Guest Post from Cristina at Sundae Brunch Blog

I recently stumbled upon Cristina's blog and fell immediately in love with her food photography and her recipes! Her blog is so colorful and her photos make her food look amazing! 

She was the winner of my giveaway a couple weeks ago, and in talking with her I decided to ask her to do the first guest post I have ever done here on Lace in the Kitchen! She accepted the offer and today I am happy to have her guest posting here on Lace in the Kitchen! 

Being a relatively new blogger, I was honored when Katy asked me if I’d like to do a guest post for her blog. Of course I would! Thinking of what in the world to write about was the hard part. I knew it had to be something that reflected my personality in the kitchen, something that Katy’s readers would enjoy, and, most importantly, something that Katy would enjoy, too. 

Whenever I’m having a party I always like to make cupcakes. For the time and effort (which isn’t much), I don’t think anything else has an impact quite like cupcakes. Sure, a tiered cake is impressive, but it isn’t always easy, and then you have to worry about serving it. Cupcakes are easy, beautiful, and make everyone happy. 

I created this recipe just for Lace in the Kitchen, using a classic yellow cake batter with lemon extract as my base, and adding in honey and extra vanilla to my go-to cream cheese frosting.

I love the way they came out. I also added fresh blueberries before baking to about half of the cupcakes, just to see how they’d taste, and those were really delicious, too. The only problem is that the blueberries sank. Not a problem at all flavor-wise, just not the final look I was expecting. I’d still recommend it, though. Next time I’ll just toss the blueberries in a bit of flour first to try and get them to stay “afloat”. (Just an excuse to make another batch, really.) 

The final touch was a bit of lemon zest (I love when the toppings suggest what flavors are inside) and the easiest DIY washi tape toppers. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

Ingredients: (makes about 18 cupcakes)
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ cups sifted self-rising flour
½ cup whole milk, room temperature
½  tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp lemon extract 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. 

Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add in the eggs and beat well. Add in the flour, milk, and extracts. Divide batter evenly between cupcake liners. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, depending on your oven. Let cool and then frost. 

For the frosting: (yields enough to generously frost 18 cupcakes, plus eat some straight out of the bowl)

1 ½ 8oz. blocks of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ½ cups of powdered sugar (more or less)
4 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. honey
Heavy cream, as needed (usually a splash or two)

Instructions:

In your largest mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter. Add in the powdered sugar little by little. Once it’s all blended, add in the vanilla and honey. If the frosting appears too stiff you can splash in a bit of the heavy cream until you get your desired consistency. Because I use a piping bag, I generally like to keep the frosting thick enough to hold its shape. I used the Wilton “open star” tip #4B on these.

Thanks so much Cristina!!!! Everyone go check out her blog right now. Seriously! 

Sundae Brunch