This week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie recipe was Limoncello Cupcakes. This was an easy, yummy treat to make. The only ingredient we didn’t have was the Limencello, but that turned out to be a snap to find at our local Trader Joe’s.
The cupcake batter was easily mixed by hand. We combined the dry ingredients in a bowl and set it aside. Then combined the sugar with the lemon zest. My daughter loved this part because she got to put her fingers in and blend the two together to moisten the sugar. Then added the other wet ingredients as instructed. This batter was so moist because it included Greek yogurt and oil, so it made a nice thick batter that rose beautifully.
We used an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter. It was the perfect measurement and made a nice batch of 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes cooked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (I usually have to turn down my oven temp for Dorie’s recipes in this book, but this was perfect at 350.) The cupcakes had a lovely dome on top and were a beautiful golden color.
We prepared the glaze while the cupcakes were cooking. The water and sugar were combined and brought to a boil, then cooled for 10 minutes. After ten minutes we added 2Tbs of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Although we had the Limoncello we chose to use lemon juice instead on the glaze. We used the Limoncello in the cake itself, because that was cooking so we knew the alcohol would burn off. But, decided because little ones would be eating these we would substitute lemon juice for the uncooked portions. We love the tartness of the lemon juice combined with the sweetness of the sugar so it was a perfect substitute. We brushed the glaze on top of the cupcakes as soon as we removed them from the oven and allowed the glaze to soak in while the cupcakes cooled.
We substituted lemon juice for the Limoncello in the frosting as well. For the frosting we combined the butter and powdered sugar in the mixer and just like Dorie said after about 4 minutes the mixture started sticking to the beaters. We then added the lemon juice and whipped for 3-5 more minutes and came out with a lovely light buttercream. We chose the piping method, because it is so fun to get out the piping tools and put small dollops on each one because from Dorie’s description we thought there wouldn’t be enough to cover each if we used too much. So we chose to do it the French way. Even though we had plenty left over, in the end, we decided this was the perfect amount of frosting on each cake. It complemented the cake nicely without being overpowering. We loved these tasty treats and would definitely make them again!
If you would like to try this recipe it can be found on page 194 of Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking Chez Moi.
Fun with leftover frosting!