Wedding Cupcakes!

I posted a few weeks ago about all of the reasons I'd been baking but not blogging. Well, I'm still kinda slacking in the blogging area...I just recently moved, am trying to get organized for a garage sale, and have been working up to 5 twelve+ hour days a week...so pretty please be easy on me!

I wanted to get a new recipe up- and this is a  good place to start. A few weeks ago, I posted pics of the Cupcakes and Grooms Cake I made for my brother Jason and his wife Monica's wedding. These cupcakes were a combination of a few of my favorite recipes. The cupcakes themselves are the Champagne Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling, and the icing is very brightly colored Lemon Buttercream. I figured what better way to celebrate than with Champagne in the cupcake batter as well as the filling- and the bride and groom (and my new nephews!) were easily won over with a test batch I made for them in February. The wedding was held outdoors in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Raspberry and Lemon were light enough to enjoy...not too heavy to keep anyone from dancing!

The Cupcake recipe is from The Pampered Chef...and it is one of my all time favorite cake recipes! I usually make cakes completely from scratch, but this recipe is easy, yummy, and so tasty...you'd never know it starts with a mix!! Perfect for when you have 100 cupcakes to make, and no time for mistakes!

Raspberry Filled Champagne Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing adapted from The Pampered Chef and my own imagination


makes 24 standard cupcakes

Champagne Cake:
1 box white cake mix
3 egg whites
3/4 C champagne
1/2 C milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Raspberry Champagne Filling:
1 1/2 C frozen raspberries
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C water
1 C champagne, divided
2 Tbsp cornstarch

Lemon Buttercream Icing:
2 sticks  unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon
gel food coloring,  if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with wrappers. Place cake mix in large bowl and whisk to break up any large lumps. Add champagne, milk, egg whites and vanilla and stir until combined (2-3 minutes by hand).

I use a Pampered Chef scoop to place batter in liners so my portions are equal and my cupcakes are of similar size. Fill liners 2/3 full. Place pans in oven, and bake 22-26 minutes, or until tops spring back when touched. Remove from oven to cool.

Prepare filling while cupcakes are baking, or ahead of time if making large quantities. Place 1/4 C champagne and 2 Tbsp cornstarch in small bowl, whisk until smooth and set aside.  Combine raspberries, remaining champagne, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until boiling, stirring occasionally. Slowly add champagne-cornstarch mixture to pan, whisking constantly. Continue cooking 2-3 minutes to thicken mixture. If you don't want seeds in the filling, pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove. Set filling aside to cool.

When cupcakes and filling are completely cool, prepare icing. Place butter in a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer if you have one...like I FINALLY do!!) and beat on high speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and lemon juice in small batches, mixing well after each addition. Add more or less lemon juice to achieve desired consistency.

If coloring frosting, add small amounts of gel food coloring to obtain desired color.

To fill cupcakes, cut a divot out of the center of the cupcake, place filling inside, place divot back on top..and frost as desired.

FYI: I had about 33 cupcakes with each color frosting...and because my sister-in-law wanted bright, vibrant tropical colors, each batch of frosting used approximately 1 small container of Wilton Gel Food Coloring.
This is what happens when you use that much frosting:

Gorgeous Teal Frosting...not so gorgeous teal tongues!
Photo courtesy of Dawn V. Gilmore Photography

Just for fun....most photos courtesy of Dawn V. Gilmore Photography

More to come soon...

Lemon Pound Cake with Lime Glaze

As most of you know, I'm a single mom and I work two jobs. I work full time at a hospital, which is 3 12 hour shifts a week, and part time at a long term care facility on an as needed basis. I occasionally take some of my baked goodies into my part time job, and I share with my patients if they are able to eat sweets. These patients are recieving long term respiratory care, so I get the chance to know them and their families well. One of these patients (I'll call her Mrs. L) I've known since I first became a therapist, and I see her both at the hospital as well as the long term care facility. Mrs. L is a sweet and sassy southern lady and we talk food quite often as she is usually watching the Food Network when I go into her room.  Mrs. L asked if I'd make her a Lemon Pound Cake, so I did just that for Valentines Day. I found cute ceramic mini loaf pans in Valentines Day colors at Target, so I bought one of each color. I made these cakes the night before Valentines day, and I have to say for being thrown together quickly they turned out very well! My patient loved hers as well...I was able to sneak in and leave it on her bedside table while she was still sleeping. When I checked back after breakfast, she'd already tasted the cake and I think her exact words were something like "Oooooooh girl!"


