Halloween Cake

Yesterday’s witch’s brew cupcakes left me with about a cup and a half of cauldron-worthy green frosting and some bat mix sprinkles, so I decided to whip up a one-layer cake for Mike to take to his office tomorrow.

The cake recipe comes from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook and is called “busy day cake,” aptly named for its ease in preparation. You just put your ingredients into a mixing bowl beat them for a few minutes, then pour the batter – which will be lumpy, but that’s fine – into your pan and bake it. The original recipe called for a broiled coconut topping on this cake, which I may make someday.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 1 1/2 cups vanilla buttercream, tinted yellow-green (cut the original recipe in half to yield this amount)
Wilton Bat Sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add milk, butter, egg, and vanilla; beat on low speed until combined, then beat on medium for 1 minute.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for about 30 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare frosting, then frost top and sides of cake.

Pour bat sprinkles into a bowl and gently place the bats on the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle remaining orange and green sprinkles over the top of the cake.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Crime Scene Cupcakes

Want a fun Halloween cupcake? Make these. Seriously – they might be the most fun, creative cupcake I’ve ever made…and they’re incredibly easy to prepare.

When my colleague Rose asked if I’d bake for her Halloween party and come up with some creepy options, a “blood-spattered” cupcake instantly came to mind. While you can make edible blood with all manner of things, I chose to go with raspberry jam, tinted with red gel food coloring to make it more red than raspberry. You could certainly make any flavor of cupcake for these, and I look forward to making some vanilla ones in the future.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup water

For the frosting and blood spatter

1 recipe vanilla buttercream
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
Red gel food coloring

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; this recipe yields 16 cupcakes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-blended, then make three wells for the wet ingredients.

Place vinegar, vanilla, and vegetable oil into the wells; add water and mix until the batter is smooth. The mixture will bubble up slightly when you add the water, so just keep mixing until you get a smooth consistency in the batter, which will be fairly thin.

Use a 1/4 cup measure to fill the cupcake wells about half full.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

Prepare the frosting and fit a 14-inch piping bag with a large plain tip. Pipe generous portions of frosting onto each cupcake, then flatten out each blob with a small offset spatula.

Stir together raspberry jam and red gel food coloring to your desired shade.

Using a teaspoon from your flatware, drop, drizzle, or splatter jam onto each cupcake. If you like, lightly drag a toothpick through the jam splatters to extend the splattered effect.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

Here’s the dozen that went to the party – I hope they’re a hit!

Witch’s Brew Cupcakes

As a person who recently had to give up chocolate because of migraines, I’ve come to sincerely appreciate vanilla. These witch’s brew cupcakes feature a vanilla cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream – perfect for those of us who can’t eat chocolate (or simply don’t like it, which I find astonishing).

The bat sprinkles are a Wilton product, which I bought at Target; you can probably find them at your local craft store as well. For a full batch of these cupcakes – which yields 17 – you’ll need two bottles of sprinkles. I mixed up my sprinkles a bit after dipping every few cupcakes to make sure that all of the cupcakes got a few bats.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sour milk*
1 recipe vanilla buttercream
Leaf green gel food coloring**
Golden yellow gel food coloring**
Wilton Bat Sprinkles

*To make sour milk, place 1/2 tablespoon in a glass measuring cup and add enough milk to equal one-half cup total. Stir; let stand for 5 minutes before using.

**Leaf green and golden yellow gel food coloring are both made by Wilton and should be available to your local craft store.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe yields 17 cupcakes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Place eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat for another 30 seconds.

Add vanilla and canola oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Batter will be very thin.

Using a quarter-cup measuring cup, scoop batter into prepared cupcake liners, filling half full.

Bake for 12-13 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

Prepare your frosting and use both leaf green and golden yellow gel food coloring to tint to a bright yellow-green.

Fit a 14-inch piping bag with a the Wilton M1 tip and pipe generous swirls of frosting onto each cupcake.

Place bat sprinkles in a bowl and carefully dip frosted cupcakes into the sprinkles.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

Apple Honey Cake

L’shana tovah, friends! Rosh hashanah began tonight at sunset, and we’re celebrating the new Jewish year. Tonight we begin the Days of Awe, also known as the High Holy Days, which end at yom kippur, the Day of Atonement. Although I’m the Catholic one in our interfaith household, I absolutely love this time of year.

