rain, rain, go away...

it feels like it's been raining non-stop in NYC and really, it has been for a little over a week now. last weekend, i had offered to volunteer at the APAH festival and bring baked goods to sell. but apparently the rain had dramatically increased the humidity in the air...so much so that it took a tooth-aching amount of powdered sugar to get my frosting to thicken just so i could pipe it!

that was literally the icing on the cake. i had been struggling through what felt like failure after failure in the kitchen. so i took a break...

and after the break, i remembered that one of the girls at the APAH festival had brought yummy lemon raspberry cupcakes. the last time i had attempted lemon cupcakes, the batter curdled so badly that they were inedible! (add that to the growing list of disappointments in the kitchen!) but i had had pretty good success with a key lime cupcake recipe from bon appetit and went about adapting that to match the image in my head.

sadly, my icing was far too soft again (no, it hadn't stopped raining!). after adding more confectioner's sugar, my frosting had the consistency of a thick soup. how lovely...

hurray for the world wide web! i had never thought to add corn starch but it definitely helped to absorb the extra moisture, didn't noticeably affect the flavor and might have saved me yet another trip to the dentist.
all is well that ends well!

Lemon Cupcakes
adapted from Buttersweet Bakery via bon appetit

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
2. Whisk both flours in a medium bowl.
3. Beat butter in a large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Then add the lemon juice and lemon peel (batter may look curdled).
5. Beat in flour in 3 additions, alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour).
6. Spoon batter into each liner.
7. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
   

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
* this makes quite a lot of frosting.

3/4 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon peel
1 - 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon raspberry extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
4-6 cups powdered sugar

1. In a small saucepan, add the raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel. While stirring, bring to a boil. Take off heat and allow to cool. Strain out the seeds and pulp, reserving the liquid.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
3. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and cream until smooth.
4. Add 1/4 cup of raspberry syrup and extracts.
5. Add powdered sugar to taste and icing preference.