Kitchen Tales: Lemon Almond Cupcakes

Perhaps you've wondered where I've been since I last posted here. To be honest, nowhere, except inside my head. It's a place I escape to often these days. I would be lying if I didn't admit that the war in Ukraine has been, and still is, upsetting me. It invades my waking thoughts several times a day and I have not found much that I wanted to write about in these past weeks. After 2 years of COVID it seemed like the last straw. Now, after more than 8 weeks of silence on my part, I am tentatively picking up where I left off. 

After an unusually cold start, Spring is finally here and the flowers in our garden have started to bloom. So I will try to enjoy this beautiful season and will definitely make an effort to write more frequently if more briefly.

I had promised to share more about our  trip to Italy last autumn and I will continue to do that in the coming weeks. We have had a very quiet winter. It was uncharacteristically cold (for which I'm thankful) so we spent a lot of time indoors soaking up the warmth and reading (of course). I will soon share with you a book that I read in February and loved immensely. I think you till too.

Our son will soon be taking some very important exams which he needs to pass before he can continue his education at junior college level (equivalent to senior high school in the US). We support and encourage him and try not to offer advice unless it's asked for - which is not as easy as it sounds. His exams will be over by the end of May and then we will all be looking forward to some downtime during the summer months.

After 2 years we were able to celebrate Easter properly and I made some lemon almond cupcakes for dessert. They are really very easy so I am going to share the recipe with you that I found on Centerstage Wellness.

 Lemon Almond Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (150g) granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

zest of 1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons (40g) of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup (4 ounces) (120 ml) milk (I used almond)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 large egg

For the frosting:

1 cup (250g) powdered sugar

6 tablespoons (80g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

zest and juice of half a lemon, divided (or 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract)

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

Directions:

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners, or grease and flour them if you’re out of liners.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Use a stand or hand mixer to mix in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse sand.
3. Add the lemon zest and whisk until it is incorporated into the mixture.
4. Whisk together milk, almond extract, and egg. Pour into the sandy mixture and stir slowly until incorporated.
5. Use a 1/4 cup measure to scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tins.
6. Bake at 325F for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
7. Wait until cupcakes are completely cooled to frost them

For the frosting:

1. Sift powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Cream together with the butter, salt, lemon juice and lemon zest.
2. When well-combined, add extracts and drizzle in half the milk. Beat on high speed until fluffy, adding more liquid until desired consistency is reached. The frosting should lighten in color and increase in volume. (I only added half the milk as the consistency seemed just right).

These cupcakes are really delicious and the lemon-almond combination is a favourite flavour of mine and perfect for a Spring dessert. I added some edible lavender on top to enhance the feeling of the season. They only take a few minutes to make and I am very pleased with this frosting recipe as the consistency of the mixture was perfect unlike some others I've made which were a complete flop.

And I will leave you with that for today as I think brevity is key to my posting more often. I don't seem to have the time to write long posts anymore, or at least for now, but that's fine.

I hope you're all enjoying Spring and I hope I'll get back to posting every week.