This post is brought to you by one Anne E., a person whom I have actually never met. But, she did supply me with this modest huge bag of gorgeous lemons, with which I proceeded to whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes with lemon mascarpone frosting. Hence, when people-you've-never-met give you lemons, make...
...cupcakes. Okay, okay. So random people don't just come up on the street and hand me bags of lemons (but that could be kind of awesome--or disturbing, I haven't quite decided which). Rather, Anne is someone in my roommate's department at school, and that's my lemon connection. The deal being, of course, that I supply yummy lemon desserts back. But I can do that!
Anyways, Anne's lemons came at the *perfect* time, because there I was, sitting in class, fantasizing about lemon mascarpone frosting over chocolate cupcakes. (Yeah, I do that a lot.) Call it premonition or a sixth sense or what you will, but the minute I got out of class, there was an email waiting for me in my inbox from my roommate, announcing the arrival of lemons. Sometimes, life just really works out that way, no?
Now, I'm not quite sure why I was dreaming of lemon mascarpone chocolate cupcakes. The mind truly works in the weirdest ways. Maybe it's because we've had these awesomely fluffy clouds floating around lately, between all of those rainstorms:
Fluffy, fluffy white clouds. I say this because these cupcakes are like eating clouds. I'm serious. (I've had reports that these are better than eating clouds.) The chocolate cupcake itself is incredibly moist and soft, and then the lemon mascarpone frosting on top, which is basically just mascarpone cheese and cream whipped to a frenzy, is lighter-than-air. Together, you sort of feel like you're sinking your teeth into a fleeting moment of puffy, fluffy, airy deliciousness.
The subtle crispness of the lemon zest that comes through at the very end is just the perfect light complement to the extreme fluffy cloud-ness of these cupcakes. For toppers, I used lemon and dark chocolate wafers to give a robust "preview" of the flavors to come in the cupcake. And, of course, I had to whip up a few little ones, too, because what's better than bite-size chocolate and lemon mascarpone clouds?
Well, Anne, thank you so much for the lemons, and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your cupcakes!
P.S. You, too, are invited to supply this baker with fruit, for which, in return, you, too, shall receive sweet deliciousness. :-)
Read on for the recipe...
