Sugar Rose Petals & Rose Water Cupcakes

Last night I had a hell of a time sleeping so i read the entire "Cupcakes" by Susan McMahon. Only took me 20 minutes or so to go through the 160 some-odd pages as the recipes were all quite similar from one to the next, and more of a visual guide than anything else. The only real new thing that popped out at me were sugar rose petals. The recipes in this book was quite simple and because I was surfing online at specialty cupcakes, I thought it was a very interesting flavor and wondered how it was done. Well here is the recipe for 12 sugar rose petal cupcakes, super easy:

You need:
12 rose petals (make sure they are eatable, ask the florist)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
4-6 Tbsp sugar

Instructions: To crystallize the rose petals, brush them with egg white, lightly sprinkle with sugar evenly and place them on baking parchment paper and let dry.

Note: Do not eat if you are pregnant or sensitive to raw eggs, as this recipe calls for raw eggs... Not sure if I want to eat them myself but they do look very nice... I think I do have to try just one.

As for the cupcakes, just create a standard cupcake recipe - replace the vanilla with rose water.

I'd give you the recipe in this book, but everything is in grams and ounces (This book, I realized is produced in England which means their system of measuring isn't like ours in North America). I will convert and do a post on measurements another day soon, but I wanted to add that when buying books from England, Canadians pay the same price as Americans cause the price is converted from British pounds. Cool, didn't know that. This book only cost me $12.95 + tax. Fair deal I think and looks nice in the collection.

Making your own Lemon Zest - Lemon poppyseed cake

So i decided to try something different today and I have always been a fan of lemon poppyseed loafs at coffee shops and local bakeries. I found a great recipe and am very excited to try and maybe incorporate the recipe into a delicious cupcake one day. The recipe calls for lemon zest and instead of buying it, i decided to make my own with organic lemons and while i am at it, decided to make orange zest as well! I of course went to google to see how it's done and it's easier than i thought. Here is the recipe:

You need:

• 6 oranges, lemons or limes

Use as many or as few as you like but remember that you can make a lot of this at one time and store it in your cabinet for later use.

Instructions:

Clean and dry your oranges removing any labels if necessary.
Using a medium-fine grater, grate your fruit until only the white pith remains over the fruit. You now have Zest!
After you have grated all of your fruit, you can add it to any dish calling for it or you can dry it and store it.
Using either a silicone baking pad in a pan or the "release" variety of aluminum foil, spead you zest over your foil or pad, closely together but not in a mound. You want a flat layer of zest.
Place into a cool oven at 200 degrees or on a "Warm" setting and cook for one hour.
Using a spatula, turn the zest over once and stir slightly to make sure that the zest dries evenly.
Check after one hour to see if the zest is dry. If not, turn off the oven and allow the zest to dry overnight or to remain in the oven for at least one more hour.
If your zest is now dry, you can pour it into a clean and air-tight jar and store in your kitchen cabinet.

Cool Tip: After baking, baste the cake with a real lemon juice sugar syrup. Equal amount of lemon juice to sugar and boil til it becomes thick, stirring frequently. Baste the cake right as it comes out of the oven on all sides. Mmm.... finally found the secret to great lemon poppy seed loaf. Fresh lemon rind and lemon sugar syrup!