Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes 

A few months ago we visited the White Rabbit Bakery in Aurora, Oregon.  I had tried their seasonal flavor which at that time was the Apple Irish Cream.   It was so good and I'm not an apple fan, that I had to look up what the seasonal flavors were for the other months.  For June the seasonal flavor was The Marion County- vanilla cake, with marionberries baked in the batter, filled with lemon curd and frosted with vanilla buttercream.  It sounded delicious and I wanted to go try it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get down to the bakery to try it. Sooo, I decided to try and make my own. 

I cheated a little and picked up a vanilla cake mix instead of making it from scratch.  I didn't have any marionberries so I substituted raspberries.  I mixed up the box cake mix, sifting it so it would be smooth when I mixed in the water, eggs and oil.  Once the cake mix was all mixed up I added the raspberries. I was very generous with the raspberries. 

Once the cupcakes cooled after baking I made the vanilla buttercream.  I used a few tips I found from a professional baker and it made a big difference in how the buttercream came out. I used the whisk attachment in my mixer, sifted all the confectioners sugar and added the confectioners sugar in a spoonful at a time instead of dumping it in. 

Before frosting the cupcakes I scooped out the middle, filled the cupcakes with lemon curd and than frosted them.  I used the Wilton 2D tip to frost the cupcakes, grated some lemon rind over the cupcakes and topped with a fresh raspberry. 

These cupcakes turned out pretty darn good.  I thought I had put a little too much lemon curd in the middle, I tend to be generous when I fill my cupcakes, but my husband said they were really good.  He didn't think I put too much lemon curd in.  In fact, he had two! Woo hoo! I love when I have a cupcake success. 

If you make these cupcakes leave a comment and let me know. 

My picks to help you re-create these cupcakes and get your bake on.
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Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes 

Whenever one of my family members retires we have a party.  This last weekend we had a party for my aunt and I was asked to make cupcakes.  I scrolled through my cupcake board on Pinterest to find a yummy recipe and decided on Your Cup of Cakes Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes.  I'm not a food blogger so while the pictures aren't drool worthy they are authentic and in the moment. 

I pulled up the recipe, took the laptop in the kitchen and started baking.  

The recipe calls for raspberry pie filling which I was sure our grocery store had. But when I went shopping the morning of the party the store didn't have any raspberry pie filling. They had apple, blueberry, peach, and strawberry. I wasn't going to have time to go to another store so I improvised and used this triple berry fruit filling instead.  This was going to be mixed into the cake mix so I figured it would work.  And it did. It made the cupcakes so moist. 

See, food blogger I am not. I was trying to be all artsy with my cupcake ingredient shot but it just doesn't look as good as the food bloggers make it look.  Plus, I was taking pics on the fly as I was baking. The food bloggers I'm sure set up their shots before they begin baking. 

mmmm, the smell of chocolate with a hint of berry filled my kitchen as the cupcakes cooled. You know I had to taste test one before bringing them to the party and they were so moist. 

This recipe is a keeper.  The cake is moist, the frosting is delicious and smooth and the fresh raspberry on top adds that burst of flavor. My cousin went back for seconds.  After all, you get 3 servings of fruit in these cupcakes ;)  Triple berry in the cake, raspberries in the frosting and a fresh raspberry on top.  

If you try this recipe I'd love to know what you think in the comments below. 

Macaron's! How Hard Can They Be?

2014 is around the corner and one of my goals is to try new baking techniques. My friend mentioned she wanted to take a macaron class from Sur La Table and I immediately asked her if she wanted to try making some with me. I showed my friend my book from Creative Juice, Gourmet French Macarons and my friend wanted to give them a try. So the Saturday after Christmas, she came over and we tried making macarons for the first time. 

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The first thing we discovered when making macarons for the first time is that two of the essential ingredients are hard to find in our area and are spendy.  I had to go to 4 stores to find the almond flour and vanilla paste. Both items were not in one store.  The vanilla paste and almond flour were $26. If we make macarons again we'll know where to find the ingredients. 

The first step went smoothly. Sifting the almond flour and powdered sugar three  times. I have two different sifters and we tried both. At first we didn't like how slowly they sifted.  By the third sifting we had it down. We squeezed and taped the side of the sifters and the flour and powder flowed right out. 

Next step, whip the egg whites till stiff peaks form.  I think we got some pretty good peaks.

Final step, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar in with the meringue. We thought ours matched the consistency the book described and began thinking, making macarons isn't so hard.

Since my friend wants to make making macarons her thing I had her pipe them. We didn't use a template because we wanted to just get the technique down first.  As you can see they are different sizes and whoops, one has a tail. It was at this stage that we realized we forgot to add vanilla paste to the batter. We were making vanilla bean shells, or so we planned. Since we forgot the vanilla paste we made almond shells instead.

We let the macarons rest and baked them as directed. We were all excited about how well it was all going until we pulled them out of the oven.  A few cracked.

Most of them turned out beautiful.

We mixed up the vanilla bean filling, very tasty, and assembled our cookies.

Our foot doesn't look the way it should and I think they look a little brown on the inside.  How do they taste?  The shell was a little chewy and flaky at the same time. The vanilla filling was rich and creamy.  Our cookies didn't have the same texture as a macaron should but were still tasty. I know with more practice we can achieve the correct texture.

For our first attempt we were pretty pleased.  We have some improving to do but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon with a friend. 

**Update** This post is part of a linky party on A Pretty Life

Apple Cake

Guest post today and you're going to love it. Thank you Elena for this delicious recipe. 

Hi! My name is Elena and I’m an Italian mom of two kids, Tommy and Giulia, and we live in San Francisco but move a lot because of my husband’s job. I always worked as a graphic designer and since last year I’ve opened my shop for party printables. Of course I LOVE to bake and cook and today, thanks to TIffany, I’m here to share you a simple but amazing recipe that my grandma taught me: a classic apple cake.

I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe!

Thank you,

Elena

INGREDIENTS:

3 apples Golden Delicious

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

1 and 1/2 cups butter (or margarine)

3 eggs

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°F

Separate the whites from the yolks and whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Set aside.

Mix well sugar, butter and the yolks.

Add flour and baking powder.

At this point incorporate the egg whites and milk.

Scrape into buttered cake pan.

Top with apple slices.

Bake about 40-45 mins until top is nice and browned and apples are tender.

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The Case of the Disappearing Cupcakes

My first BBQ invite of the season was Saturday.  Of course I had to bake something to bring.  With strawberry season kicking off in the Pacific Northwest I wanted to make something out of fresh strawberries. I made a strawberry pie,{screech} wait, I thought this post was about cupcakes? 

It is. Since I wasn't sure if the pie would turn out I made cupcakes too. I had picked up Pillsbury's Orangesicle cake mix a few weeks back and decided to make them.  The Cupcake Crusaders had recently made them too and I took a few ideas from them. 

 For the frosting, like the Crusader's I used  Duncan Hines' Frosting Creations Orange Creme and just mixed it right in to a can of frosting. I too thought that it wasn't quite orange enough and added a little orange extract to give the flavor some oomf. I'm not sure how much I used, I just eye balled it. 

I liked the Cupcake Crusaders idea of making a surprise middle. Instead of making my own I used Cool Whip Frosting in Vanilla. 

These were a HIT!  The cupcakes were disappearing before the grill was even fired up. I saw people going back for seconds and thirds!

The cake was moist and light with a hint of creamsicle flavor. Adding the orange extract to the frosting uped the creamsicle experience and by adding a vanilla middle, it was like a orange creamsicle ice cream bar   in a cupcake. 

For your summertime fun I highly recommend these cupcakes.