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.

Lemon Bars

Something non-chocolate. That's how we ended up on this recipe. Amy's office is having a chocolate-themed baking contest for Valentine's Day and so, for the sake of variation, we present a zesty citrus recipe!

From one of those wonderful cookbooks waiting under the tree on Christmas morning (from one Spatula Sister to another), the recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens "The Ultimate Cookie Book." Seriously, I think we could bake all year and fill the entire blog with recipes just from that book - and still have things we want to try.

One final note: These are supposed to be lemon bars... but really, any citrus fruit will do. Lemon is nice because the sourness provides a nice kick, but we added a substituted some orange (because we had no lemons).

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter/margarine

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups granulated (white) sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel --> 2 tablespoons of orange peel did the trick for us

3/4 cup lemon juice --> a friend added a little orange juice in place of lemon juice with rave results

1/4 cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk --> we used 1/8 milk and 1/8 half-and-half

2 teaspoons cornstarch --> not in cookbook, but helps a lot with the consistency of the filling

Powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Line 13 x 9 inch baking pan with greased tin foil (I used margarine), extending foil over edges of pan.
• In large bowl, stir the 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Using a pastry blender (or knives), cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture evenly into bottom of pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
• Meanwhile, for lemon filling, lightly beat eggs in medium bowl. Stir in sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, lemon peel, lemon juice, half-and-half, and cornstarch .
• Pour filling over hot crust. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until center is set (you'll see the edges start to set and slowly it will creep in... just keep baking until it's all solid).
• Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Lift foil out of pan. Cut into bars (I cut off all the edges to make it look prettier). Just before serving, sprinkle powdered sugar over bars. The sugar gets absorbed eventually - so they just look a lot prettier if you sprinkle the sugar on a few minutes before serving.
• Store in fridge.

Trim the edges off the bars for a cleaner presentation.