Vanilla Cupcakes with Greek Yogurt and Lemon Yest, topped with Fresh Marion Berry Buttercream

We are having a bit of a heat wave here...the real ugliness starts tomorrow with some triple digit temps. I am not excited about it. My daughter texts me while I am on my way home from work, and tells me that she wants to make cupcakes. I text back..."seriously it is 90+ out and you want to turn on the oven?" "Are you high". Pretty sure those are close to my exact words. She was and so we did. She had a recipe that called for a few things that I didn't have, but what I did have worked real well.

For the cupcakes: 1 3/4 cups cake flour 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 plain Greek yogurt 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large egg whites, at room temperature 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted and cooled 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and set aside in a smaller bowl add your wet ingredients yogurt, egg whites, vanilla, lemon juice and zest and mix together. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and blend. Then add your wet to your dry and mix until batter is smooth.

Preheat your oven to 350 degree and line a regular size cupcake pan with paper liners. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full of batter. Bake in preheated oven for roughly 16 min. Toothpick check to make sure they are done and remove from oven and from pan. Place cupcake on cooling wrack and allow to cool. This is a small batch recipe and makes roughly 12 cupcakes. Perfect for a little gathering of friends.

For the Marion Berry Buttercream: 1 cup Marion Berries 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 sticks (4 ounces) butter, VERY soft, pinch salt (do not skip!) 2 cups confectioners sugar (more if needed), sifted. Into a small bowl add your marion berries and 1 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Mash them until really, really pulverized or use your immersion blender. Then pour through a strainer you want all the juice but none of the seeds. Use a spoon to work it through the strainer if you must. Then into a separate bowl place the soft butter, and pinch of salt and whip together. Add confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time and alternate with slowly drizzling in marion berry puree. Get your buttercream the consistency you want by adding more confectioners sugar or more marion berry puree. You have to gauge how stiff you want your frosting. You may not use all of the puree. If you store the cupcakes in the fridge take them out about 30 minutes before serving.

Coconut cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

So last weekend was the daughters birthday. Most likely the last one she will be living at home for. I decided to make something different with a lot of flavor, so I made up coconut cupcakes with lemon frosting.

Start by creaming together 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar and 4 eggs. Add eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl combine 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 2 tsp. baking powder. In a measuring cup pour 3/4 cup of milk and 1-2 tsp. coconut extract (I used 1/2 cup whole milk and 1/4 cup buttermilk). Alternate between the dry ingredients and wet and mix into butter and sugar mixture. If the cake mix is a little too thick for your liking you can add up to another 1/4 milk or buttermilk.

Fold into cake batter roughly one cup of toasted coconut. I used sweetened shredded coconut that I toasted on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven.

We did cupcakes. I love the stuff in this Etsy shop

I baked the cupcakes in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Just waiting for the frosting.

The lemon frosting was a cinch. Combine in a bowl 1 cup very soft butter, 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, for desired consistency

The final touch was a little coconut sprinkled on top. Perfection.

I halved the cake recipe and frosting recipe for this occasion and it still made 14 regular sized cupcakes and the halved frosting recipe covered them perfectly with just enough left over in the bowl for me to taste.

Dinner, Drinks and Dessert

Had a couple of friends over last night for dinner and despite the rain and thanks to a covered porch we (and when I say we I mean the bf) grilled some steaks and I made some garlicky green beans and some delicious butter steamed baby red potatoes.

Because my dinning and kitchen area are on the small side I don't usually invite more than a couple of people over and I try to keep the dinners simple and delicious. The other reason I keep my dinner parties small is, and I know I am not the only one who goes through this, no matter what everyone is going to hang out in the kitchen and dining room while you make dinner. I don't know why and neither does anyone else that I have spoken with about this strange phenomenon. I mean I clean my house before any and every dinner party but I pay special attention to the kitchen because that is the only room anyone is going to really see.

Spring has finally arrived so I was able to cut a fresh bouquet of daffodils for the table from my flower bed out front. They are bright, cheery and not too heavily scented, which is perfect for the dinner table. I always try and avoid anything that is going to compete with the aroma of a wonderful dinner.

Now for dessert I like to make things that don't need any last minute steps with the exception of maybe whipping some whip cream up to serve on top, or pulling ice cream from the freezer. Keep it simple and if you can make it ahead then do it. Last nights dessert was a Butter Pecan Cake that was really yummy, and turned out perfectly. I will say this though I thought the batter to be a little stiff so I added a touch more buttermilk to get my cake batter to the consistency I wanted, and the frosting I don't think needs to set up in the fridge for an hour. Maybe 45 minutes maximum.

The layers rose really well.

Aren't those pretty.

One of the two food scales I have. I truly think a food scale is a must in the kitchen.

Who doesn't love homemade frosting?

In goes the buttered Pecans.

Towering layers of love a.k.a Butter Pecan Cake.

Thanks to my friends Mr. G & Racey for the Sake, dogs, conversation...and for liking my cooking. It is always fun to have you over and thanks to my bf for being a master griller once again.