Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

Happy Friday! I, for one, am super excited for this day.  We leave for the beach and I am wayyy overdue for some sand & sun.  This is richly evidenced by my dramatic "oh, woe is me... I'm so overworked" attitude lately and my Casper-the-Ghost-like appearance.  But that all changes today!

Hubs and I on Sunset Beach in Cape May (Tina Markoe Photography)

We go to Cape May every year and let me tell you it is one of the best food towns around.  They have everything from casual sit-down restaurants to white tablecloth fine dining.  It also happens to be the tail end of restaurant week, with some fixed price menus that let me taste a few courses more than I normally might. Yum!  What more could a girl want?  I will have to update you guys on some of my fabulous meals when I get home.

Before I go, I wanted to share this amazing recipe with you from Shugary Sweets.  Lemon is a flavor I just don't get tired of.  My husband will eat chocolate til he's sick, and I sort of feel that way about lemons.  While normal, well-adjusted people order lemon slices for their water at a restaurant, I usually grab them and just suck on them while I wait for my food.  Normally, I'll top my lemon cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese frosting, but Aimee adds this amaaaahzing lemon buttercream to her cakes that is so good it should pretty much be illegal.  You can find her original recipe here.  Make these ASAP for the favorite lemon-lover in your life!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream:
Recipe by Shugary Sweets
Makes 24 cupcakes

5 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 lemons, zested
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 T heavy cream

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare two muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  Mix together the egg whites, 1/4 cup of the buttermilk and the lemon zest in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients until well combined.  Slowly add in egg white mixture and mix again.  Add remaining buttermilk and combine one final time.  Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat butter for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add lemon juice and zest, heavy cream, and powdered sugar (slowly, so the sugar doesn't fly everywhere!) until fully combined.  Beat on high for 3-5 minutes until fluffy.  Pipe frosting onto cupcakes when they are completely cooled.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Happy Weekend time, friends!  This week was a doozy.  I was traveling for work and stayed in a hotel with no internet (side note: what hotel doesn't have internet anymore? It's 2013.)  Because of this, there was an appalling lack of posting this week. For that, I am truly sorry.  I will make it up to you by sharing these amazing Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze from my main Food Network babe Giada DeLaurentiis.

I first made these cookies as part of a Christmas cookie ensemble a few years ago to break up all the chocolate options I had, and they have been in the regular rotation ever since.  I think they work even better in April where the bright, lemony flavor is reminiscent of all things Spring.  The ricotta gives these cookies a dense but fluffy texture, making these babies airy little lemon clouds of yum.  That's the highly-technical foodie description.  Clouds of yum.  The cookies themselves are not overly sweet, but the glaze adds the perfect amount of sweetness and tartness in that second layer of lemon flavor that is totally drool-inducing.  If you are a lemon lover, these are a must make.

Second side note: while making these, a sheet of parchment with raw cookies slid directly on to my hot oven door, I accidentally hit the mixer to "on" before I was ready and spewed dry ingredients all over myself, and I dropped a whisk coated with glaze all over my floor.  But it's Saturday, it's sunny, and I have freshly baked cookies, so I'm choosing to be okay with it. 

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze:
Recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis from the Food Network
Makes about 44 cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-oz) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the softened butter and sugar.  Beat until lighter in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing to combine after each addition.  Scrape the sides as needed, then add the ricotta, lemon juice and lemon zest.  Beat until thoroughly combined.  Add the dry ingredients gradually and beat once more until incorporated.

Drop the dough (each cookie should be about 2 tablespoons) onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn slightly golden brown.   Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for about 20 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Stir all ingredients for the glaze together with a whisk.  Spoon onto each cookie and spread around gently.  Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours before storing and/or stacking.