I’m going to talk about raspberries and cake and birthday’s here – it’s been a busy week! Our little backyard garden has been doing phenomenally well this year and we have been enjoying the bounty of the season. For the past few weeks it has been raspberries. We have picked bowlfuls of these delightful fresh berries and are enjoying them at breakfast as well as eating handfuls of fresh berries for snacks!  Although I love eating them fresh I just can’t control my urge to bake up something delectable in my kitchen – this week gave me lots of excuses to bake away!

My daughter turned 11 this week ( yes 11!!) and I made a three layer funfetti cake for her birthday party. I loved how the cake looked, but the taste was only so-so. SInce we celebrate birthday’s twice around here – once for the birthday party and once for the “actual” birthday – it gave me the chance to make something else for our family celebration. With the abundance of raspberries in our backyard right now and my daughter’s love for them, I decided on these lemon raspberry cupcakes and I have to admit – I LOVED them!!

 

You start with a basic vanilla (or lemon) cupcake recipe. This one is perfect – it comes together easily and quickly  -literally in the time my children were at a short soccer practice – and bakes up beautifully. Add a little pink icing sugar glaze a few fresh raspberries for garnish and – voila – you have a gorgeous little birthday cupcake! These would be perfect for any summer gathering you need to bring desert to. They are easy to make and provide a stunning a presentation – just my style!

I adapted this recipe slightly from here:  http://.com/2014/07/17/raspberry-lemon-cupcakes/ This is definitely my new “go to”recipe  for vanilla or lemon cupcakes. They are moist, fluffy, light and super easy to whip together. If you are looking for a from “scratch” cupcake recipe you will absolutely love this one. We did! Happy baking!

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup of softened unsalted butter

3/4 cup of sugar

2 large egs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
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pinch of salt

3/4 cup whole milk

zest and  juice of 1 lemon (you could also use lemon extract)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

2. Beat butter and sugar at high speed in an electric mixer until creamed. About 2-3 minutes.

3. Add eggs and vanilla – mix well – scrape down sides o bowl as needed.

4. In a medium bowl mix flour,baking soda and salt.

5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three additions, beating on low speed after each addition. Batter will be thick.

6. Beat in the milk, lemon juice and zest on low speed until just combined. Be careful not to over mix the batter!

7. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes, A toothpick will cone out clean when done – do not over bake!

8. Remove from oven and allow to completely before adding the glaze.

Icing sugar glaze:

Add approx. a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to a small bowl. Mix in 1 teaspoon of milk and strawberry flavoured essence if you have it. Any extract will work here for flavour. Mix, adding more sugar or milk  until you get a texture that will drizzle easily from the edge of a spoon, thick or thin – it’s really just your preference there are no hard and fast rules here!  Add a drop of pink food colouring if you want pink glaze – I did!

Drizzle glaze over cooled cupcakes and add fresh raspberries as desired.