Lemon Deliciousness

I made these lemon cupcakes with my friend Janey a few days ago. I forgot to take pictures, but they were so delicious I decided to share anyways.

Here's the recipe:

3 1/2 oz softened butter
3 1/2 oz softened cream cheese
2 tsp finely
grated lemon rind
2/3 cup superfine (castor) sugar
2 eggs
1/2
cup
all-purpose flour
1/3 cup self-raising flour

Pre-heat oven
to 325F. Line a pan with cupcake papers. Beat the butter, cheese, lemon rind,
sugar, and eggs until smooth and creamy. Sift the flours. Add the flour
gradually to the cheese mixture and beat on a low speed, until just combined.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases. Bake for 25 minutes until firm
to touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
Makes 12 cupcakes.

These weren't hard to make, but I did have some trouble finding the superfine sugar. If you want to buy some look for a package that says "baker's sugar" or something like that. The grating of the lemon rind also took forever. I was surprised to find that 2 tsp of lemon rind are basically the whole thing.

We also made some delicious frosting:

2 cups chilled heavy cream
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Beat the cream in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer set on
low until the cream begins to thicken. Add the confectioners' sugar and lemon
juice, a little at a time, wating after each addition, until fully incorporated.
Increase the mixer speed to high, and beat until the icing orms soft peaks,
about 5 minutes. (If you don't have a mixer a blender works just fine).

Seriously, they turned out so well. Absolutely delicious.

Here are the links:
http://http//www.cupcake-creations.com/lemon-cupcake-recipe.html
http://http//allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Cupcakes-2/Detail.aspx

The second one is the from a lemon cupcake recipe on allrecipes.com, but we just used the frosting part of it.

Love,

K&L

Fruit Smoothie

I found this delicious and easy recipe, once again, from the pages of Seventeen. Well, the one I made was basically not from Seventeen because I changed everything. The one from the magazine called for half a banana, 1 cup of strawberries, 3/4 cup of skim milk, and ice cubes. The banana I had was kinda small so I used the whole thing, I substituted OJ for milk, and decided against the ice cubes. I didn't mess with the strawberries, but I'm sure extras wouldn't have hurt.

It turned out delicious and was very filling. The best part was that it took about five minutes to make, which is essential for someone like me who has class at 9 a.m.

Highly recommended!

Love,

K & L