Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Meet the June Birthday Club Winner and make Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Icing!




It's time to announce the June winner from the Birthday Club! Drum rolls and congratulations go to Jo Leland of Kingwood, Texas, who wins a free pattern of her choice from my website!


Jo is a member of my American Pie Birthday Club, and I hope you'll join too.  It's free and each month all Club members get a chance to win a pattern and also get 25% off all patterns and kits from my website during their birthday month! If you haven't joined yet, click here or send me your name, address and birthday month at melanie@americanpiedesigns.com and I'll get you entered. Good luck to all!


What's New?  I've been working on a new traditional quilt pattern that will be ready for release in the next two or three weeks.  It's a great pattern for both beginning and experienced quilters and in addition to some simple quilt blocks, it showcases a bit of applique in the borders that you can do by hand or machine. The great thing about this pattern is it shows my easy secret for choosing fabrics to achieve a planned scrappy look. I know choosing fabrics is one of the most difficult parts of making a quilt, but if you follow the instructions in this pattern, you'll find it really simple to harmonize your fabrics perfectly.  More on that soon!


Let's get to my favorite part -- Food!  I found this wonderful recipe for lemon cupcakes with blackberry buttercream frosting and I'm making a [second] load of them to enjoy with family and friends for our annual Fourth of July barbecue.  This recipe was a hit with the hubby, who packed them into his lunchbox and greedily pilfered them during the late movie while I snoozed.  I hope you enjoy this recipe.  Please feel free to share it with your friends!


Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting
(recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com)

Ingredients for Cupcakes (makes 24 cupcakes):
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup low-fat milk
  • 1 lemon, juice and zest
  •  
  • Ingredients for Frosting:
    1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1/2 cup seedless blackberry jam

Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
  • Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners
  • Cream sugar and 1/2 cup butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and mix 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract into mixture with the second egg.
  • Beat in flour and baking powder until thoroughly combined; beat in milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest to make a smooth batter
  • Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups
  • Bake in the preheated oven until cupcake edges are slightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes completely
  • Beat 1 cup butter with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and salt until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, to make a creamy frosting. Beat in blackberry jam. Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes.

That's it for today!  I'm headed back to my worktable to continue working on that new quilt pattern.  Have a great week, and Happy Stitchin'!  xoxo--Melanie