So the theme for this month’s Cupcake Hero contest is “Earth Day.”  For my entry, I decided to go with the whole “buy local” sort of thing.  I keep hearing how good it is for the environment to buy things from as close to where you are as possible, to cut down on the effect that the transportation of those goods has on the environment.

My mom commented on how lucky I was that I lived in a part of the country where I could probably do the “100 miles” diet (I guess it’s a diet where everything you eat comes from within 100 miles of you).  While these don’t fit that bill (no idea where my flour and sugar come from), I did my best.   I figure, how much more local can you get than your own backyard?  I have a grapefruit tree, and an herb garden, so I took my inspiration from that, and created Grapefruit-Basil cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Backyard Cupcakes
(makes about 12-14)

- 1 cup sugar
- 6 Tbsp. butter
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp. grapefruit zest
- 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with wrappers.

Blend sugar and butter together until creamy.  Add egg and beat well.  Mix in zest and grated ginger.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the liquid ingredients (juice and buttermilk), starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Stir in the basil.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full, then bake at 350 for about 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Citrus Buttercream

- 1 stick butter, softened
- 2-2.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp. citrus juice
- 1 Tbsp. milk or cream

Cream butter and add sugar alternately with liquids, adjusting for desired consistency.  I made the recipe generic citrus, because you could really use any type of juice with this–grapefruit, lemon, lime, etc.  I used grapefruit for these, but I think lime would be good too!

Ok, so now that the business is out of the way, does anyone have any idea why some cupcakes do this?

I’ve noticed that sometimes when I make cupcakes, the wrappers get all loose.  I’m not sure if it’s the wrappers I’m using, or something about the consistency of the cake or what.  Any ideas?  It only happened on some of the cupcakes, not all of them.

Also, I had some fun experimenting with decorations this time around.  The pink things from the top picture are candy covered sunflower seeds.  I probably prefer the dusting sugar though–gives it a little bit of crunchy texture, which I love (probably why dragees are my favorite decoration).  My parents gave me some dusting sugar stencils for easter, which I tried out today–

The shape was pretty visible, but I think I used too much sugar, because the minute I moved the cupcake, it completely blurred.  Apparently my technique needs some work =)  Should be fun to play with though!