Gingerbread Rhubarb Pots

Once rhubarb is in the farmers market, it is the one thing that drags me from my comfy bed early on Saturdays to trek up to the park.  I tried to plant one in my garden, but it didn't take.  Sad.  Anyway, I made the trip to the market and brought home plenty of rhubarb and some zucchini planning to make something with one or the other for the barbeques this weekend.  I also wanted something that would be transportable to the beach. 
After flipping though most of the recipes I have, I decided to go with the rhubarb version of the Gingerbread pots in my 500 Cupcakes cookbook.  I had intended to follow the recipe completely, but I was out of wheat flour and I wasn't completely sure about the rhubarb prep.  They turned out well either way.  The rhubarb flavor was subtle and and the ginger was not overwhelming.  The lemon glaze was the perfect topping to balance out the gingerbread.


Ingredients
The cupcakes:

• 1 cup chopped rhubarb
• 2 tbsp white sugar 
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped candied ginger

glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line small terracotta pots with parchment paper (or a cupcake tin with liners). 
2. Mix rhubarb, white sugar, and water in small sauce pan over medium low heat. Stir frequently until the rhubarb has broken down and is soft.  Set aside.
3. Sift the flours, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon in a large bowl.  
4. In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.  Mix in rhubarb until combined. 
5. Stir into dry ingredients. 
6. Spoon batter into pots until about 3/4 full.  Place pots on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. 
7. Remove pots from oven and cool on a rack for a few minutes before removing from pots and cooling for 10 minutes.  
8. To make glaze, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl.  Drizzle over the tops of the cupcakes.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Makes 18 cupcakes.
Enjoy!

Time for Key Lime

A few weeks ago The Pioneer Woman tweeted something about Key Lime Cupcakes in Salt Lake City and I thought the idea was brilliant.  The odd thing is that I don't think I have ever had true key lime pie.  I just really like the idea of it.  Over Christmas I made a quick version key lime pie I found in a magazine, but it was not very good and I decided it was too much of a failure to share.  It did not ruin my desire for key lime and I am glad for that.    

 

Immediately after reading this tweet, I jumped online and into my 500 Cupcakes cookbook for recipes.  I found many that were like the one I am going to share with you and others had actual key lime cream filling with meringue for frosting.  I thought about combining these recipes to some degree by mixing different cakes with the different frostings, but in the end I decided to stick with the recipe I found on Bon Appetit.  I was feeling lazy and didn't want to deal with a six step process to make cupcakes.  I will someday, just not now. 

 

These are delicious and I had enough batter to make 18 cupcakes instead of 12 like the recipe said.  They didn't rise very much, but maybe they were not suppose to, I'm not sure and I can't really tell from their picture if theirs did or not. It took me forever to actually bake these because I kept missing one thing or another and I kept missing the fact that the butter and cream cheese need to be at room temperature.  I also added coconut to the tops of half of them.  I think it was a good addition.

 

Cupcake Ingredients 

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
• 1/4 teaspoon neon-green food coloring
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Frosting

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted utter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• Coconut if desired 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Whisk both flours in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled). Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Spoon scant 1/3 cup batter into each liner.
2. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.
3. FROSTING: Beat all ingredients except coconut in medium bowl until smooth. Spread over cupcakes. Spinkle coconut on top. 
   
    
   ENJOY!