Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream

These cupcakes are one of my favourites for summer. I love the light lemony taste and the surprise of fresh strawberries in the cake. I have posted the recipe here. I made these for a BBQ for Victoria Day weekend and I loved the photos and had to share. 

It turned out to be a gorgeous weekend for the long weekend. They were calling for rain but it never came! I wanted something fresh and bright for the BBQ since the weather was starting to warm up, I wanted a desert that reflected that.  Plus the lemon syrup from this recipe did double duty in Sangria (recipe to come)! 

My roommate (and friends) seriously thought I was crazy, bringing my cupcakes (and props) outside to take photos in the grass. I would think they were used to my "cupcake photo shoots" by now but I guess leaving the kitchen was just too much for them to handle. Lol.  I love how the photos turned out and am so glad I didn't listen to their teasing. Do your friends bug you for taking blog photos? 

Honey, Honey

I love honey. I didn't always like it, but it defiantly grew on me and now I always buy local honey when possible (I think it tastes best). So I was super excited to learn that my work had an urban bee farm on its roof. I remember watching TV when I was younger and seeing people all dressed up in bee suits harvesting honey and I wondered what it would be like to have hundreds of bees swarming around you, unable to sting you. Well I got to experience it first hand and learn more about bees and the honey making process. 

I felt like an astronaut in my bee suit. Since we weren't harvesting any honey and just checking on the bees making sure they were okay and the queen was still alive they were pretty docile and didn't seem to mind having us there. There was no bee swarm like I had imagined. 

It was amazing to see all the bees working and seeing the honey comb at different stages. A lot of work sure goes into producing honey. Each hive was like its own little world. It was really cool to see and I cannot wait to one day try the honey that these bees produce. 

I of course went home and had some honey in my tea that night. Here are a few of my favourite recipes with honey. 

Honey Butter Cream on these Strawberry Lemon-aid Cupcakes

A generous drizzle of honey on some raspberry scones

What is your favourite way to enjoy honey? 

Jaclyn

David's Tea Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Filling and Honey Buttercream

 

I have a serious addiction to tea. I cannot go by David's Tea without walking into the store and once I am there I have to get some tea and usually buy a sample pack to take home. Its a serious but delicious problem. My tea cupboard is starting to over flow (yes I do have an entire cupboard dedicated to tea. Don't judge.) I also love cupcakes. So I thought it was about time I combine these two loves. And here you have it the love child of tea and cupcakes. My Earl Grey lemon filled honey buttercream topped cupcakes.

For the cake (makes 24):
1 c unsalted butter at room temp
2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 c milk
2 tsp David's Tea Cream of Earl Grey
2 tsp David's Tea Decaf Earl Grey
4 Earl Grey Tea bags
3 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking soda

Directions

In small sauce pan on the stove combine milk, loose leaf teas and 2 tea bags. Heat until milk starts to boil. Once milk is boiling remove from heat and let sit for 15-30 mins

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and beat until combined. Beat in eggs one at a time. Making sure to beat well after each addition.  Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and tea from remaining 2 tea bags.  Remove tea bags from milk mixture and strain out loose leaf tea. Mix in half of the flour mixture.Then add milk and tea mixture. Finally mix in remaining flour mixture.  

Fill cupcake pans about 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in centre of cupcake comes out clean. 

For the Lemon Curd: 

3 eggs

1 c sugar

1/4 c butter, melted

1/2 fresh lemon juice 

zest from 1 lemon 

In a double boiler whisk together eggs and sugar. Add butter, lemon juice and zest. Stir constantly for about 15-20 minutes or until mixture coats back of spoon. (Don't worry if it doesn't thicken up right away. It took a while for mine to thicken before I realized a lot of the water had evaporated from my double boiler...oops)

For the Icing: 

1 c butter at room temp

1/4 c honey 

3-6 c icing sugar 

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar cup at a time until you reach your desired sweetness/consistency. Add honey to taste (I used about 1/4 cup but it will depend on the type of honey you are using and how strong you want your flavour to be). 

Assembling the cupcake:

Cut a cone out of each of your cupcakes. Fill with about 1 tbs of lemon curd. Ice cupcakes as desired. 

Notes: I found that this recipe made the perfect amount of lemon curd and icing for the 24 cupcakes. If you like a lot of icing I suggest you double the recipe as it was just enough icing. 

