Not Really a Recipe

Gluten Free Lemon Mint Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

First things first. I am not a chef. I'm not even a great cook. We have a saying in our home: "Mom cooks to fill the hole; Daddy cooks to fill the soul." My daughter, Carrie, has an amazing food blog with all kinds of terrific recipes that are both healthy and delicious. 

Having said that, I've had some success baking in my lifetime, and more recently, baking gluten free. Yesterday I hosted a creative event (another blog for another day) where a number of the attendees had gluten issue, so I made sure to have treats everyone could enjoy. The hit of the evening were the lemon-mint cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing. I promised a recipe, so, here it is...sort of.

I'm terrible about measuring--even when I bake. And I never write anything down. So, this is the closest approximation I can do. As I said, I'm not a chef. 

Lemon-Mint Cupcakes

1 package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix (it's mostly sorghum flour for loft and rice flour for structure)

1 lemon

A handful of mint leaves (the fresher the better)

Make the cake mix as directed EXCEPT:

    Finely chop the mint and add to the dry ingredients.

    Add the zest from the lemon plus a splash of lemon juice to the wet ingredients. How much is a splash? After zesting, I squeezed the lemon into the water--maybe a tablespoon's worth. Or less. 

Fill the muffin tins about half way, and bake according to package directions. I use an ice cream scoop to make sure most of the mixture makes it into the pan and the muffins are close to the same size.

Lemon-Cream Cheese Icing

1.5 packages of Neufchatel (light cream) cheese, softened

1/4 cup skim milk 

The rest of the lemon from the cupcakes ( no waste)  juiced to about a quarter cup liquid, lemon tidbits good; seeds, not so much. 

Scant teaspoon stevia powder

Powdered sugar---a couple of cups to make the icing thick enough to use

Blend the Neufchatel until smooth and fluffy.

Add the stevia to lemon juice. I heated the juice and stevia a few seconds in the microwave to help the powder dissolve. 

Add the milk to the cheese and stir in before adding the lemon (otherwise the milk curdles and that would be unpleasant.)

Once the lemon is fully mixed in, add powdered sugar until the icing is thick enough to spoon over the cooled cupcakes.

Spoon the icing over the fully-cooled cupcakes and let set up for 15 minutes or so. 

Add a fresh mint leaf as garnish.

Now, for a REAL food blog, visit A Guiltless Glutton and tell Carrie her mommy sent you!