Thursday, June 16, 2011

Recipe Thursday #36: Lemon Cupcakes

I had a massive craving for my Red Velvet Cake the other day, and decided some cupcakes would be a nice change. So I made them, devoured a few too many of them, and realized I had quite a bit of cream cheese frosting (best batch yet, by the way) leftover. What was I to do? Well, bake something else of course! I wanted something lighter and summery-er. So I thought I'd make lemon - that goes well with cream cheese! This recipe was formed from my French Vanilla Cake recipe and a couple changes. They turned out soooooo good! I devoured a few too many of these as well. But thankfully, I gave most away (phew)!

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups white sugar (I'm hooked on Baker's Sugar now)
  • 4 eggs, warmed to room temperature
  • 2 3/4 cups cake flour (I like Softasilk)
  • 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk (I used low fat)
  • 2 tbsp lemon extract (or you can use fresh lemon zest)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
  2. Prepare two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners
  3. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  4. In large mixing bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy (approx 3 minutes)
  5. Add sugar to butter and beat until creamy (approx 3 more minutes)
  6. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each
  7. Add 1 cup of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, then one more cup of the flour mixture, then the remaining buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture , mixing well after each addition
  8. Add lemon extract and mix well
  9. Scoop batter into prepared cupcake liners
  10. Bake for 15 minutes or until cupcakes pass the toothpick test
  11. Remove cupcakes from pans on cool on wire racks
  12. Frost and serve!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

  • 2 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar (to taste)

Directions

  1. Let cream cheese and butter soften to room temperature in large mixing bowl
  2. Add vanilla and mix well on medium speed
  3. Gradually add powdered sugar and mix on medium speed until creamy
  4. Frost cupcakes using your preferred method



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