Printable Recipe

Lemon Pound Cake adapted from FoodNetwork.com

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 vanilla bean
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest

Glaze
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
1 tbsp lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare one large or three mini loaf pans with non-stick spray and line with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk gently to combine.

Cream butter in a large bowl with mixer on high speed. Add 1 cup sugar and mix until combined. Decrease mixer speed to low and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape insides of vanilla bean into mix, and mix briefly. Alternate adding dry ingredients and lemon juice, mixing well after each addition. Continue mixing until batter is smooth. Stir in lemon zest.

Pour into prepared pan(s), and bake: 60-75 minutes for large pan, 40-50 minutes for smaller pans.

Remove from oven when top of cake is domed, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with few crumbs. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, loosen cake by running a knife around the edges of the pan, then remove cake to cooling rack.

While cake is cooling, prepare glaze by mixing 1/3 cup powdered sugar with 1/3 cup lime juice. Pour on cakes while still warm, and sprinkle lime zest on top. Dust cakes with powdered sugar before serving.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Lemon Triumph Cake

One of the items on my 'To-Bake' list was a Lemon Triumph Cake I spotted over on Willow Bird Baking.  The recipe seemed challenging, as there were several components to make. Making cake and buttercream isn't new to me, but I'd never made a Lemon Curd or Mousse before! I decided I'd put the recipe on my 'To-Bake' list and give it a try when I had a reason to make another cake.

While I was at work last Saturday, I got a text from one of my good friends asking if I was working Sunday. I was, and I asked why...come to find out, she was offering to pay me to bake a cake for a party at her husbands office on Monday. She told me to forget it since I had to work, that she'd make something, but it wouldn't taste as good as something I could make. Awww...Well, as it turned out the cake wasn't needed until Tuesday, so I was able to make it. When I asked what kind of cake her husband wanted, she said vanilla and lemon. Perfect excuse to make the Lemon Triumph Cake!

This is a time-consuming recipe. I am a natural born procrastinator. My argument for my procrastination is that it forces me to come up with something great the first time around! If you're smart, you'll do like Julie on Willow Bird Baking suggests and make this cake in stages. If you're like me, you'll do it in one morning, running errands while each element is cooling or setting up!

I altered the recipe a bit- I prefer white cake with lemon flavored icing or filling, so I used my standby white cake recipe. I did use the Lemon Curd and Mousse recipes straight from WBB. The icing was my own lemon buttercream.

All in all, I think I could have decorated the cake a little better, but from what I hear it tasted fantastic! Can't wait to try it again and have a bite myself.

Lemon Triumph Cake adapted from Willow Bird Baking


Lemon Curd:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks (save the whites for later)
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl for about 2 minutes. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for about a minute after the last egg is added. Add lemon juice and mix well. The mixture will appear curdled- this will disappear when heated.

Transfer the mixture to a heavy saucepan and cook on low heat until smooth. Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and reaches 170 degrees on a candy thermometer. Don't let this mixture boil! Remove from heat, and stir in lemon zest. Transfer to a small bowl, and place a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd- this will prevent a skin from forming. Place in refrigerator- curd will thicken as it cools.

White Cake adapted from Sporkorfoon, who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

1 cup milk (original calls for whole, I used 2%)

3/4 cup egg whites (6 large or 8 medium)

1 teaspoon vanilla

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pans- will make 2 9-inch layers. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl with a wire whisk, and set aside. Pour milk, egg whites and vanilla into a smaller bowl and whisk until combined. Add butter to dry ingredients, and mix with electric mixer on medium speed until mixture resembles crumbs. Add all but 1/4 cup of milk mixture, and beat on high speed with hand mixer (medium if you're a bigshot with a stand mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk, and beat for an additional 30 seconds.

Pour into pans or prepared muffin tins, filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake cakes at 350 for 23-25 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool in pans on wire rack for 15-20 minutes. Put pans in freezer for 15 minutes, then turn cakes out of pans and wrap each layer in 3 layers of plastic wrap to help lock in moisture. Place back in freezer until ready to use.

Lemon Mousse:
1 recipe lemon curd (above)
2.5 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
3 large egg whites
3/8 cup sugar
3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

Place water in small saucepan and sprinkle gelatin evenly over the surface. Let sit until gelatin softens. Place 7/8 cup of the curd into a large bowl and set aside. In another small saucepan, heat the remaining curd over medium-low heat until very warm.

