spice cake with maple buttercream

I'll start with saying that my kimography.net site appears to be down and my banner isn't showing up, which is really irritating me because when it's down I can't get to my email! *grr*

Now, on to the cupcakes. These are for my father's birthday tomorrow. If you live in Harborcreek, at one point or another, you've probably met my father. If you happen to see him over the next few days, please wish him a happy birthday! I'll throw in a picture of my father, for good measure - and I'm opting to use the picture of him at the Hibachi restaurant, with chopsticks in his mouth that he said looked like "a walrus with buck teeth".

I'm up to my ears in cupcake this week and I'm not complaining one bit! Tomorrow, I'll be baking some requested s'mores cupcakes for someone's anniversary.

4-H fair and a new cupcake

Just posting again that the Erie County 4-H Fair is this Saturday and Sunday at the Waterford fairgrounds, rain or shine. Please stop by and say hello and check out everything going on. I'll be the one running the dog show registration table.

Now, what says summer more than lemonade? I only got 9 cupcakes out of this batch, so next time I will at least double the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

1/3 c. thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate

1/4 c. buttermilk

2 or more drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth. Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.

Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full). Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting (see below).

Lemonade Buttercream:

3 c. + 3 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1/8 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. pink lemonade concentrate

Red food coloring

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemon juice, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

chocolate zucchini muffins

These don't have a real strong chocolate taste (to me anyway), but it was a good way to sneak veggies to my kids! Also - it calls for cloves and cardamom, I didn't have either of those so I just left them out and they taste great to me!

* 3 eggs

* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Lightly grease two 12 cup muffin tins with shortening or line with paper cups.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs.
4. Beat in sugar and oil.
5. Add cocoa, vanilla, zucchini, and stir well.
6. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
7. Mix just until moist.
8. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins until 2/3 full.
9. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
10. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
11. Store loosely covered.

frozen "cupcakes"

Can you tell I'm still waiting to get my oven fixed? LOL It'll happen this week though and then watch out!

I just love making things miniature sized. One or two bites and you're done, and if you eat a second one you won't feel like you're stuffing yourself.

I had some "batter" left over so I got out my 6-cup muffin tin and made some full sized ones too.

Dave's only request is that next time I make them, I use just a graham cracker crust (this one is almost more like a granola than just graham).

more pomegranate goodness

This time it's sorbet (which I really prefer to ice cream anyway). I figure I have the juice, and no one but me wants to just drink it, and until my oven is finally fixed this week I'm not baking anything. I'm going through withdrawls!

* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 cups pomegranate (or pomegranate/blueberry) juice
* 1/4 cup lime juice

Directions
1. In 1-quart saucepan, heat water and sugar to boiling over high heat.
2. Boil sugar mixture 5 minutes, reducing it slightly to a syrup.
3. Remove syrup from heat and cool to room temperature.
4. In bowl, combine syrup and both the pomegranate and lemon juices.
5. Cover and refrigerate mixture until cold.
6. Transfer sorbet to airtight container and freeze until firm, 2 to 12 hours.