0 Lime Tea Cupcakes with Citrus Curd Filling and Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes have been very popular lately. And tea is gaining momentum on the ongoing coffee craze. This is my attempt at a tea infused cupcake. Earl Grey tea and limes seemed like perfect complements. Fresh out of the oven, the cupcake had a very subtle tea flavor. By day 2, the predominant flavor was lime. I decided to fill and frost the cupcakes. But they would be just as delicious baked in a decorative mini-bundt pan and topped with confectioner's sugar.

Lime Tea Cupcakes
(Makes 18 cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp Earl Grey tea leaves
3/4 cup milk, hot
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of 2 limes

Preheat to 350F.

Add tea leaves to hot milk. Let steep for 10-15 minutes. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Pour milk through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Press liquid from tea leaves; discard leaves.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes; stop mixer and scrap bowl occasionally. Add vanilla and lime zest to eggs. Beat lightly to mix. Add egg mixture, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.

On very low speed, add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk and ending with flour; blend each addition until just incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl occasionally.

Fill 18 standard muffin cups 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake until cupcakes spring back when touched, 18-22 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely.



Citrus Curd Filling

3 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
grated zest of 1 lime
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp vanilla

In a medium stainless steel pan, whisk eggs, sugar and zests until light in color. Add juices and butter. Cook over medium heat, whisking gently, until the butter is melted. Continue whisking until the mixture is thickened and simmer gently for a few seconds. Strain and scrape the filling into a bowl and stir in vanilla. Let cool. Cover the surface of the filling with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap onto the surface to keep the top from forming a crust. Poke 5 small slits in the wrap with the tip of a knife to allow steam to escape. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 1 week.

Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temp.
3 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp.
grated zest of 1 lime
1 tsp fresh lime juice
2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar, divided

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed until well combined and mostly lump free.

Add lime zest, lime juice, and 2 cups confectioner’s sugar and beat until well combined.

Add remaining ½ cup confectioner’s sugar for a stiffer frosting.

How I assembled the cupcakes

Using a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip, dispense about 1 tbsp chilled lime curd filling into the middle of the baked cupcake. Frost cupcakes with icing spatula.

0 Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Macaroons

I love watching Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network. Ina's life in the Hamptons is filled with food, flowers, and friends. I love the glass doors on the simple white cabinets in her kitchen. The latch hardware is a perfect complement to the crisp white paint. Who wouldn't want an 8-burner Viking range and a massive granite-topped island? I have serious kitchen envy whenever she's in her large walk-in pantry deciding which chocolate (or pasta or liquor) she'd like to use. And her kitchen overlooks her beautiful (and large) purple-and-orange themed garden. Ina has row upon row of herbs whereas my tiny, San Francisco sized herb garden boasts 1 parsley, 1 sage, 1 rosemary, and 2 thymes.

Some of my friends can’t understand why I find the show so appealing. Some hate the style in which the show is filmed. Too many close up shots of a used whisk/spatula/fork on the Boos block. Too much time spent on florists delivering flowers to clients or realtors taking potential home buyers to visit a cheese factory. Others find Ina, and the Hamptons, totally pretentious. Okay, I will admit that the whole scene is a bit over-the-top. I do live in casual California after all. But Barefoot Contessa is a glimpse into a world so far removed from my reality except for the good food. It’s a guilty pleasure that I look forward to every Saturday. And speaking of guilty pleasures, here’s Ina’s recipe for coconut macaroons. They are moist and super rich especially when drizzled with melted chocolate. Now how bad can that be?

Coconut Macaroons
(Makes 20 to 22 cookies)

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.

Drop the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper using either a 1 3/4-inch diameter ice cream scoop, or two teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

0 Jam Filled Chocolate Bites

I ran across this recipe for melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake on another blog. (Merci Clotilde!) With an irresistible name like that, how could I not try it out? I decided to make the cake in a mini cupcake pan instead of the 8-inch round cake pan. I didn’t have 7 ounces of a single type of chocolate so used what I had in the pantry: 4 ounces of Ghirardelli semisweet, 2 ounces of Scharffen Berger 60% and 1 oz of a milk chocolate my friend brought back from Germany. The cupcakes puffed up nicely in the oven then sunk by the end of the baking time. And the bases of the cupcakes were quite tapered. I’m not sure if this was a one time occurrence or if I did something wrong, but I plan on trying this recipe again. They were super delicious and definitely lived up to the name!

Now I had to figure out what to do with these funny looking mini cupcakes. I decided to flip them over, slice off the little bump, spread some strawberry preserves (heated and strained), replace the bump and cover the whole thing with a chocolate glaze. For lack of a better name, I'm calling them jam filled chocolate bites.

0 Walnut Cups

When I’m baking, sometimes things just don’t turn out the way I plan. I’ve been making these walnut cups for years, but I haven’t made them in the last 2 years. The recipe is fairly simple and the dough is forgiving. I think it’s because of the cream cheese.

I admit that it didn’t turn out because of my inattention. I was watching Top Chef at the same time. My bad.

Mistake #1: I forgot to add the 1 tbsp melted butter to the filling mixture.

Mistake #2: I mixed in the walnuts with the sugar and eggs instead of sprinkling them over the filled cups as instructed in the recipe. I don’t know if this made a significant difference but the tops of the walnut cups were slightly domed and separated from the filling by an air pocket. Perhaps in my vigor to mix in the nuts with the eggs and sugar I incorporated too much air into the mixture. Maybe it’s because I forgot to add the butter.

Mistake #3: I poured too much filling into each cup leaving me with not enough filling and leftover dough.

Most of the time, mistakes are still delicious and these were no exception. Or at least that's what my friends told me.

0 Crystallized Ginger Cookies

A few years ago, my friend, Sean, emailed a cookie recipe to me with the hope that I would make them for him. The recipe called for crystallized ginger so I went to TJ's to buy a bag. Imagine my surprise when I found "Sean's recipe" on the back of the bag! This chewy ginger cookie has been a wonderful addition to my baking repertoire.

Crystallized Ginger Cookies
makes 36 cookies

¾ cup (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
3 oz crystallized ginger, chopped

3 tbsp granulated sugar (for rolling)

Preheat oven to 375F.
Cream butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add molasses and egg, mixing after each addition.
Sift together dry ingredients.
Add to creamed mixture.
Mix until the flour is almost incorporated.
Stir in chopped ginger.
Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Form 1 inch balls.
Roll in granulated sugar.
Place on parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake 8-10 minutes.