Lemon -or- Orange Blender Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes

I've been on a quest for the perfect whole lemon or orange blender cake recipe for cupcakes or a pound cake. I found one I like the sound of but had to make several changes.

I gave 6 of these to my girls, and then for company one night, I cut 7 cupcakes into 8 pieces each, into a round glass pan wanting to make a Lemon-Berry Shortcake. I left them out on the countertop for 24 hours, to dry a bit.

I combined a couple cups of fresh, sliced strawberries and a cup or two of frozen blueberries, with about 1/3c of blueberry-lavender jam and a tablespoon or two of white Balsamic vinegar. This was sired together and heated slowly. When that juiced up I simmer it with 2t of cornstarch until it came to a low bubble and thickened. After cooling, I stirred in about 6oz. of sour cream and chilled it. To serve, this was spooned over the cupcake chunks, in little bowls, with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar on top of each, for crunch.

Now back to the recipe. . .First, preheat your oven to 350°

Put this first group into your blender jar and blend until smooth:
1 whole thin-skinned seedless lemon. . .
-OR- 1 lg. whole CaraCara Orange
~ scrub, cut off the ends
~ then cut it in about 16 pieces
3 lg. pasture raised eggs
1-1/2c organic cane sugar
3/4c Chobani whole milk plain Greek yogurt
3/4c single source EVOO
2t pure vanilla

In a large glass bowl, stir together:
2c Caputo (Italian) Chef's Flour. . .
~ or a good American all purpose flour like King Arthur's
1T baking powder
1t Himalayan pink salt

CaraCara Orange Cupcakes

Pour the lemon, egg, oil, sugar mixture into the dry ingredient bowl. Stir-scrape-mix together with a silicone spatula until all the flour is incorporated.

Pour into 24 paper-lined muffin cups and sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. I used turbinado sugar for this and it added just the right amount of sweetness and crunch. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Mmmm, these are good, but still may need extra stirred in just before baking. . .Lin