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Lime Ginger Cupcakes with Lime Basil Frosting
This has become my favorite cupcake. I just love the fresh, lime taste. I found the recipe at Baking Becca’s (although I make a tweak or two).
Make your Lime Syrup first…
Lime Syrup
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
5 fresh basil leaves
about 1/4 of the lime you juiced, peel, pulp and all
Combine in a small pan and bring to a boil. Stir frequently until the liquid is reduced to about a cup. Strain the juice and cool completely.
Cupcakes:
Heat your oven to 350 and prepare your tins.
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
zest of 2 limes
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
Cream the butter, sugar and lime zest. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add the baking powder. Combine the buttermilk, lime juice, vanilla and ginger. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the flour.
Fill your cupcake liners to about 1/2 full. Bake for about 25 minutes.
Yield: 2 dozen
Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
6 tablespoons butter (room temp)
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons lime syrup
1 cup powdered sugar
Combine all ingredients and mix until of spreading consistency. Ice your cupcakes and enjoy!
Citrus-Basil Cupcakes
I found this recipe on AnotherYarn’s blog and it used to be my favorite cupcake. I just love the flavors! It’s a bit of work, but then aren’t most things that are really, really, good? I made a couple of changes but basically it’s AnotherYarn’s recipe.
It’s best to make the basil syrup first - it needs to cool. Prepare an ice bath by placing a small bowl in a larger bowl and putting ice and water in the larger bowl. First you need to make a simple syrup:
Simple Syrup:
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
Combine in a saucepan, bring to a boil and then cook, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved. When it’s cool you make the basil syrup:
Basil Syrup
1 cup basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup simple syrup
Put the basil into your blender and then pour the simple syrup over it. Whirl until you have a lovely green liquidy mess. Let set for 10 min or so and then strain. Now, on to the cupcakes.
Citrus Cupcakes
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 1/2 orange)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 1/2 limes)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice
1 tablespoon lime zest (about 3 limes0
Preheat over to 350 and prepare your tins.
Wash the limes and zest them. Then juice them and set the juice aside Cut your orange in half and extract the juice - set aside. For the ginger juice you need about a thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and grated. Put the grated ginger in a coffee filter and squeeze out the juice. You should have about 1 tsp.
Cream butter and sugar. Add your eggs one at a time. Add the baking soda and powder. Add the flour alternately with the liquids. Beat until smooth.
Fill your cupcake liners about 1/2 way.
Bake for about 25 minutes (or until done). Cool and then you are ready for the icing.
Basil Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (soft)
6 oz tbs butter (soft)
2 tablespoons basil syrup
1/4 cup minced fresh basil.
Put all ingredients together and mix until spreading consistency (add a bit of milk or water if you need to thin the icing).
Your icing will take on a soft green thanks to all that basil. Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!
Clementine Cake
This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s “How To Eat, The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food“.
Cassava Cake
We had a pot-luck at work on Friday. In addition to the chicken kelaguen wraps I took, I tried a recipe for Cassava cake that I brought back with me from my recent trip to Guam. It turned out pretty good - but next time I’ll get the food processor going to make it without the “lumps”!
2 1-lb bags frozen cassava (get the grated if you can, otherwise you’ll have to grate the root)
1 can condensed milk
1 can coconut milk
1 jar macapuno strings
4 eggs (slightly beaten)
2 Tablespoons butter (melted)
Put it all in a big bowl and mix with a spoon. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350 for about an hour. If the top isn’t as brown as you’d like, pop it under the broiler.
(4/27/08)
Carrot Cake
In the late 1980s we were fortunate enough to call Christchurch, New Zealand home. There were/are many amazing things about Christchurch, but my whole family fell in love with Main Street Café. It was a wonderful non-smoking, vegetarian restaurant. I sure hope it is still there! Anyway, one of the very best deserts was their carrot cake. For nearly 20 years I’ve been testing various carrot cake recipes. None have come close. Until now, that is! I found an excellent carrot cake recipe in Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook, “Cook with Jamie“. I was hesitant to reprint the recipe, but I found it online at Martha Stewart’s. So I guess it’s OK.
Jamie Oliver’s Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing
(Or in my case, Jamie Oliver’s Carrot Cake with Lime Cream Cheese Icing)
Cake batter:
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups light-brown sugar (I used dark)
5 large eggs, separated
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves (I didn’t have any so I left them out)
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup ground almonds
4 ounces shelled walnuts, chopped, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour, sifted
10 ounces carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
Sea salt
Icing:
4 ounces mascarpone cheese (I couldn’t find this, so I left it out)
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 scant cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Zest and juice of two limes
I also added about ½ cup dried currents – because I like them!
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease your pan(s) and then line the bottom with wax paper.. The recipe calls for a 9″ square.
Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and the baking powder and add the ground almonds, the walnuts, the spices and the grated carrot. Mix well. (I also added the currents here.)
In a separate bowl, wisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, and then gently fold in (by hand) into the batter. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan and cook for about 50 minuets, until golden and risen, or until done. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a cooling rack and leave for at least an hour.
For the icing mix all the ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. You can decorate with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, or leave plain.
I tried a piece just after it was frosted and found it to be a bit strong with lime. However, today, after spending time in the fridge, it was FANTASTIC!
(3/2/08)
Ukrainian Poppyseed Cake
This little gem is based on one I found in Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook.
1/2 cup poppyseeds
1 cup milk (I use skim)
1 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar, packed (I use dark)
3 eggs
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
Combine the poppyseeds and milk in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat just before it boils — cool to room temperature.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the baking powder and mix well. Add the flour alternately with the cooled milk/poppyseed mixture. When this is well blended add the lemon rind.
Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or if using the mini-loaf pans for about 25 minutes.
(Originally published on 12/8/07 on our previous blog)