Triple Citrus Cupcakes [msc]

I made these cupcakes at the beginning of the month for a friend, Mimi, who had a great birthday party. I decided to make these because she said she like light flavors and something just overall light. I thought these would have been perfect.

First I made 2/3 of the recipe. 9 eggs was just way too many. I just made it with 6 eggs - which I thought was still a lot. I used grapefruit instead of orange...well because that's what I had in the house. In addition, I decided to add a bit of citrus alcohol in it since the batter was not cupcake consistency.

After baking it, it had a muffin-like consistency therefore I just decided to add a center of lemon yogurt to it. This way, it is less muffin like, but more moist as well. I also topped it with a lime buttercream. Since I didn't have time to place it into the fridge to set up more, I just kinda scooped it on and topped it with sprinkles.

Everyone loved them which is great. Happy [way] Belated Birthday, Mimi.

The recipe for this month's Cupcake Club is found on page 64 of Martha Stewart's Cupcake book or here.Thanks to Marthe from Culinairy Delights for choosing this.

ps. I apologize to everyone for commenting on their blogs a bit later. I will be in New York this week. If you have any suggestions on what to do or where to eat, please email me! I would love to have a great supply of places to eat.

Grapefruit Bars

So my mother decided to have me bring lots of grapefruit back up to Berkeley. Why - I have no idea. I think she just likes feeding me because she thinks that i get no food here...which is partially true because I'm too lazy to cook and buy food and because I have no time.

With an excess of apples and grapefruits, I got started. I know that I didnt have many apple recipes left - so if you have any good ones suggest them! Other than that, I needed to get rid of these grapefruits. I cannot eat them all.

I looked on my list and I had a grapefruit squares recipe that I had wanted to try. These seemed perfect for this little kickback that I was invited to last minute.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup for filling
1/4 cup white sugar + 1 1/3 cup for filling [I couldn't find my 1/3c so I just used 1 1/2c of white sugar]
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt + 1/2 teaspoon for filling
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
4 eggs
Zest 2 grapefruits
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 grapefruit
Juice of 1 lemon
powdered sugar (for dusting)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Slowly add in the flour and salt mixture until combined.
Press this mixture into a greased and/or lined 9×13 pan.
Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes or until just turning golden on the edges.
While the crust bakes, combine the grapefruit and lemon zest and 1 1/3 cups of white sugar [like I said above, I used 1 1/2 c] in a medium sized bowl and rub them together until the zest is incorporated into the sugar.
Whisk or beat in the eggs and add the juices.
Add 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and whisk them in, too.
Pour the lemon filling over the hot crust and bake for 20-25 minutes [I think mine took about 30 mins or so] or until the top is set and doesn’t wiggle.
Remove the bars from the oven and allow to cool COMPLETELY before sprinkling with powdered sugar and cutting.

I thought these had a nice sense of tartness and it was really good. I think that everyone had really enjoyed it as well.

Strawberry Grapefruit Preserves...Cupcakes [sms]

This week's SMS was chosen by Margo of Effort to Deliciousness. She chose the Strawberry-Ruby Grapefruit Preserves. I had originally thought about skipping this week's SMS due to the fact that I have no means of putting these preserves in jars or things like that. But, then I thought about baking. I bake for a reason. I do it not only because I enjoy baking, but I like challenging myself. I joined SMS and Daring Bakers for a reason - this was to challenge my own ability to bake and create something.

So onward with the preserves. I was debating whether or not just to make the preserves or in something else. I was looking through my LONG list of items that I wanted to make and came across one that said "Strawberry Jelly Cupcakes". Jelly, preserves...they're similar, so I made the cupcake similar to the one in the Strawberry Jelly Cupcake. (So number 7 out of 10!)

After slaving away for hours, the cupcakes and the preserves actually turned out really nice. I actually only made 1/4 of the preserves and they fit perfectly into my 24 cupcakes. Topped these off with some colored buttercream [that I used for the harry potter cupcakes].

These actually turned out to be very popular. Apparently this is one of my friend's new favorites. What I have realized is that each one of my friends has a favorite. The ones that have my cupcakes the most definitely know which ones they'll want for their birthdays which reminds me that I need to start finding various things for various people's birthday and special events.

The preserves itself was not as tangy as I thought it would have been, but then again, most people don't really like too much grapefruit, but it was good regardless. I enjoyed it and I'm happy that my friends did too!


Make sure to check out what other SMS's have done with their preserves!

recipe for the cupcakes here [its on the lower half of the post]. recipe for the preserves here.