Korean BBQ in K Town and Lemon Cupcakes with a Lemon Cream Filling

Before I get into this summer's cupcake creations, I have to document what could have been the most amazing meal I had all summer. Sunday afternoon, after watching the India Day parade from Hye's apartment window while playing with her 3 baby kittens, we headed over to Don's Bogam BBQ on 32nd Street between 5th and Madison. Since we were there at an off hour, around 2:30 pm, we had the place almost to ourselves and were able to sit in one of the amazing booths (really bad pic below). Hye ordered for us since I wouldn't know what I getting, and we decided on both pork belly and the marinated beef. Sooo delicious. The side dishes were all wonderful, and a couple of them were a little bit different than what I've seen before. I'm going to get Hye on here to describe in detail everything we ate... so delicious.

I forgot my camera so I borrowed pics from here.

OK! Back to summer. In Michigan, our fridge was consistently filled with farm fresh berries the entire summer. In an effort to use some up I started looking for a good fruity cupcake recipe on epicurious.com. I eventually decided on this lemon cupcake recipe. Since the yield is a ridiculous 4 cupcakes, I multiplied the measurements by four. I also seriously upped both the lemon juice and zest in both the cupcakes and the lemon cream filling.

The recipe I came up with was:

3 cups of cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

~1/4 cup freshly grated lemon zest

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

2 cups + 4 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons + 8 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

8 large eggs

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temp.

I then came up with a tasty cream cheese frosting for the top:

2 1/2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temp.

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp.

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

After the cupcakes cooled, I put a generous swirl of icing on each one and then topping them with a few fresh blueberries... These were a huge hit with all the guys in the kitchen at my night time hostess job. I really wish I had pictures, but they were all eaten waaay too quickly! (I barely got half of one!!)

Delicious chocolate cupcake recipe to come, but I've got to get ready for Sue's bday dinner at Saigon Grill in Union Square!