Mama Thornton’s Peach Pie

Before my niece Olivia Sue started 1st grade, she came over to stay the night with me (her cool aunt) and we felt the need to bake…. :) We had some lovely fresh peaches from the market and some leftover lemons from my Lemon Burst Cookies so we decided to not only make one dessert, but two! Olivia’s mom, Natasha, is pretty much the pie maker in the family. My Granny passed down all of her recipes down to her but…. :) I tasted a slice of her peach pie last weekend and decided it was time to make my own…with Olivia’s help of course.

Lemon Burst Cookies

My favorite cookie at Paradise Bakery when I’m shopping at Pioneer Place Mall is the Lemon Zinger. It has amazing lemon flavor that isn’t too sweet and a little tart! About a year ago, I was thinking about replicating them but instead of a sugar cookie texture, making it more cakey. Well I found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Brown Eyed Baker, and I thought I’d try them out. Michelle is great, and every recipe I’ve tried of hers has come out amazing. Why would these cookies be any different? They weren’t.

Silky Smooth Lemon Cupcakes

So like I had said before, my Dad isn’t the biggest chocolate fan.. So for his joint birthday dinner I decided to create a cupcake using his favorite flavor, lemon. :) And yes, you can buy lemon cake mixes, and they taste fine, but my Dad deserves better!

I decided on creating a lemon cream cheese batter, making homemade lemon curd, and ending with a very light lemon cream cheese frosting. I am a HUGE fan of cream cheese frosting. It can be so delicious and so much more “fancy” than basic buttercream. Adding some fresh lemon zest just allows it to become a more lighter flavor, not to mention make you want to lick the bowl. If you think the lemon curd + lemon batter + lemon frosting is too much, leave the lemon curd out. :)

The cupcakes were a hit, of course. And naturally, I warned my Dad a week in advance that he better be at 24 Hour Fitness everyday until the party, because the calorie count on these are quite high…. :)