I Heart Lemon...Multiple Ways.

This weekend I went a little lemon crazy. It's not unexpected...since I had one Meyer left and I knew I had to make lemon cupcakes for a get together with some friends and their cute kids.

So I made my Lemon Cupcakes...and they turned out amazing, almost even better than before if possible. Small tweaks...I used a little less sugar, a little more zest, and almond extract instead of vanilla.

But the thing I really wanted to change was the frosting. Since I have been kind of 'over' buttercream ... I was going to make lemon cream cheese frosting. Until one of my favorite bloggers, Gigi at GigiCakes wrote me that she liked an alternate Fluffy Boiled Icing recipe when she didn't want to use a sweet buttercream.

I was intrigued, esp when she said it tasted like marshmallow cream. And it was a method I was totally new to, the boiling of sugar, corn syrup, water, and beating of merengue powder and water.



The end result was wonderful, if a little soft...it was very hot this wkd and even though we had the AC on in the house, I wonder if that had something to do with it. Everything I read said that Fluffy Boiled Icing always hardens quite quickly so to work with it fast. But ours took hours to 'set' and when transported in the car they got a little leaky.

Taste wise though...I always have a 'sample' of something when it's done, and I was munching on the sample cuppie when I called up to my hub .. 'If you want a bite of cupcake you better get down here RIGHT NOW'. In another second that thing would have been gone.

I confess I had three of my own within a 24 hour span. I may have blocked out a fourth and fifth. I am definitely making this combination again.

Fluffy Boiled Icing
From GigiCakes.blogspot.com
3 tablespoons of meringue powder
1/2 cup of cold water
2 cups of sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup of water

Beat meringue powder and cold water until stiff, about 4 minutes.
In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Bring to boil and cool slightly.With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the syrup mixture to the meringue.
Then beat on high for 4 minutes, until stiff and glossy.
Store at room temperature.


Pretty Little Hershey's Kiss of Frosting

I should note that I made HALF the icing recipe and after frosting 12 cupcakes generously, I still had about 1.5 cups of frosting left...so adapt recipe accordingly. I am trying to store the leftover at room temperature in an airtight container, because I hate wasting frosting, but who knows if it will keep. Everything I found online said 'use immediately'. Time shall tell.



So onto more lemon. For Sunday...I made lemon pancakes again. I made a new recipe last weekend, but never posted about them as they were supremely unspectacular. I used a recipe from King Arthur's Baking book which did not use enough sugar at all (3 tbls) and I got a little crazy adding whole wheat white flour, so they were flat and tasteless other than...well, lemon.

This week I went back to basics and used the Lemon Ricotta Buttermilk recipe I made previously. I did it entirely from memory because I was too lazy to look it up, turns out I remembered everything quite well, and they came out great. I forgot the vanilla and used 2% buttermilk since that's what I had & they were definitely a win.



My coworker has a Meyer Lemon tree and has way too many than she knows what to do with, so is bringing me a bag tomorrow. I am so excited, as I am out and the store and Farmers Market have been lately too. My husband however said... 'Really? More Lemon??'...as if there is ever too much of a good thing.

I have already bookmarked multiple wonderful lemon recipes from some of my fave bloggers, more mouth-puckeringly lemon goodies to come.