Turn the burner for the gelatin mixture to medium-low, and stir until gelatin dissolves and liquid is clear, being careful not to let it boil. Whisk warm gelatin into the warm curd, then whisk the warm curd into the bowl of cold curd that has been waiting oh-so-patiently.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar, continuing to beat until egg whites are thick and glossy. Gently fold this mixture into the curd in 3 additions. Using the same beaters, beat the cream until peaks form. Gently fold this into the curd as well, making sure mixture is smooth. Place mousse into refrigerator until slightly, but not completely, set.

This recipe made twice as much mousse as I needed for my cake...but it's just as great on its own as it is in a cake! I also used it as a cupcake filling a few days later, with the same cake and buttercream because I wanted a taste of this cake for myself! Yum!!

According to my mom, they're my best cupcakes yet!

Back to the cake...Remove one frozen cake layer from the freezer, unwrap, and place on a cake board. Top with a generous layer of mousse, spreading to the edges of the cake. Place this layer back in the fridge until mousse is set, then top with second cake layer.

Lemon Buttercream
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

6 cups powdered sugar

3-4 teaspoons lemon extract

Milk or heavy cream to thin

2 drops yellow gel food coloring

Cream butter in bowl using electric mixer. Add sugar in small batches, adding milk or cream a tablespoon at a time to achieve desired consistency. Add food coloring if desired, and lemon extract.

Use a small amount of icing to crumb coat your cake, and place back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes until icing is set. Frost with remaining icing. I reserved a bit to decorate with, and added a drop or two of yellow food coloring to get a darker frosting for some contrast. Use your imagination! I also topped with fresh raspberries, but you could use any fruit, or none at all.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Quick Sugar Fix! White Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

I've been off work for almost two weeks, spending my days home with my 3 1/2 year old son. I love him beyond words, but being a single parent to an incredibly smart and active boy with ADHD can be exhausting.  Especially when said child thinks he can thrive on 6 hours of sleep a night! The last few days have been especially trying- for both of us I'm sure- I'm ready to go back to work, and I'm sure he's ready to go back to "school".

I was feeling slightly overwhelmingly grumpy yesterday afternoon, and took advantage of the fact that when I sent Ben into his room to clean up the disaster area, he passed out on his bean bag.

The only time he's ever used the bean bag, other than to climb on...and the mess is still there! Argh!

I was craving something sweet, but not too heavy. I decided to remake the cake portion of a recipe I made over the weekend, except as cupcakes..and with a Lemon Buttercream frosting instead of the super rich caramel frosting that was on the Dulce de Leche cake I made for the Labor Day BBQ I went to. (I'll post that cake as soon as my lovely friend Kaytie sends me the pics...my cell pics don't do that cake justice!)

This is my new favorite white cake recipe! It's light, moist, bakes evenly....it's lovely! It worked well in the Dulce de Leche cake, and worked just as well for these cupcakes. I baked 12, froze the rest of the batter, and wrapped 6 of the cupcakes up and stuck them in the freezer as well for the next time I need a quick fix!

White Cake adapted from Sporkorfoon, who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated


2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup milk (original calls for whole, I used 2%)
3/4 cup egg whites (6 large or 8 medium)
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pans- will make 2 9-inch layers, or approximately 30 regular sized cupcakes. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl with a wire whisk, and set aside. Pour milk, eggwhites and vanilla into a smaller bowl and whisk until combined. Add butter to dry ingredients, and mix with electric mixer on medium speed until mixture resembles crumbs. Add all but 1/4 cup of milk mixture, and beat on high speed with hand mixer (medium if you're a bigshot with a stand mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk, and beat for an additional 30 seconds.

Pour into pans or prepared muffin tins, filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake cakes at 350 for 23-25 minutes, cupcakes for 18 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream Icing (didn't follow a recipe, just threw together a few things and was lucky that it turned out well!)

**I was only icing 6 cupcakes, so increase measurements accordingly for larger batches**

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2-3 tablespoons of milk
2 drops yellow gel food coloring

Cream butter in bowl using electric mixer. Add sugar in small batches, adding milk a tablespoon at a time to achieve desired consistency. Add food coloring if desired, and lemon extract. Decorate however you see fit at the time- for me, it was colored sanding sugar!!

Enjoy!