Blueberry Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

I was skeptical at first of the combination of blueberry and lime, but I decided to give these a shot this Spring.  They came out delicious!  The lime and cream cheese frosting was a bit tangy, but incredibly refreshing and the cupcakes were not too sweet.  I did find the cupcakes to be a bit dry for my personal taste, but the frosting was so delicious,  I was able to look past the dry cake. 

Slightly Adapted From: Tracey's Culinary Adventures

What you need for the cupcakes:
3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour, divided
3/4 Cup Cake Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Unslated Butter, at room temperature
3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp Sugar
Juice of 1 Lime 
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Milk, at room temperature
1 Cup Blueberries (preferably fresh) 

What you do to make the cupcakes:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 
2.  Line cupcake pans with liners. 
3.  Whisk 3/4 cup all purpose flour, all of the cake flower, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Set that bowl aside. 
4.  In another bowl combine the sugar and lime juice.  
5.  Add the butter and cream until light and fluffy. 
6.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Beat well after each addition. 
7.  Add the vanilla and mix well. 
8. Add the flour mixture and the milk, a bit at a time, alternating flour mixture and milk.
9.  Gently fold in 3/4 cup of blueberries. 
10.  Fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way full. 
11.  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
12.  Cool completely. 


What you need for the frosting: 
8 oz cream cheese, softened
5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
4 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
Juice of 1 Lime 
Green Food Coloring, if desired

What you do to make the frosting:
1.  Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. 
2.  Add the lime juice and mix well. 
3.  Add the powdered sugar, 1/2 of a cup at a time.  
4.  After all of the powdered sugar is mixed in, add green food coloring to color as desired. 
5.  Mix on high speed until fluffy. 
6.  Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes with an over sized icing tip. 
7.  Garnish with blueberries. 

Enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Rice

(Please excuse the terrible photo.  Apparently I was so excited to eat

my cilantro lime rice that I didn't have time to take a decent pic.)

If you like Chipotle's rice, you're gonna LOVE this stuff.  It's one million times better than Chipotle's rice.  Trust me.  It's like the crack of rice. 


Apparently, it's a copycat recipe for rice served at a restaurant called Cafe Rio.  I've never been there.  But, if they serve stuff like this, eating there is going on my bucket list.  I got the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything. 


I use it as a side dish for Mexican meals.  I also use it to make burrito bowls, Chipotle style.  It's simple to make and uses relatively few ingredients. 


Slightly adapted from:  The Girl Who Ate Everything. 


Here's what you need:
2 Tb. Butter 
1 ¼ White Rice
Juice of 2 Limes 

2 ¼ cups Chicken Broth
2 Tb. chopped fresh Cilantro
¾ tsp. Salt¼ tsp. Cumin 


Here's what you do:
1.  In a sauce pan, melt the butter with the rice. 


2.  Add the juice of the limes, chicken broth, cilantro, salt, and cumin. 


3.  Bring to a boil. 


4.  Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes. 


Enjoy!

Fruit Pizza

I love this dessert.  It's great for the summer time when all the fruit is luscious and in season.  The "sauce" is made of cream cheese, which gives it just a bit of tang.  You can customize it with whatever fruit meets your fancy (or whatever happens to be in season).  Then, you just cut it up into slices like a pizza!  It's easy to make and easy to eat.  Plus, it has fruit on top, so it's got to be healthy, right?

I do have a confession to make before we get any further.  Sometimes, I don't make everything from scratch.  *GASP*  This is one of those times.  The crust of this pizza is just like one massive sugar cookie.  I didn't have time to make sugar cookie dough from scratch, so I used a Krusteaz mix.  They were ah.maz.ing.  Seriously, I'm considering not making sugar cookies from scratch this Christmas.  But, don't tell anybody . . .

Here's what I used:
1 Batch of Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix
1 Package of Cream Cheese, softened
2 Tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
Various Fruit, cleaned and sliced

Here's what I did: 
1.  Made the Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix as directed.  Placed in a large round pan and baked as directed. 

     *Hint:  Obviously, the folks who wrote the instructions for making the cookie mix didn't 
      anticipate that you would be making one massive sugar cookie.  So bake as directed,
      except as to the time directed.  You're going to have to keep an eye on the cookie
      and take it out when it's golden brown.*

2.  After the crust is baked, set it to side to cool.

3.  Mix the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  Set it to the side.

4.  Clean and cut up your fruit toppings.  Put each type of fruit in a separate bowl for topping the pizza.

5.  Spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the filling.

6.  Top the pizza with your fruit toppings.

7.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

8.  Cut into pizza slices.

Enjoy!

Lemon Bundt Cake with Citrus Glaze

I happen to think that certain flavors belong to certain seasons.  For example, I think cinnamon belongs to Autumn.  And I think that lemon belongs to Summer.  Although I'm really starting to crave my Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Mother Nature says its still Lemon season.  And, who am I to argue with her? 

I found this recipe in a cookbook that I picked up at the Missouri State Fair.  It is the 2008 Official Cookbook of 2006-2007 Award Winning Recipes.  I found this recipe on page 127 (it's called Luscious Lemon Orange Bundt Cake in the cookbook).  It turned out great -- the lemon cake was very subtle, so it wasn't overpowering at all.  And the glaze was sweet, but definitely didn't make it too sweet.  I did modify the recipe slightly from what is printed in the cookbook.

Here's what I used:
1 Cup Butter, softened
1/4 Cup Shortening
2 Cups Sugar
5 Eggs
3 Cups Flour
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp. Lemon Extract
1Orange Rind, grated
1 Lemon Rind, grated
2 Tbsp. Fresh Orange Juice
2 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Here's what I did:

1.  Preheated the Oven to 325 degrees. 

2.  Greased and floured a bundt pan.

3.  Mixed together the butter, shortening, and sugar until creamy.

4.  Added the eggs to the butter mixture, 1 at a time, making sure each egg was completely integrated into the mixture before adding another.

5.  In a separate bowl, combined the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

6.  Alternately added the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the wet ingredients (Step 4), completely integrating the dry ingredients or buttermilk before adding more. 

7.  Stirred in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

8.  Poured into bundt pan and baked for about 50 minutes.  Remove the cake from the oven when a stick inserted comes out clean.

9.  Put the cake (still in the pan) onto a cooling rack.

10.  While the cake was cooling, I combined the grated orange rind, grated lemon rind, fresh orange juice, fresh lemon juice, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.  Set aside.

11.  After the cake had cooled for 15 minutes, removed from pan.

12.  Punched holes in the top and sides of the cake.

13.  Drizzled the glaze over the cake while it was still warm.

Enjoy!