawk I hand drew with an edible marker.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

This is the first year we have fresh strawberries in the garden and they keep growing faster than we can eat! So I have been on the hunt for some delicious recipes and came across these gems. It uses one pint of fresh strawberries and a fresh lemon, however I used all my lemons for the strawberry lemonade cupcakes so I just used lemon juice out of the bottle which worked just as good!  These muffins stay nice and moist from the fresh strawberries and the glaze adds an extra touch of sweetness.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

Makes about 20 muffins

Muffin:
2 1/2 cups four

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk**
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (1 pint) fresh strawberries, chopped

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp milk
dash salt

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Zest your lemon and add to the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Add chopped strawberries to flour mixture and toss to coat.

Juice lemon. In another medium mixing bowl combine the beaten egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and lemon. Whisk until well incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

Line your muffin tins with paper liners then spray the insides with cooking spray. Spoon batter into the muffin tins till almost full as they don't rise up a lot.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan for about 10 minutes then transfer to wife rack to cool completely.

While they are still warm, whisk together all glaze ingredients and then spoon over the top of the muffins.

These muffins are great warm from the oven, but taste even better the second day. They are a great make ahead recipes.

**Baking Tip: If you don't have buttermilk just combined 3/4 cup regular milk with 2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice and let stand a few minutes to sour. Works great as a substitute!!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Lemonade is a perfect summer time drink for all those warm summer days. Since I love everything in cupcake form I thought these Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes would be a perfect treat for the housewarming party. They are made with fresh strawberries straight from the garden! This is our first year with strawberries and I absolutely love having them on hand in the backyard, I just can't use them fast enough!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Triple Lemon Cake- Makes 18 cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2 ounces cream cheese, room temp
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with liners. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Add sugar and lemon zest to mixing bowl or stand mixer and rub zest into sugar with your fingertips until well distributed and fragrant, Add the butter and cream cheese to the sugar and beat until light and creamy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating about 1 minutes after each egg. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, beating on low speed until just incorporated. Add 1/2 of buttermilk, once incorporated add the next 1/4 of the flour mix, followed by remaining buttermilk and remaining flour, beating each addition until just incorporated. Add lemon juice, beating until combined on low speed.

Transfer batter to muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup diced strawberries
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 lb powdered sugar

Cream butter in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add in strawberries and lemon extract and beat until most of the chunks are gone. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium and whip for about thirty seconds. Place in a piping bad and decorate as desired. Tip with a fresh strawberry if desired.

SuperBowl Cupcakes

I'm so happy to be back in the kitchen and had just in time for the Super Bowl! I some fun with this year's Super Bowl by making themed cupcakes! I'm so happy how they turned out. This was my first time carving fondant and using the Edible markers.

I used the Marshmallow Fondant recipe which I kept some white and tinted some green.

These I made a few days earlier (my snow day from work).

Go Packers!

Yellow cake with lemon filling and a butter cream frosting

Yellow Cake

• 1 1/1 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• Directions

1. Position rack in middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with liners
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Put milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat over low heat just until hot; it should measure about 150 degree in a thermometer (this won't take long). Remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs, egg yolk and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 3 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and almond extract. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Slowly mix in the hot milk mixture until the batter is smooth.
4. Fill cupcake liners with 1/3 cup of batter to about 1/4 inch below top of liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and toothpick comes out clean, about 17-22 minutes.
5. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Then transfer cupcakes to wire rack to finish cooling.

Lemon Filling

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, heat the butter and lemon juice over medium heat until the butter melts and mixture is hot.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together to blend, then whisk in the dissolved cornstarch. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot butter and lemon juice into the yolk mixture.
3. Return mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a large spoon, just until it comes to a boil and thickens; it will take about 6 minutes. When thickens, the sauce will leave a path on the back of the spoon if you draw your finger across it and looks clear rather than cloudy.
4. Immediately remove from heat, strain into a small bowl, and stir in lemon zest. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sauce (this prevents a skin from forming on the top of the lemon curd), use a toothpick to poke a few holes i the plastic wrap to let steam escape, and refrigerate until cold.
5. Once filling is cold and firm, place into a piping bag and fill your cupcakes. This filling can also be froze for up to 3 months!

Go Steelers!

Chocolate sour cream cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream frosting

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes

• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over but not touching a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the water and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set side.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl as needed. On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate.
4. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter. Add the vanilla and beat until mixture looks creamy and the color has lightened slightly, about 1 minutes.
5. Mix in sour cream until no white streaks remain. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporated, mix in water and then remaining flour mixture until batter is smooth.
6. Pour into cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 17-22 minutes. Cool

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, at room temp

Directions:

1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over but not touching a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and smooth. Remove from water and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a large bowl. Add the butter, and using an electric mixer on low speed, beat until smoothly blended, about 2 minutes. At first the mixture will look crumbly, but then it will form a smooth mass.
3. Beat in melted chocolate. add vanilla an cream, mixing to incorporate. On medium speed, beat frosting for at least 3 minutes, until it looks smooth and creamy.

Lemon Bread

Lemon Bread Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsps baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil, or 1/4 cup butter melted
• 2 tsps finely shredded lemon peel
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)
• 2 Tbsps lemon juice (optional)
• 1 Tbsp sugar (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8x4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, the 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make well in center of flour mixture; set mixture aside. In another medium bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, lemon peel, and the 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. If desired, in a small bowel stir together the 2 Tbsps lemon juice and the 1 Tbsp sugar. While bread is still in the pan, brush lemon-sugar mixture over the top of the loaf. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before serving.

1 Loaf Makes 16 servings, 126 calories per slice