When life gives you lemons.....you should get your Thermomix on! There is just something about fresh home-grown produce and in particular citrus fruits. I've a teeny dwarf lemon tree in my back yard but it is a fair way off producing anything yet...so I was over the moon when a visit to my Aunty culminated in me taking home a big bag of lemons, their tree full of abundance.
One can't let a full bag of lemons go to waste, so what to do? What to make?
And so it began....and it started with lemon butterfly cupcakes. The domain of mothers everywhere! My own mother is a fairly proficient baker and having never attempted butterfly cakes before, I figured I would be the best Mum to a 6 year old ever, if I could only master such fancies haha! It didn't begin so well, with a hot running oven and clearly I did not inherit my mothers baking skills - but at least I had fun attempting it!
In the end though I did manage to make a few reasonable butterfly cakes, topped with beautiful lemon cream cheese frosting and drizzled with lemon curd. Once again I LOVE how simple Thermomix makes kitchen delays like running out of icing sugar (which I needed for the frosting) a non-event. Did you know that you could grind your own icing sugar up in the Thermomix - just like that! 10 seconds!
Next on my list was lemon curd. How many bottles of lemon curd is too many? Is there such a thing as too much lemon curd? I found this great recipe on the Recipe Community and my lemon curd went on to become a drizzle for my butterfly cupcakes, and as a base for a brand new recipe I am working on right about now....
And then keeping to the baking theme I moved onto Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins. Lemon and Poppy Seed is one of my favourite flavours and I was super happy to come across a Paleo version in my travels. By choice I prefer to keep my wheat and dairy consumption to a minimum, and most Paleo recipes suit me just down to a tee. These looked delicious, so I set about getting some made. would you believe the beautiful creamy glaze was just lemons and coconut butter?!
And last but not least ..... a recipe that has been on my "try" list for a while now. The Road to Loving my Thermomixer's lemon hand scrub. I'm feeling the whole handmade Christmas gifts this year. This website has some amazing recipes for gift products you can make at home, easy as! My version is quite dark in colour as I only had brown sugar at home...as suggested I think I shall go the raw sugar option next time. It feels amazing on your hands and it tastes good too - (should I admit that?!) Go on! Totally edible ingredients and therefore totally safe to lather on your skin.
What other lemon dishes are your go-to recipes when fruit is in abundance? I'd love for you to share...
