So, I was heading to a writing retreat this past weekend and decided to do double duty by making a recipe that I could bring with me. I originally wanted to make eclairs. But there were one too many complications for the limited time I had. Perhaps sometime I’ll be able to try them! But right below the eclair recipe was something called Lemon Queens. I didn’t look much further than the ingredients, with the vague thought that I would be making something simple, but fun and unique, and dove right in. Don’t forget to check out the Instagram version.
Lemon Queens
Fannie Farmer Cook Book:
The Boston Cooking School
1896
Step One: Cream butter and sugar together. Everything was measured in pounds, so out came my scale! And I admit it. When the recipe said to gradually add the sugar, I lasted all of 30 seconds before moving to the beautifully modern hand blender.
Step Two: Grate in the zest of one lemon. I’m not going to tell you how many times the lemon fell while I was grating it. (Okay, it was two. Only two!)
Step Three: Add the lemon juice and egg yolks “beaten thick and lemon coloured”. By this I assumed it meant I should beat the yolks before adding them and, yes, I once again resorted to the hand blender after attempting the old fashioned way.
Step Four: Mix the salt, baking soda and flour, then add to the mixture. It was around here that I started to wonder when the special part was going to come in that made these things lemon “queens”.
Step Five: Add egg whites beaten until stiff. As I was beating the egg whites and staring at the batter and the one line left in the recipe, a realization hit me that I should have known at first glance through the recipe. Lemon queens were simply. . . lemon cupcakes. Yup. I was just making cupcakes. Albeit, a slightly more difficult recipe than normal thanks to the separation of egg whites and yolks. And to top it off, cupcakes without an accompanying icing recipe. Is there any better demonstration of mom brain than waiting until the last step to realize this?
Step Four: Bake in small tins. Which, of course, would be muffin tins. I refused to use cupcake liners as some sort of useless protest at feeling deceived. It instructed me to bake in a moderate oven, which I took to mean 350, and they came out a tad overdone, so perhaps I should have gone a little less.
Verdict:
I wasn’t expecting much from them, but they were actually pretty good. Daniel thought they were delicious. I thought they should have been fluffier considering the egg whites. I also felt like they needed something more, so made a simple lemon glaze to go over them which went a long way in making them better, and the ladies at the writing retreat seemed to enjoy them, so eventually I forgave the recipe. Though I’m still a little irritated at myself for not realizing upon looking through the recipe that they were simply cupcakes. Ah, well. At least I have a story!
Why do you think they were called Lemon Queens instead of cupcakes? And, yes, the book does have an actual cupcake recipe as well!
Forest Idylls 