Happy Easter and Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

Happy Easter! It's been such a relaxing weekend. I've been sitting around and catching up on leisure activities.

Last week, I was down by my old neighborhood to watch Tulpan at the Film Forum. I got there early and had some time to kill, so I finally stopped by Sweet Revenge on Carmine & Bedford. Confused by all the booze and sweets, I ordered the namesake Sweet Revenge - a peanut butter cake, ganache filling with peanut butter buttercream. The base was unremarkable (completely did not know it was peanut butter until I looked it up online), the ganache seemed misplaced, but they seemed to compliment the frosting perfectly. I had been toying with the idea of a peanut butter frosting cupcake for NYC's first Cupcake Camp. I've been avoiding experimenting with peanut butter because of a relative's severe allergy, but as I spooned the rich frosting (with a wooden spoon!) into my greedy mouth while waiting for Tulpan to start, I concluded that I'll finally carry through.

I was more interested in coming up with a rich frosting that was both sweet and didn't leave me with the feeling that peanut butter was sticking to the roof of my mouth (can you tell I'm not a peanut butter addict?). I haven't figured out a good base yet...except for the conclusion that i being chocolate is imperative and each cupcake should have a peanut butter cup hidden in the center. I did come up with the right frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Frosts 12-15 cupcakes

1/2 c butter (1 stick)

1/2 c peanut butter

2 1/4 c powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp milk (Use as needed)

1) Blend butter and peanut butter in a mixer. Add powdered sugar and mix until lumps have disappeared (will appear grainy). Blend in vanilla. Add milk as needed. Don't exceed 4 tbsp milk or else frosting will be too liquid.

This is really only for those with an intense sweet tooth. If you don't have a good chocolate cake recipe, try this black magic cake recipe from allrecipes. It's very rich and moist. The coffee taste is barely noticeable and I'm still intrigued that it doesn't use butter...

xoxo,

lemonie

Jessica's 1st Birthday Cookies!

Today's Jessica's first birthday! Jessica is my cousin Patty's daughter. Since my mom knows best about the proper gifts for someone reaching this milestone and b/c I'm broke, lemon-rind and I used our baking skills to provide gifts for the party itself. We made sugar cookies! I baked them and cut out the circle shapes, and lemon-zest took to frosting. She wrote "j" on them and don't they look so pretty?! I got a little too excited about putting them into the box so I didn't let them set properly...and when they got into the box, some of the frosting got mushed. =(

I'm still out on the quest for the perfect sugar cookie and frosting. There was one recipe I used a while ago with cream cheese that I really liked, but I didn't have cream cheese on hand so I turned to allrecipes.com to find a good alternative.



Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 c softened butter
2 1/2 c white sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
5 c ap flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1) Cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
2) Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt.
3) Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
5) Bake 6-8 minutes. Cool completely.

These cookies are a dream to work with. They roll well, they bake well, and after baking, they literally just slid off the sheet.




I tried two different frostings. This one is the glossy pink one above. It's very pretty, but I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor. The cookies weren't very sweet, and I can taste the corn syrup on the icing, so the overall flavor seemed to be the corn syrup!

Glaze Icing
1 c confectioners' sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanlla extract
Food coloring

1) In a small bowl, mix sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla until icing is smooth and glossy. If too thick, add more corn syrup. Add food coloring.

This one tastes better, but just isn't as pretty. =(

Frosting
4 c confectioners' sugar
1/2 c shortening
5 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Food coloring

1) Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually blend in milk and vanilla with electric mixer until stiff. Color.

I hope the cookies are well received! Next time I make cookies, I'll probably go back to my trusty cream cheese recipe...it's sweet and soft...so it can handle the pretty glaze much better b/c the corn syrup taste isn't as overpowering.