Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes

For a neighborhood Memorial Day barbecue I made a batch of Lemon Cupcakes which turned out pretty good. It was a lemon cake topped with lemon frosting.  They were yummy but I think they were a tad too lemony.  I used fresh squeezed lemon juice for the frosting but may opt for a lemon extract next time.

I've been dying to try this new recipe - Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes. It used fresh raspberries and now that they are in season in our local supermarket, I could buy them without breaking the bank.  The recipe made 24 cupcakes and that's exactly what I got.  No taste test cupcake for Michael this time!

These cupcakes were incredible!!!  I brought them all to work and they received rave reviews. Many people said these were the best ones yet.

The recipe called for cake flour which I thought would make the cake dry but it was a perfect texture with a light, lemon taste.  But it was the frosting that did it.  Who would have thought that just a mere half cup of raspberries, pureed and seeds removed, would make such a delectable topping.

I picked up three more containers of raspberries tonight and to freeze some more puree so I'll be ready for a new batch.  Next time the cake will be injected with some lemon curd for an extra zing.

My dad's birthday is coming up in July and I think this will be just the thing - a dark chocolate cake with  raspberry frosting. Yum!

Random Cookies - a Test Batch

Just when I thought I'd have some spare time to get my baking on, life throws you a curve ball. The kids need more of your attention, work gets busier and plans get made.

Before Easter I made 4 batches of sugar cookies.  About half of them were turned into the Easter cookies in the previous post and the remaining half were developed into squares, rectangles and scalloped circles.  They were baked and packed away carefully in the freezer. About 4 weeks later they emerged and the test was to see if they would be as fresh coming out as they were going in.  They were!  They tasted fresh baked and were moist and flavorful.

I sometimes struggle with how to decorate a naked cookie and most of the time draw a blank.  I draw inspiration from a lot of other magnificent bakers and hope to aspire to their talents one day. Practice makes (almost) perfect so with this recent batch, I just wanted to get the icing flowing and see what happened.

Below are many of the cookies that came from this test batch.  Some I'm thrilled with and will move forward with some of the designs/techniques.  Others were just so-so.

Michael got to take a big batch of flowers to work and some of our neighbors received plate-fulls of cookies. As much as we'd like to, we just shouldn't eat them all.