1.20.2010

lemon coconut ricotta cupcakes

Lemons make me think of a sunny summer's day! I can't help but smile when I look at lemons. Of course, when I suck on a lemon my smile almost always becomes more of a pucker. I think lemons are the reason God created sugar. Without sugar we wouldn't have lemonade. Well, I guess that's not exactly true since there are so many alternative sweeteners these days. Stevia, agave, honey...

Sometimes I just love to rattle on about the silliest things! I guess since this is my very own wonderful space I get to ramble on a little, right???

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I have been craving lemon cupcakes!

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I actually have quite a few lemon cupcake recipes over in my Yummy Treats. I never noticed, until today, just how many.

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I wanted to do something different. I wanted to use an ingredient I hadn't used before. Then it hit me. What about ricotta?

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I've made cupcakes with sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, but never ricotta. I couldn't wait to give this a whirl!

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I ran to the store to pick up a container of ricotta. I also needed coconut extract. I couldn't believe my eyes! Six bucks for coconut extract! Crazy!

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Lemon Coconut Ricotta Cupcakes
by theUngourmet

makes approx. 15 cupcakes

Print recipe

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup part skim ricotta
1 cup milk
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp coconut extract

Line muffin cups with liners. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk well and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg, sugar, and butter. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, ricotta, milk, zest, vanilla, and coconut. Mix to combine. Next, add the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Fill muffins cups evenly and bake in a 350 oven for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting I combined 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tbsp softened butter, 2 tbsp milk, juice for 1/2 a lemon, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp coconut extract, and 1 tsp lemon zest. You may have to play around with the milk and sugar to gain the consistency you want.

I also toasted up some shredded coconut to sprinkle over the top of my cupcakes.

I have to tell you, these are just amazing! One of my favorites so far. I'm loving the ricotta in here.

Thanks so much for coming by and for letting me ramble a bit!

Oh yes, I also wanted to let you all know that Suzi has the Most Amazing Lemon Cake over on her blog today. Go on over and take a look! :0)

Happy Thursday!

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58 comments:

Unknown said...

oh, i bet these are divine! mmmm...i can only imagine how creamy and zesty! one of my favorite italian dishes is chicken limone...and to finish it off with a lemon coconut ricotta cupcake...heaven.

p.s. i forgot to send you a great big THANK YOU for looking up the calorie content for the chili. thank you so much for your extra time on that! i'm making it this weekend! but don't worry...i won't be asking for a calorie count on these cupcakes...i don't want to know! i'm just going to eat and enjoy...soon!

Jenn said...

Cupcake queen has returned. Not like you went anywhere in the first place. hehehe... You can definitely feel summer radiating from them. A good picker-upper on a dreary rainy day. ;-D

pigpigscorner said...

I like lemons too! So bright and you are right it just makes you smile! Love the flavour too. Great idea using ricotta.

love lives in the kitchen said...

i love any kind of lemon cakes! your cupcakes look just lovely!
have a sweet day,
justyna

MaryMoh said...

I love anything with lemon....mmmm. Your cupcake look very delicious. Would be great with a cup of hot tea.

The Blonde Duck said...

How pretty!

Angie's Recipes said...

Big applause for our Cupcake Queen! I adore the sweets with lemony tangy twist.

Shelby said...

This looks like a great recipe and YUMMY too!

debra@dustjacket said...

Oh yeah, I love the look and sound of these...and you ramble away honey...I enjoy it :)
xoxo

ck said...

Oh wow. That looks delicious.

Seriously, though, who gets to eat all of your creations? Do your neighbors line up in the mornings after waking up to your blog?

pam said...

Yay! I have some ricotta in my fridge leftover from something and needed to find something to do with it. Found it.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Lemon and ricotta drew me in here and ricotta will make me add these to my list of things to try.

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

I love anything with lemon too. Great cupcakes.
Sam

jacqueline said...

Yipee to lemon! I love lemon lots and yes they do remind me of pretty summer! Your cupcakes looks soo yumie! I really wanna try to make this soon! {i hope} Thanks so much for yet another wonderful recipe! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!

♥peachkins♥ said...

Th cupcake looks heavenly!

Amanda said...

Wow those look divine!

TKW said...

The good news is that the cupcakes were worth the six dollar coconut extract!! But seriously, six bucks???

Tara said...

What an interesting sounding combination, and they look lucious!

Jen said...

I LOVE the combination in these muffins. Yum!

Anonymous said...

These cupcakes sound just lovely with lemon and coconut flavor!

Bibi @ Bibi's Culinary Journey said...

I was just cleaning the fridge last night and noticed I have little ricotta left and didn't know what to do with that little bit.

I don't have WW pastry flour just regular WW flour. Wonder how would that turn out.

Christo Gonzales said...

I love how the frosting and the zest look...these do sound like summer.

Randi Troxell said...

bet these were fabulous.. i love lemons flavoring and cupcakes.. Mmm, sounds good to me!!

Chef E said...

