I’ve seen recipes lately that call for goat cheese icing, but I wanted to attempt an entire recipe–cake and icing–using only goat dairy. My first attempt at an icing was all goat cheese and the result was simply too much goat flavor. I didn’t use goat butter simply because the grocery store didn’t have any. The final recipe uses a cupcake batter based on buttermilk cake, and the icing combines both goat cheese and cream cheese–resulting in a tart, almost lemon yogurt flavor.

Pre-heat oven to 350°F

Cupcake Batter
1/2 cup softened butter, unsalted
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup goat milk (plus 2 tblsp fresh lemon juice)

In small bowl combine goat milk and lemon juice, set aside for 5-10 minutes.

In mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, 1 at a time.  Add lemon zest and extract.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture, alternating with goat milk in 2 batches.

Use ice cream scoop to fill cupcake tins. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool and ice.

Goat Cheese Icing
8 oz. plain goat cheese
3 oz. plain cream cheese
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar (slightly more if needed)
juice of 1/2 lemon
zest of 2 lemons

Beat goat cheese and cream cheese until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add sugar and beat on high for another minute. Add in lelmon juice and rind and beat until combined. Mix in more sugar, by the tablespoon, if mixture is too loose or too tart.

It was my first try at salted caramel frosting, and while it was tasty, there wasn’t enough full bodied, caramel flavor. I used this recipe, and even doubled the amount of caramel as some readers suggested, still a little too bland. I also swapped out the kosher salt for grey sea salt–that choice I was happy with.

Time to find a new frosting recipe.

I also had to retry boiling the sugar several times as it crystalized the first two times–when I used a non-stick pan. It was fine once I switched to a stainless steel pot. Has anyone else had the same problem?

The recipe for the cupcake is here, as noted in the post I use all butter and no shortening. That’s the only difference to my recipe, oh, and I don’t add nuts. Then frost.

Buttercream Frosting 
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter
3 tablespoons lime juice (fresh)
zest of one lime

In mixer, combine sugar and butter on low speed until blended. Then increase speed and beat for for a few more minutes until smooth
Add lime juice and zest and mix until creamy. I use an Ateco #823 pastry tip to frost.

Edited to add: I injected this batch with lime Jello. To do, bake cupcakes as directed and let cool. Then poke holes in cake and inject warm jello into the cupcake. Put in fridge and let cool before frosting. Photos of process here.

There were hundreds of cupcakes today–some pics up on flickr. Now I must sit down and digest!

I add 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder to boxed chocolate cake mix and prepare as usual.

Chocolate frosting:
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cream

In mixer: cream butter, sugar and cocoa until blended. Add cream and vanilla and whip until smooth.
Piped with an 823 star pastry tip

Topped with chocolate ganache: add 1/2c scalded milk to bowl containing 8 oz. finely chopped dark chocolate and whisk.
Note: the hot milk didn’t melt all my chocolate, so I set the bowl over a pan of boiling water for just a minute to two to finish melting the chocolate.

I brought them in for the co-workers and they indicated they liked them-hope they weren’t just trying to be nice. Anyway, I got one, “tastes like a Yodel,” and one “tastes like a Ding Dong.”

I spent yesterday in the kitchen. I attempted to make my own Hostess cupcakes, but had a few issues.

1. I don’t think I whipped the egg whites for the buttercream long enough before adding the sugar-syrup. And then I think I rushed adding the butter to the too-warm mixture. I stuck the mixing bowl, with about half of the butter added, to an ice bath and then continued to add butter after the mixture was cool. The icing then seemed to be fine and I filled the center of the cupcakes and stored the rest of the vanilla buttercream in the refrigerator.

On to the ganache to coat the cupcakes—I added the chopped chocolate to slightly warm cream, began to stir the mixture and then it separated! I did some quick research and found that if I added a little bit of cold cream and beat the mixture it would re-form. It did and I poured the ganache over the tops of the cupcakes.

After the ganache cooled I took the vanilla buttercream out to pipe little swirls on top of the cupcakes. Guess what, after bringing the buttercream to room temperature, it too separated. I tried putting it in the mixer and even adding a touch of cream – in the end it looked liked cottage cheese.

Btw, the picture is that of the cupcakes (tops sliced off for flatness) filled with cream, awaiting the ganache.

Cupcake Courier
Crate & Barrel cupcake carrier
Onieda cupcake carrier
King Arthur cupcake caddy