Buttermilk Lemon Cupcakes

So, today, I made Buttermilk Lemon Cupcakes with a Raspberry Lemon buttercream. I did this because I had leftover buttermilk, from the buttermilk chocolate cake I made on Saturday. The texture of the cupcakes was a bit more muffin-like, but that may be because I didn't beat it long enough. However, they are super moist, and lemony, and soooo good.


As you can see, they have a pretty pink color. That's the raspberries, baby! I took frozen raspberries (I would have gone fresh, but it's not raspberry season, and fresh ones were spendy. Really spendy. ) So I basically made a raspberry coulis, making sure to remove as much of the seeds as possible, then added the juice of 3 lemons to that, then using that as the liquid base of my buttercream (instead of milk). The result is a tart but smooth buttercream, that goes soo well with the lemon cupcake. I am quite proud of this.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take these delicious cupcakes to Youth Services, where the employees, who work super hard, can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Sooo Tasty.

I know, gentle reader, that I promised you pictures. And you shall get your lousy iPhone picture..on another day. The picture in question, I took with my friends better camera'd iPhone 4G, which is a whole number up from my 3G. But I'll still tell you about the cake.

It was very good. The cake itself was so moist. I tell you, that buttermilk just adds the most delicious moistness to cakes! The chocolate of the cake married very well with the mint of the icing. One of my friends wants the cake for his Grooms cake, when he gets married next year. I can totally do that!

So, you want a recipe, eh? Well, okay. And let me know how it turns out!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

2 t. baking soda

2 t. salt

2 T Vanilla extract

3 cups AP flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 9 inch round pans, or 1 regular rectangular cake pan.

sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, Mix together wet. Beat butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy,then add egg,one at a time. Add wet ingredients to the mixing bowl, slowly add dry, being careful not to overmix.

Pour Batter into prepared pans, and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Creme de Menthe Whipped Icing

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup Creme de Menthe liqueur

1/2 t. powdered gelatin

mix ingredients into mix bowl. start mixer on low, and gradually add speed as mixture thickens. Whip until thick whipped cream consistency.

Musings on Chocolate Cake.

Tonight, I made chocolate cake. I have been sick the past four days, with the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever...you get the jist. I was good for nuthin. So, today, my fever hath disappeared, I'm medicated to the gills, and most importantly, I had the energy,and I had the need. People are coming over tomorrow!

So, I made chocolate cake. Tomorrow, I'm going to ice it with a fortified Creme de Menthe whipped cream. (by fortified, I mean I'm going to add a small amount of geletin, so it stays sturdy, and doesn't just melt away, as whipped cream on cake can sometimes do.

Now, I don't know about you, but I make my chocolate cake with buttermilk. I LOVE buttermilk chocolate cake. The buttermilk adds a beautiful, and ever so slight tangy-ness, that goes so wonderfully with chocolate. I also tend to add double vanilla, because vanilla is such a great flavor with chocolate, as well. If I don't have buttermilk on hand, I'll use sour cream. That creates a very moist cake.

In the same vein, when I make banana bread, I use sour cream the sour cream with the banana offsets what could be a potentially very sweet bread to create the perfect balance. Oh, man, I'm going to have to get some bananas and let them ripen, so I can make some banana bread.

Tomorrow, after I ice the cake, I will take a picture. At that point, I will have consumed a piece, as well, and I will let you know who it was. I will also post the recipe. But I can already tell you it will be delicious.

I also have a lot of buttermilk left, so I need to bake some buttermilk based goodies. So sad for my friends..

more cakes.

The first couple pictures are wedding cakes.
The first one has a Valknut on top. The Valknut is a symbol of the Norse god Odin. It is not an easy symbol to draw, much less cut cake into the sh ape of. but I look at difficulty square in the face and laugh at it. Also, I sometimes stay up reeeeeally late, working on it.








The cake to the right is from the same wedding, this time, a Thor's Hammer atop it. The hammer was a breeze compared to the Valknut, but still had a level of difficulty. The cakes were a double layer round, with a single layer cut into the shape.










On the side, as seen on the left, I piped runes around the whole of the sides. The couple loved the cakes, and I'm very happy with how they
turned out.








The tiered cake to the right was a vegan chocolate cake. Yes, I can bake a delicious vegan cake, as well. Unfortunately, I took this picture after someone moving the tables knocked the table the cake was on. Caused a bit of a tip, but it didn't topple over, so all was well. And yes, its got pink roses, and baseball figurines on top. Gotta love it...

I thought now would be a good time to post some pictures of cake. Because cake is delicious.


This first picture was for a baby shower. They showed me the announcement, and wanted the elephant on the cover to be on the cake. I'd never done freehand drawing before, on a cake, but in my estimation, I NAILED IT. And this comes from a woman who constantly finds fault in everything she does. The elephant is flawless. The writing, not so much. The actual picture isn't that good, either. I need a better photographer.

This second picture is same family, a year later. Again, with the invitation, but this one was a bit easier. They requested more balloons, and more color. And so they received. I enjoyed doing these cakes for this family.









This picture for the cake on the right just doesn't do it justice. Its Horton Hears a Who, and yet another elephant. She loved her cake, and I enjoyed doing it, as well.


I still think I need a better photographer, though.

Next post will be cakes from a wedding!