Bring on summer and pucker up baby! I live for all things lemony!

noble pig said...

These do look like summer!!! Love the zest on the frosting.

petite nyonya said...

the cupcake looks super, and so does your blog's new look. i like it, very nice! :)

yummy recipes said...

Oh,I just love your recipes..it's simple and at the same time it looks So yummy...thanks for sharing all these amazing recipes :)

Joanne said...

All of this citrus fruit reminds me of summer as well and I find it so ironic that they are all winter fruits. Great cupcake recipe! I haven't baked with ricotta either. Need to give it a shot.

Julie said...

Oh man, those do sound awesome. I don't think I've ever had cupcakes with ricotta in them. I obviously need to try it.

teresa said...

i just love your cupcakes, and i love lemons. i think they're sunshine in fruit form. and the fact that you add coconut just makes them even better!

Mary Bergfeld said...

These are things of beauty! I'll bet they are delicious. I love the combination of lemon and ricotta. I'll have to give these a try.

Punctuation Mark said...

Oh God!!! this recipe looks fantastic and the pictures of the final result and even more inviting... yum!!! ;)

Suzi said...

Why thank you Kim! I must try those cupcakes....I still have some lemons to use up before they go bad.

Charity said...

I found you from your sweet comment about me on the Apron Goddesses blog. Thanks for the encouragement. Big Sister and I will be sneaking around your blog alot, we love to be creative in the kitchen and you are an inspiration.

Cha Cha

Chef Aimee said...

Oh wow - those LOOK like summer! Awesome!

Allyson said...

OK I have to admit that when I first read "ricotta" I though "eww..." because that triggers "lasagna" in my head, not "cupcakes." But I do need a little lemon in my life because it has been raining for 5 days straight with no end in sight. This calls for LEMON CUPCAKES. I'm putting this to the test this weekend (I will most likely go into diabetic coma between these and the waffles with MYOS...but it will be happy).

Faith said...

I've actually been craving a sweet/tart dessert! I was thinking of lemon bars, but these little beauties sound even better!

Devon said...

Anything that begins with those three ingredients has got to be fantastic.

Claudia said...

Yes to lemons! Yes to ricotta and lemons. Yes to ramble in your own personal space! I love ramblings. I left you an "appreciation" on my blog. I do appreciate.

figtree said...

Oh my!!Can a cup cake get any more delicious than this???? YUM

Donna-FFW said...

These must taste so light, so refreshing and moistly delicious!! I was just thinking of making chocolate ricotta muffins.. maybe Ill switch.

NKP said...

I am loving all these lemon shots! A ray of sunshine to be sure!
Delicious cupcakes - you are the cupcake queen. :)
Lemon is my favourite flavour.

Mini Baker said...

these look DIVINE!

A Joyful Chaos said...

As always, when i need cooking and baking inspiration all I need to do is visit your blog.

I love lemon so I will definitely have to give these a try.

Thanks for sharing.

The Chickenless Chick said...

Love that you managed to make whole wheat flour and ricotta jive... I've only ever tried it with pasta dishes, and failed miserably. These sound excellent!

Kitchen Butterfly said...

frosting looks amazing, with the lemon zest....yum! Though I'm not hot on ricotta but I'm open to trying....

Mayhem and Moxie said...

Ricotta is the ingredient of the Gods. I absolutely loved what you did here with the cupcakes. Definitely have to add this recipe to my "must try" list.

Have you tried making ricotta gnocchi yet? It could be your next challenge. :)

Jennie said...

I'm so excited about these cupcakes! Lemon and coconut are two of my favorite flavours. Definitely bookmarking these!

Velva said...

Your lemon coconut ricotta cupcakes look really nice. Yellow lemons are just so eye popping and beautiful. You are right, although they come in season in late Fall they really do remind you of Summer.

Krista said...

Oh yeah! Lemon AND coconut?! I'm sold. These are beautiful cupcakes. I'm like you...lemons are so...well, cheerful. : )

Barbara Bakes said...

These sound wonderful! Love that you also used whole wheat flour. Great flavor combination.

Katy ~ said...

Lemon and ricotta in a cupcake! Line forms behind me for these beauties. Kim, these look and sound sensational! Big YUMS up!

Queen B. said...

AMAZING.
SIMPLY AMAZING.
I LOVE LEMON.
I LOVE COCONUT.
I MUST TRY THESE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate at Serendipity said...

I've never thought of using ricotta in a cupcake. What a great idea! ...and anything with lemon in it is Number 1 in my book.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad I found yours!

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

I love lemon too! Those are such pretty cupcakes!!!

Unknown said...

What a great idea. It sounds like you love trying out lots of different ingredients in your Cupcakes!
I made some of these earlier this afternoon and they turned out really well! - Lavendar, Honey & Almond Cupcakes - http://bit.ly/5XS8TH - let me know what you think :-)

Erica said...

Coconut and lemons! Wow! That sounds wonderful.....Two of my favorite ingredients together.

prashant said...

i'm just going to eat and enjoy...soon!

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