Sweet foods figure heavily in rosh hashanah celebrations, in keeping with wishes for a sweet new year. This apple honey cake combines two traditional rosh hashanah foods, apples and honey, in a delicious treat. The recipe below comes from the fine folks at chabad.org, and I added a thick powdered sugar drizzle icing just to dress it up a bit.

This cake is a dense, almost bread pudding-like treat with great apple, honey, and cinnamon flavor. Next time, I’ll probably add more allspice to the batter, and Mike has requested raisins as well (although I’d rather add something like pecans). Whatever you choose, I hope you have a sweet new year!

Ingredients

For the cake

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 apples, peeled, cored, and grated (I used 2 Granny Smith and 2 Gala; you want a combination of sweet and tart)

For the drizzle

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease a bundt pan (or spray with baking spray).

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat sugars and applesauce to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add honey and vanilla and beat to combine.

Add flour mixture and beat to combine. Fold in grated apples.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn onto a rack or cake plate to cool completely. I cooled my cake on a wire rack, and the bottom did stick to it a bit; this was fine in the end, because after all, you serve a bundt round-side-up anyway.

A few hours before serving, prepare the drizzle. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and water in a small bowl until you have a thick drizzling consistency. Pour drizzle into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (or use a small zip-top bag with the corner cut off) and drizzle over cake.

Store at room temperature for up to 3 days; the moisture in the cake will make the bottom a bit gooey, but with all of the moisture in this cake, that’s not a surprise.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Summer is coming to an end, but you wouldn’t know it by the weather in Pittsburgh today. It’s in the 90s, with humidity through the roof. And when I think of summer flavors – fitting for a day like this – I think of lemon and raspberry.

These cupcakes are a delightful blend of sweet and tart, combining a lemon cupcake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting. The most labor-intensive part of this recipe is the straining of the raspberry filling; in order to get a seedless result, you’ve got to spend several minutes pressing the mixture through a fine sieve. You could certainly buy raspberry filling at your local baking supply shop if you’d like to save time, but there’s something very rewarding about making your own.

Raspberry Filling

Ingredients

12 ounces raspberries, mashed
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, stir together raspberries, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils, then allow it to boil for 1 minute, stirring well, until the mixture thickens.

Remove from heat and press through a fine sieve to filter out the seeds. Allow to cool before using; makes about 1 cup. Once you fill your cupcakes, you’ll have a small amount of filling left over that you can use as you like.

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 egg
zest of 1 medium lemon
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two 12-inch muffin ups with paper liners; this recipe made 17 cupcakes for me.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract. Add egg and beat well, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add lemon zest and beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, in three batches, beating until combined.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin tins, filling about half full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until fully incorporated, about 3-4 minutes.

Add lemon juice and lemon extract and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy.

To assemble the cupcakes:

Using the small end of a melon baller, scoop out a small amount of cake from the center of each cupcake; reserve for a trifle or another use.

Fit a piping bag with a large plain tip; twist the tip end of the bag so the filling doesn’t start to run out when you pour it in. Fill the bag, then carefully pipe filling into each cupcake.

Fit a 14-inch piping bag with a Wilton M1 tip and pipe swirls of frosting onto each cupcake.

Store in an airtight container at a cool room temperature for up to 3 days.

Here’s a look inside the cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Butterscotch Cake

I’m the kind of woman who bakes her own birthday cake. This year, I wanted a brown sugar cake with butterscotch, and so I made one.

Homemade butterscotch is easier to make than you might think. Mine turned out thicker than I expected this time, probably because I cooked it over higher heat than I should have. Since my sauce ended up thicker and less appropriate for drizzling over the top of my cake, I remedied it by stirring in some heavy cream to thin it out – and it worked very well.

This recipe yields about 3 1/2 cups of batter, which made one 8-inch round cake and two cupcakes. You could easily double it to make two 8-inch rounds for a taller layer cake and would still have some batter left over for cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with a circle of parchment, and grease the parchment. Flour lightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and melted butter, whisking until no lumps remain. Whisk in egg, sour cream, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Slowly whisk in flour mixture until batter is completely smooth; it will be fairly thick.

Pour 3 cups of batter into the pan; make cupcakes with any batter that remains.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

Vanilla Almond Buttercream

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1 tablespoon heavy cream*

* You can omit the tablespoon of heavy cream if you like, but I’ve become a big fan of heavy cream in buttercream lately. It yields a very smooth, creamy texture that is easy to pipe and spread.

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter for about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until all of the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter; this will take a few minutes.

