Simply Lemon Cupcakes

I just got back from a family vacation from Florida and it always boggles me with the difference in temperature from here in Canada to Florida. We were lucky enough to be able to rent a house that included or own pool and everything! It was absolutely a wonderful vacation. We also backed out onto a wonderful green space that had orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees! When I got home I was so inspired by the fresh citrus fruits in Florida that i decided to make a lemon flavoured cupcake to bring back some Florida to the chilly weather back here in Canada. Little did i know though that it was warm here too! How wonderful. I guess now my cupcakes are celebrating the weather we are having here instead!

I came across this lemon cupcake recipe on a great blog called My Baking Addiction. The cake sounded promising so i gave it a whirl but tried adding my own thing to it by using lemon juice instead of lemon extract. And my experiment failed they tasted great and looked great but they had a weird texture. The texture was kind of doughy and not cake like at all!  So instead of giving them to my fathers fire hall like I had planned me and my family ate them instead. My butter cream was amazing though. The lemon flavour was out of this world! I would maybe suggest making a white cake to go with it though since the frosting is so in your face.And that's just what i did with the leftover frosting. But hat I'll save for later

Because of my inspiration for these cupcakes was the warm weather i thought my decorating should capture that! So i used yellow muffin liners that i got at he dollar store and there were lot's of other colours too, DOLLAR STORE RULES! Any ways away form my obsession with the dollar store and back to decorations. I tinted the frosting a light yellow and added yellow sugar sprinkles and green and yellow (what were supposed to be) butterfly sprinkle... they look more like hearts. OH well still cute right? Here's my lemon butter cream but be warned its lemon flavour will be CRAZY! If you8r not that into lemon don't add as much lemon juice :) 

Simply Lemon Butter cream

1 cup softened butter
4 cups icing sugar
3/4 of a lemon
3 tbsp table cream or milk
yellow food colouring (optional)

Juice the lemon. Cream the butter till light and fluffy. Add half the sugar and combine. Beat in the cream and juice. Mix in the rest of the sugar. Then beat on high until fluffy.

Easter Cake Inspiration

With Easter coming up I'd just like to give you guys some inspiration for an Easter treat. One of my favourite cake pans out there in the wonderful world of Wilton is this cake pan they like to call a "Checkerboard Cake Set". It comes with three 9 inch pans and the dividing ring.

Why wouldn't you love this cake pan i mean like you can get chocolate and vanilla in the same cake!!!! Amazing i know. But with all seriousness i also like to use it for an Easter cake.

I would make a plain white cake and then separate them into 3 different bowls and colour them with colour gels. The end result i think is a really nice for a fun Easter cake.

A Comparison

Now for you out there  who think "i can't do that it's way to hard I'd like to show you some of my previous cakes. It takes practice and i think thats what some people might not understand. But if you keep at it and don't give up then you will get better. For me i got most of my practice at my Wilton cake classes and i took all the classes twice! So as long a you don't give up and have some patience i promise you: You will get better! I mean like look at my first cakes :P

Red Rose Birthday Cake

My moms birthday was last month and i made a fondant cake for the first time for her birthday. I used marshmallow fondant to cover it, tinted a minty green and added red roses and a red bead border in buttercream (hey you got to stick to what you know right :D) Inside was my moms favourite; red velvet with cream cheese.

One thing i noticed about using marshmallow fondant instead or store bought is that 1. It tastes soooooo much better and 2. It will either break very easily (not have any stretch) or retract a lot (too much stretch). But the end result is always very nice and smooth. Just be patient and don't get too frustrated:)

Wilton Class Cake

So  me and my best friend Emily and I have taken Wilton Cake Decorating class to learn a lot of different techniques for decorating cakes. There are four classes all focusing on different things from butter cream to royal icing to fondant and gum paste. In the last class i took i made this cake that i thought was like my best in sooooo long. I made it as a 6 inch and thank God i did because the inside was absolutely deadly! It was a brownie cake with fudge frosting. The recipe for the cake was from Wilton as well. Tell me your thoughts on the cake do you like it as much as me? By the way if you wondering the flowers and decorations were all made from fondants and gum paste... and sprinkles:)