Lemony goodness!

Lemon is usually a flavour that I reserve for the spring/summer months.  I don't really associate the fresh, citrus taste with winter but a friend asked me to make some lemon cupcakes for a shower she was hosting and I happily obliged.  I prefer hints of flavour versus overpowering taste so I just added a few teaspoons of lemon juice and lemon zest (I just kept adding until I reached the desired flavour level!)  They turned out well and even look quite lemony with the lemon infused yellow cream cheese frosting!

Who knew sugar free could taste good?!

I associate dessert with something sweet, sugary, even decadent.  But, that all has to change when you are baking for someone who has diabetes.  I was quite hesitant to use a sugar substitute, but since I did not want to cause any blood sugar issues, I did! It worked out really well - I just used a sugar substitute (in this case, Splenda) for the sugar in the recipe and then used dark chocolate chips in place of the regular chocolate chips.  These were mint chocolate chip cupcakes and they tasted pretty darn good!