Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

The LCBO Food & Drink magazine brings culinary creations to life in such a dazzling way that you simply must see it for yourself, if you can. The popular (free!) magazines come out seasonally at LCBO stores, usually to quite a bit of fanfare, and disappear quickly. The publication's photographers are truly artists, which makes it a treat to read - and makes it all the more tempting to try the suggested recipes!

We made the Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (found on Canadian Baker Too's blog) as the grande finale to our summertime backyard meal (see post below). They took quite a bit of work but oh my goodness they are one of the best (tastiest and prettiest) desserts we've ever made.

Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Note: we made 8 cupcakes by cutting the recipe in half. The recipe below has the full ingredient amounts.

1/2 package Dare Simple Pleasures "Lemon Social Tea" Biscuits --> we had to use a different brand, but try to stick with Dare to make measurements easier

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 packages cream cheese

1/2 cup strawberry jam

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 to 1 cup lemon curd (recipe follows)

6 strawberries (fresh is best)

• Line muffin tins with papers.
• Place eggs in small bowl and cover with hot water to warm them up. Set aside.
• To prepare the crust, put the lemon tea cookies in a food processor. Blend until the cookies are fine crumbs. You should have about 1 cup. Add melted butter and stir until evenly coated.
• Divide crumb mixture equally between cupcake liners, pressing the crumbs firmly into the bottoms of the cups.
• Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.
• Combine cream cheese, eggs, jam, sugar, and vanilla in food processor. Spoon this batter into the cupcake cups, on top of the crumb crust.
• Bake in preheated 375 F oven for 20 minutes, or until just set. Ours cracked a little - but don't worry, the lemon curd covers any cracks that may appear.
• Cool the cupcakes on a rack. Cover and store in fridge until chilled.
• Top with lemon curd and a strawberry slice.

Tea biscuits about to be turned into dust...

The next food processor combo is about to turn a lovely shade of pink.

Graham-cracker-esque crust made with lemon social teas.

A few cracks appeared on the cheesecake tops. Don't worry if this happens to you too!

Lemon curd adds major glamour to these creamy cupcakes.

Lemon Curd

We also cut this recipe in half. The full recipe, which makes 2 cups, follows.

4 lemons

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup softened butter

• Squeeze the juice out of the lemons until you have 3/4 cup of juice.
• Stir eggs with 1 cup sugar in small pot. Whisk in lemon juice. Add softened butter.
• Using a whisk, stir constantly for 10 - 12 minutes while lemon mixture cooks over medium heat. It should get thicker and a little darker. Do not let it boil!
• Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl if you'd like, and place plastic wrap directly on surface of the lemon curd. Cool and store in fridge.

Keep stirring!

Prepared lemon curd will keep for over a week in the refrigerator.

Or, freeze it and it will stay good for several months.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Summertime and the living is easy. Pink lemonade in one hand, and a pink lemonade cupcake in the other. The tartness of the lemonade makes these refreshing.

Lisa is the expert icing queen - the two-tone was a fun effect to go for!

These cupcakes fluttered through Amy's workplace, and then we made another batch for a July birthday party.

The recipe comes from a very pretty blog, Sweet Tooth. The writer has a bunch of other great ideas too!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

3/4 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 egg whites

• Combine all ingredients in medium-sized bowl. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium for one minute.
• Line muffin tins with 18 - 24 cupcake liners.
• Divide the batter between cupcake liners. The original recipe says it makes 24, but we made 18 and the cupcakes seemed to be a good size. The liners should be about 2/3 full.
• Bake cupcakes in 350 F oven for about 25 minutes. If you insert a toothpick, it should come out clean.
• Cool cupcakes before adding icing.

Icing

3 cups confectioners (icing) sugar

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons frozen pink lemonade concentrate

Pinch of salt

Food coloring

• Mix together all ingredients on low speed, until combined. Increase the mixer speed to medium or high, beating until desired consistency.
• Divide frosting evenly between two bowls. Add food coloring.
• We tried to follow this tutorial on two-tone frosting technique. Give it a shot. Alternatively, use our mom's technique! Put the icing in the fridge for a few minutes, so it's easier to manipulative. Roll equal amounts of each color into long tubes (a little bigger than gummy worms) and place side by side in an icing bag.
• Add little straws or cocktail umbrellas for extra flair!

Plain white cake mix is the base.

Separating the yolk from the white.

Adding bright pink frozen lemonade.

Just wait... they're about to get much prettier.

Icing swirls.

This icing technique didn't work incredibly well for us,

but give it a shot! We basically did the same thing, minus the plastic.

Piping the two-tone icing onto the cooled cupcakes.