Poison Ivy - Lemon Cream Cupcake

About two weeks ago I was experimenting again with cupcakes and I decided I would try to make my Poison Ivy cupcake. I wanted this cupcake to have a lady-like quality to it and yet have a distinct kick to the taste buds. Lemons always remind me of sexy, passionate ladies. I don't know why...it just does. Hah. Poison Ivy is a sexy, passionate, and very sweet/sour lady. The match seemed perfect. The next step was to find my recipe that encompassed all of this.

I decided to go for a Lemon Cream Cupcake with a Lemon Frosting. I made my cupcakes, pulled them out of the oven, let them cool and then sank my villainess teeth into them. Good!

I did make a mental note to reduce the batter for the cups. If you add too much you can sometimes score by the cupcake blooming upwards beautifully, but sometimes the opposite happens and instead of the cake becoming rounded on top it evens out and touches the pan causing it to brown around the edges. Not so pretty. I also made a mental note to pull them out sooner. I always go with my gut about when to pull my cups out, but this time I was distracted and kept double guessing myself. Mistake. While they definitely weren't burnt or overcooked, they weren't to my standards. I hate seeing any brown on my cups. Oh well. Mental notes taken and stored. Bake and learn baby...bake and learn.

Once my cupcakes were cooling I started making my frosting. The lemon zest gave it that sexy punch that only a lemon could deliver. I did get worried though... Before I added my dollops to the cups I took a spoon and did a small taste test. Wow! Lemon! Haha....I wanted lemon, but this baby was leeeemony! Fear and disappointment started setting in. Did I get too carried away with the lemon...? Was it a bad idea to add the lemon to the frosting? Then an idea hit me. Take a cupcake, frost it and try it all together. Sweeet! The lemon cupcake was subtle, but when topped with the frosting it was the perfect addition. The cake cut into the icing making it less intense, but still left a lovely lemon explosion.

My cupcakes looked a little lonely just sitting there so I decided that since I didn't have any “pearls” to add I would just add some lemon zest to the top. I think it might be safe to say that Poison Ivy would enjoy this Lemon Cream Cupcake while luxuriously relaxing on a sturdy branch in a sultry forest.

The Brown-Eyed Villainess wins again!