Time to Get Your Chef On-Lemon Style!

This is such a busy week here at Cups by Kim. I've signed up for so many different recipe challenges I'm going from Grilled Cheese to Lemons!
Now it's time to

This challenge is being hosted by

& Two of my very best blogging buddies.They both are such great inspirations to me. I sometimes wish we lived closer together because we would totally hang out and cook!For this challenge Jen & Julie decided that lemons would be the secret ingredient. We were instructed to find a recipe that contained the secret ingredient and share it with all of our readers. I decided on

(of course I had to do cupcakes, what did you expect!)

I found this recipe a while back while thinking up ideas for my cupcake customers.Not only does it containg fresh blueberries, and lemon, but it is topped off with lemon cream cheese frosting. Y.U.M!!Now that challenge one of Get Your Chef on is over, I can't wait to see what's in store for next month!!Thanks Julie & Jen for hosting a great party! We really should hang out sometime! 

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes        Yield: 36 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Frosting:

• 2 sticks butter
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 10 to 12 cups powdered sugar

Directions

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with 24 paper liners.

Mix the flour, soda and salt together in a bowl. Set aside. Add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix thoroughly. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and mix to combine. Add the dry mixture in 3 parts alternating with the sour cream, ending with dry mixture. Stir in the blueberries. Fill the prepared tins two-thirds full and bake 16 to 20 minutes. Cool.

For the frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla, lemon zest and juice and blend until combined. Add the powdered sugar gradually until combined.
Frost the cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

And don't forget, while you're here stop by Sweet & Simple Sunday and link up your recipes and goodies and enter to win a gift tote from Natural Garden Soaps!

Lemon Olive Oil Cupcake with Goat Cheese Frosting

I have been a fan of the show Cucpake Wars since it started a few years ago, but what's with all of the odd flavors. Every time I watch the show it makes me want to get up off of my butt and go into my pantry and find the oddest flavors I can find an throw them into a cupcake. And as all of you know, they would turn out perfect! They would taste wonderful and everyone would want to indulge in a sea of odd cupcake creations right? Yeah, not so much. Well I was inspired after watching all of my DVR'd episodes over Christmas break to actually try making something that I hear so much about on Cupcake Wars. I alway hear them talking about mascarpone cheese and swiss meringue buttercream (I'll get to those someday). And what about goat cheese? Goat Cheese? Really? On a cupcake? Yes! On a cupcake!

I had never tried goat cheese before in my life. I figured I better try it first before putting it on or in a cupcake so that I know if it really tastes the way it should. I went to the grocery and bought a single package of goat cheese. It reminded me a lot of cream cheese but with more of a tang to it. It was very creamy and smooth, but again, I couldn't get past the sour tang that the cheese left behind. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either, and I figured that anything with powdered sugar and a cupcake behind it wouldn't taste so bad in the end anyway. So now that I've tasted the cheese. What was I going to put with it to make my tastebuds happy? I needed a flavor that wasn't as strong as the cheese, or anything that would overpower it. I did some searching again, on my most favorite cupcake site, http://www.cupcakeproject.com/ and found a recipe for an olive oil cupcake. I thought to myself, I've always wanted to try an olive oil cupcake, sounds like now is the time (and I liked it even more that I had most of the ingredients on hand to make it). Here's the recipe with the changes that I made to it.

Lemon Olive Oil Cupcakes

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 2/3 C extra virgin olive oil
• 1 T lemon zest
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 C lemon juice
• 2 T finely chopped fresh thyme (I left this out of my cupcakes)

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest and rub together to extract the fragrant oil from the zest.
3. Add olive oil and mix on high speed until completely combined (preferably with the whisk attachment).
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix on slow speed.
6. Add half of the lemon juice and continue mixing.
7. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the lemon juice and the remaining flour mixture and beat until combined between each addition.
8. Stir in the thyme (Again, I left this out because I didn't have any on hand)
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
10. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until they bounce back when touched. (This is different from the original recipe. I found that baking things at a higher temp in my oven really dries them out.)

These cupcakes came out nice and fluffy, and had a great lemon flavor to them. I think the next time I make them though, I will use a little more lemon zest in them, but I like my lemon cupcakes to be lemony, you do yours however you like.

Next onto the goat cheese frosting. I figured that I couldn't use just the goat cheese by itself, so I added in some cream cheese. Here's the recipe I used for the frosting.

Goat Cheese Frosting

8 oz of goat cheese, room temperature
8 oz of cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups of confectioner's sugar

Combine goat cheese and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with whisk attahcment. The cheeses will become very creamy the more you mix them. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until it is well combined and easy to spread or pipe onto the cupcakes.

That's it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! I piped the frosting on the cupcakes and topped with these cute little sugar bees that I found here.

These were such a different tasting cupcake. The cake itself had a nice olive oil taste to it along with the lemon and then the tang of the goat cheese just played nicely with the cupcakes. I'm still trying to figure out another flavor of cupcake that would compliment this tangy yet smooth frosting. I guess I'm going to have to keep trying!!