Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes - Summer is Here!

My brother and his wife's garden overfloweth with fresh fruit, so we took a load of lemons off their hands. Most of them went toward fresh lemonade (with many packets of Truvia and Splenda), but of course a few had to be saved for cupcakes.

These lemon cupcakes are topped with fresh strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream to welcome summer! Last year, summer decided to not show up in San Diego, so I am celebrating the warm sunny days we are finally getting this year. The cupcakes are made especially lemony with the addition of limoncello and lemon oil. The straws are made with rolled fondant painted with gold dusting powder.

Note to self: Do not cover overnight or the straws will wilt . . .

Apricot-Chocolate Cupcakes

These apricot-dark chocolate pound cake cupcakes were inspired by a cakelove recipe, and I was happy to finally put almond extract to good use. The almond flavor in the cake is a nice complement to the bittersweet chocolate, and these were delicious straight out of the oven with the chocolate bits still melted, and the dried apricot bits still soft and moist.

Unfortunately upon cooling, I found that the dried apricot bits became harder than they were to start out with. I might have to try pre-soaking them next time!

Admittedly, I am not a big fan of pound cake texture as it is denser, and with my unreliable oven from the 80s, my pound cakes are prone to ending up a bit dry and overbaked. But, I have found that pound cakes seem to get the most enthusiastic feedback from the office, so I'll keep working on them!