Mango Lime Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

This week's recipe falls clearly into the definition of a cupcake. See, my earlier post on cupcake vs muffin, supra. It has a light cakey texture and is topped with cream cheese and buttercream frosting. This recipe originally called for lime zest and chili powder to be sprinkled on top of the frosting, however I don't think such a combination would be appreciated on the morning of the first work day after a holiday weekend and as such I've omitted those ingredients. I did however add a bit of lime juice to the frosting to give it a little kick. The reason it includes mangoes is because my parents have three mango trees that are absolutely overflowing with produce. If you would like mangoes, drop by our office, I brought in 5 or 6 pounds and will bring more. Reactions tomorrow.



Ingredients

Mango Lime Cupcakes
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup of milk
1 1/3 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
good pinch of salt
1 mango, peeled and chopped
zest of one lime
1 tablespoon of lime juice



Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup of butter (1/2 a stick), room temperature
4 oz of Neufchâtel cheese, room temperature (alternatively, light cream cheese)
2 cups of powdered sugar
juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon vanilla extract




Directions

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Beat the butter for about 2 minutes until well creamed. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.
2. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat for 45 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
3. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and sift together. Combine the milk, lime zest, and lime juice together. Add some of the flour mixture, then some of the milk, alternating between dry-wet-dry and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix together until just combined.
4. Fold the mango into the batter. Scoop into cupcake papers until almost full.
5. Bake for about 15-18 minutes. Cupcakes will be dense, heavy, and moist. A toothpick should still come out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.
6. When cupcakes are cool prepare icing as follows: Cream the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes. Scraped down the sides and bottom (unless you're using a silicone flat beater, in which case you don't have to beat down because it does it for you).
7. Slowly add the sifted powdered sugar. Add the lime juice vanilla to taste. Spread on cooled cupcakes with a pastry bag. If you want you can add chili powder and strips of lime zest (use a bar zester to get the long strips rather than a microplaner)
   

Monday Musing: Why have I never owned a toaster oven?

The blueberry muffins turned out excellent. I think I've finally nailed the topping. There was a single muffin left at the end of the day, which I attribute to no one ever taking (or admitting to taking) the last muffin. Also, they smelled pretty amazing baking last night, which is always a good indication.

While I've posted previously about small kitchen appliances that I have, there is one that I recently realized I am missing, a toaster oven. I realized this when one of the attorneys brought an old one in to the office. It was almost immediately conscripted into cookie service. In the refrigerator at the office is a tub, the size of which would not be out of place in an elementary school cafeteria, filled with pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough. While I turn my nose up to this pre-packaged convenience food, I must admit it makes a pretty good cookie and requires nothing more than the motor skills sufficient to operate a spoon. Recently someone made a batch while a deposition was taking place. As the smell penetrated the room where the examination was taking place, the attorney taking the deposition ducked out and instructed his assistant to not give a cookie to opposing counsel because of how he was conducting himself in the deposition.

After being exposed to a toaster oven, I don't think I can live for much longer without one. It doesn't have the drawbacks of a microwave or a full size oven, it seems to be the perfect combination. I'm not sure how I've lived so long without one. Thoughts?

Blueberry Muffins

I realized earlier in the week that I've never made proper blueberry muffins. This recipe calls for a streusel topping, like the coffee cake muffins a few weeks back that were so popular. I think I've perfected that type of topping with this incarnation. The key is to let your butter soften, really soften till it's french butter dish creamy. Then mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon with a fork until it's very crumbly, almost the consistency of brown sugar. Reactions tomorrow.



Ingredients

Batter

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Streusel topping

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, very softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F . Line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with streusel topping mixture.
3. To Make Streusel Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Monday Musing: Sifting

The muffins came out a little tough but with fairly good taste. In retrospect I would have use an orange cupcake recipe instead of a muffin recipe. Also, there was a typo in my transcription of the recipe, I used about 1/4 cup of milk, not 1/4 tablespoon.

This recipe didn't call for dry ingredients to be sifted together, but in my zeal to use my new sifter I added it, which might have been a mistake. Muffins aren't supposed to be uniform consistency and I think sifting the flour took some of the texture out of the recipe. With that said there are certainly times where sifting dry ingredients benefits the overall product, for instance in cakes. Powdered sugar should also pretty much always be sifted. But here the muffins turned into golf balls. Perhaps after five weeks of well received pastry it was time for a stumble and this certainly falls under that category.

Orange Micromuffins

After last week's unfettered success with the lemon pound cake, I didn't want to dissapoint. I thought an orange muffin should be a good bet. I also wanted to use my new micromuffin pan. This recipe is a hybrid between one for an orange muffin, which I think comes from the eastern block or some other godforsaken place because it didn't use any sugar! I remedied that by adding half a cup and playing with the liquids to account for the added dry ingredients. The frosting is taken from another recipe but I tweaked it so much, I'd almost call it my own. Anyway, here it is with my modifications.



Ingredients

Orange Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Orange Lemon Glaze

• 1 cup powered sugar
• zest of 1/2 Orange
• 1 orange
• 1/2 lemon

Directions

Orange Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat twelve medium-size muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray, or line with paper liners; set aside.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, amd salt in medium bowl. Combine egg, orange juice, butter, milk, orange zest and vanilla in small bowl until blended; stir into flour mixture just until moistened. If required, add additional orange juice until consistency is like cookie dough.
3. Spoon batter into prepared micro muffin cups, filling to the top. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool. While still warm drizzle orange glaze

Orange Glaze

1. Zest 1/2 large orange. Juice orange. Juice lemon. Mix together in small bowl.
2. Sift powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add juice mixture 1/4 cup at a time until thick but moist.

Monday Musing: Who gives a sift?

The lemon poundcake turned out amazing. The cake was moist, fluffy and above all, very lemony. The only thing I'd change was to put half the frosting on while it was warm and then apply the rest after it was completely cooled. This is because the warmth melted it and didn't allow it to get a nice opaque coating. As an aside, before I applied the frosting I poked a bunch of holes with a fork in the top of the cake to allow the frosting to penetrate the top layer. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it was delicious and mostly dissapeared by the end of the day, with only a small piece remaning which was devoured by my family.

So I have to get something off my chest. I don't sift dry ingredients together. I know the recipe calls for it, and I even include the direction in my modification of the recipe, but I don't do it. I generally mix the dry ingredients with a spatula or a measuring spoon and don't sift it at all. I know that it leads to clumps but I'm ok with that. That is until now. I bought a sifter for the bargain basement price of five dollars. I haven't used it yet because after I washed it I couldn't figure out for the life of my how to dry it, and leaving even a speck of water would render it ineffective. Had I thought about it a little longer, I would have dried it with a hair dryer....Instead I woke up in the middle of the night kicking myself for not drying my flour sifter with a hair dryer. Perhaps I should seek professional help.

Lemon Sour Cream Poundcake

This recipe is all lemon, all the time. I think it's a fitting for summer, which is just around the corner. Not much to say other than to use fresh lemons and lemon zest. I used the juice of two lemons and the zest of one lemon for the cake, and the juice of two lemons for the icing. Because my oven is ancient and has virtually no thermostat, making it impossible to bake at 325, I baked this at 350 for around 80 minutes.

Ingredients

Cake

• 3 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about two lemons)
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel (about one lemon)
• 1 cup sour cream

Icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• juice of two lemons

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease bundt cake pan. Dust pan with flour; tap out excess flour.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Using rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
3. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around cake in pan. Turn out cake.
4. Prepare icing by adding powered sugar to lemon juice until opaque but runny enough to pour. Then pour on still warm cake. Let cool completely.