You can use any type of Earl Grey tea you have on hand. I found mixing the 3 different earl greys gave  a stronger tea flavour in the cupcake overall. 

Enjoy! 

Jaclyn

Turkey Apple Brie Sandwich

 The best part about Thanksgiving (after spending time with family and eating yourself into a food coma) are the leftovers. I pretty much had enough food to last me the week, which is awesome! So what did I do with all my left over turkey? Make a Turkey Apple Brie sandwich of course.

 

This sandwich has everything I love in it. It has the perfect amount of crunch from the apples, sweetness from honey and creamy-ness from the cheese. It is probably up there in my top three favourite sandwiches. 

Ingredients: 

Turkey breast

Honey 

Spinach 

Apple, thinly sliced 

brie cheese, sliced 

2 slices of bread

Spread layer of honey onto one piece of bread. Add single layer of apple slices. Pile turkey onto apples (I like to grill my turkey for a couple minutes until it is heated through first).  Add a handful of spinach and finish with a layer of brie cheese.  Place sandwich on panini grill until cheese is melted about 5 mins or so. 

What is your favourite left over turkey recipe?
Jaclyn

Strawberry and Lemon Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

My friends have caught onto the fact that I love to make cupcakes and have begun to request cupcakes for their birthdays. Usually they come to me with a recipe, a specific flavour combination or send me a cupcake that they have pinned. My one friend however decided to give me a long list of about 10 different items that she liked and asked me to pick a few and make her a cupcake. 

Lemon, strawberries, honey and cheese cake were all on her list and stuck out at me. So I decided to make her a Strawberry Lemon cupcake with Honey Cream Cheese icing.  I had made the cake part of the cupcake before and used an Annie's Eats recipe (surprise, surprise).  It was my first time making the honey icing and it turned out great. It is one of my new favourites for sure. Now I just need to think of something else that will go well with honey! 

Ingredients:

For the cake: 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. lemon zest

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped

Lemon Syrup 

1/2 cup water 

1/2 sugar 

2tsp lemon zest 

juice from 1/2 a lemon 

Icing: 

1 (8oz) package cream cheese 

1/4 butter 

1/4-1/2 honey 

1-2 cups icing sugar 

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.  Stir together with a fork and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.  Add the sugar and beat until well combined.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.  Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl and beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Add in the milk and mix until smooth.  Add in the remaining flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended.  Fold in the fresh strawberries with a spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between the paper liners, filling them about 3/4 full.  Bake about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the syrup bring water to a boil in a small pot. Add sugar, lemon zest and juice to the water. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let simmer for a couple of minutes or until syrup has thickened slightly. 

To make the icing beat together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add in 1 cup icing sugar, beat until combined. Add 1/4 cup honey.  Keep adding honey and sugar until desired taste/sweetness is reached.  ( I think I used just over a cup of icing sugar to add sweetness and volume to the icing and around 1/2 a cup of honey. I stopped adding the honey once I could clearly taste honey flavour in the icing). 

Enjoy!
Jaclyn

Ps. Did you notice I ran out of cupcake liners and had to use both Disney Princess and Black and White Flower ones.

Raspberry Scones

Lately I've had a thing for scones.  My friend and I have been going for tea every Tuesday at this cute little coffee shop in town and I alway get their strawberry scones. I started craving them today and just had to make them. Of course we didn't have an strawberries but I found some frozen raspberries in the freezer and decided to make raspberry scones instead. They were just as delicious.  I used this recipe. 

I liked that these scones had oats in them. It gave them a great texture. 

I used my stand mixer instead of a pastry blender (to be honest I don't know what that is). It seemed to work just fine. 

Raspberry Scone with a Honey Drizzle 

I cannot wait to have one with tea tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Raspberry Scones from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 large egg

½ cup cold buttermilk

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

Pinch of nutmeg

10 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, grated on a large grater or cut into small pieces

¾ cup fresh or frozen raspberries

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  

Combine the egg and buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup.  Stir together; set aside.

Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.  Add the butter to the bowl and toss.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture so that the mixture is crumbly.  Pour the egg and buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a fork just until incorporated (the mixture will be sticky).  Fold in the berries just until incorporated (be particularly gentle if using fresh berries).  Gently knead the dough 6-10 times, just until it comes together into a sticky dough.  Portion the dough out into 8-12 scones, depending on the size you prefer, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet.  (A large dough scoop is a good tool, but not necessary.)  

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.