Add vanilla extract and almond extract, beating well to combine, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of your bowl, then add heavy cream and beat for another minute or two.

Butterscotch Sauce

1 recipe butterscotch sauce, cooled
Heavy cream, if necessary for thinning**

**If your butterscotch has become too thick to drizzle, add heavy cream, about 1 tablespoons at a time, and stir to thin it to a drizzling consistency.

To assemble your cake:

Slice your cake in half lengthwise and handle it very gently; my cake began to crack just a bit when I separated the top from the bottom.

Place one layer upside down on a cake platter and top with frosting, spreading frosting to about 1/4 inch of the edge.

Top frosting with about 1/3 cup of butterscotch sauce. Place the second cake layer on top; frost the top and sides.

Before serving, drizzle slices of cake with butterscotch sauce; you could also just drizzle the sauce over the top of the cake if you like.

Store in the refrigerator for up to three days; bring to room temperature before serving. When storing cakes in the fridge, they can dry out, so it’s best to use them within a day or two once they’re refrigerated.

Lemon Blackberry Cake

Today, in an effort to ramp up my piping skills, I bought a basic Wilton cake decorating book at the craft store. In it, I found a cute berry-and-vine cake and was inspired to make this lemon blackberry cake.

I found a great recipe for lemon cake at My Cake School, then divided the recipe in half to make one single 8-inch round. I don’t usually double-fill cakes, but my blackberry filling made less than I was hoping for, so I thought it needed a bit of a boost; next time, I’ll double the filling recipe.

Once filled, I frosted the top only for a more rustic look, then piped on some vines, leaves, and blackberries. The end result is delicious, light, and perfect for summer. If you’d like to frost the sides of your cake as well, I’d increase the frosting recipe by at least one quarter to ensure that you have enough for piping.

Lemon Cake

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter, slightly softened but still cool
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with parchment, then grease the parchment and lightly flour the pan.

In a glass measuring cup, combine eggs, milk, vegetable oil, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Whisk to combine; set aside.

In your stand mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat for 30 seconds to combine. With the mixer running on low, add butter one pat at a time, until the mixture looks like coarse sand.

Add half the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes, then scrape down the bowl and add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for about 30 seconds after each.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

Blackberry Filling

Ingredients

6 ounces blackberries, mashed
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, stir together blackberries, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture boils, then allow to boil for 1 minute, stirring well, until the mixture thickens.

Remove from heat and press through a fine sieve to filter out the seeds. Allow to cool before using; makes about 1/3 cup.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Leaf green food coloring
Purple food coloring
Black food coloring

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar all at once, then beat on low speed until all of the sugar is incorporated into the butter; this will take a few minutes. Scraped down the bowl, then beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.

Add vanilla and heavy cream, then beat for another 1-2 minutes.

To assemble the cake:

Reserve about 1/2 cup frosting for tinting. Divide the reserved portion and tint half green and the other half purple/black; I started with purple and added black until I reached my desired blackberry shade.

Slice the cake in half length-wise; place one half on your cake plate.

Top with blackberry filling, spreading within about 1/2 inch of the edges. Top the filling with frosting, spreading gently to within about 1/4 inch of the edges. The filling is slippery, so as you spread the frosting it will mix with the filling a bit, and that’s fine.

Top with the second half of your cake and frost the top using the white frosting.

Fit a piping bag with a plain tip and fill with green frosting; pipe on vines, then switch to a leaf tip and pipe on leaves.

Fit a second piping bag with a plain tip and fill with purple/black frosting; pipe on blackberries.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

Below is a detail of the blackberries and vines and a slice of the cake so you can see the filling.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

My cousin Barb brought her girls Maureen (my goddaughter, age 5) and Margo (age 21 months) up from Maryland for a visit to Pittsburgh this week. Although I whipped up these brown sugar cupcakes without the assistance of my two favorite little bakers, they helped with the buttercream and did a very good job.

Depending on how old they are, little bakers can help with many things. Measuring and pouring can be easy, helpful tasks, as can (careful) mixing. To make our buttercream, Maureen and Margo helped me measure out the powdered sugar into a large bowl, then add it one cup at a time into the mixing bowl. Mo also poured in the vanilla extract and heavy cream and learned the basics of bowl-scraping before helping me pipe the buttercream onto our cupcakes. Even Margo helped squeeze the piping bag for our last cupcake, which she then ate.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe made 23 cupcakes for me.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of batter into prepared cupcake pans, filling about half-full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and remove from pans immediately; cool completely before frosting.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter, at room temperature
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Purple food coloring, if desired

Preparation

Add vanilla and heavy cream, then beat for another 1-2 minutes.

Add food coloring and beat for 1-2 minutes; scrape the bowl well to make sure you get all of the food coloring incorporated into the frosting.

Fit a 14-inch piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip and pipe blobs of frosting onto each cupcake (it’s easier with little helping hands to pipe blobs than swirls, but you can also try swirls – Mo did a pretty good job at the swirls). Store in airtight containers at room temperature.

Below, Maureen, Margo, and I whip up some tasty frosting…and then the girls demolish some cupcakes.

Vanilla Lime Cupcakes

My recent cherry limeade cupcakes made me wonder…what if you took the lime cupcake, filled it with lime curd, and topped it with vanilla buttercream? You’d have an amazing cupcake, that’s what.

Before you worry about making lime curd, fear not: it’s much easier than you think. I used the Martha Stewart key lime curd recipe, but with regular limes, and it turned out very well.

My big plan is to add mint to these cupcakes, along with some white rum, and turn them into mojito cupcakes…but that’ll be another blog post for another day. When making these cupcakes, bear in mind that you need to chill your lime curd for about 3 hours before using it; you could also buy lime curd at your local market – look for it in the jelly section.

Ingredients

Lime Curd

1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lime
1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 medium limes)
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Lime Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest

Vanilla Buttercream

12 tablespoons butter, softened
2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Make the lime curd:

Place a bowl and sieve next to your stove for easy access once your curd is cooked.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, eggs, lime zest, and lime juice. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture holds the shape of the whisk – this will take about 12-15 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in butter a few pieces at a time until butter completely melts.

Strain the curd through your sieve and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.

Chill for about 3 hours before using; I chilled mine overnight.

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe yielded 18 cupcakes for me.

In a medium bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add vanilla extract, lime juice, and milk and beat for about 30 seconds.

Add flour mixture in two batches, beating until combined, then fold in lime zest.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of batter into cupcake tins, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cupcakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the buttercream:

Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes using the paddle attachment.

Add powdered sugar. With your mixer on low, incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter. (Hint: I find that placing a kitchen towel over the mixer during this stage prevents a powdered sugar blizzard.)

Add vanilla and beat for 3 minutes on medium-high speed. Scrape down the bowl, then add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating for 1-2 minutes between each addition. You want a fluffy consistency that will be easy to pipe.

Assemble your cupcakes:

Using the small end of a melon baller, scoop out the center of each cupcake; reserve scraps for a trifle if you like, or just eat them as you wish.

Fit a piping bag with a plain tip and fill with lime curd; pipe curd into each cupcake. You should have enough for each cupcake with a few tablespoons of curd left over.

Fit a piping bag with a Wilton 1M swirl tip and pipe swirls of frosting onto each cupcake.

Store cupcakes in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Here we are in the dog days of summer, a time generally acknowledged as the hottest of the year in certain parts of the world. This interesting phrase originated with the rising of Sirius, the dog star, over North Africa and parts of the Middle East sometime in July or August. I was born in the dog days, and I like to think this is part of why I love dogs so much.

In any case, the dog days of summer call for refreshing treats, and these cherry limeade cupcakes fit the bill. They’re very light, with a wonderful texture and subtle flavors. I adapted this recipe from I am Baker, adjusting it very slightly to add more cherry juice and powdered sugar to the frosting. Make sure you allow your ingredients to come to room temperature before using them, as this yields the lightest, fluffiest texture in both the cupcakes and the frosting.

Ingredients

Lime Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest

Cherry Frosting

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice*

*You can top the cupcakes with maraschino cherries if you like, but I left my cupcakes plain.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe yielded 18 cupcakes for me.

In a medium bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add vanilla extract, lime juice, and milk and beat for about 30 seconds.

Add flour mixture in two batches, beating until combined, then fold in lime zest.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of batter into cupcake tins, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cupcakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat butter in a mixing bowl for 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups powdered sugar and allow the sugar to fully incorporate into the butter; this will take several minutes.

Add almond extract and 1/4 cup cherry juice; beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, then add another cup of powdered sugar and additional juice. Beat on medium speed for another 2-3 minutes.

Fit a 14-inch piping bag with a Wilton 1A tip and pipe generous blobs of frosting onto each cupcake.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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