Lemon Goodness

I had a free day, so what do I do with my time? Do I do things I should do, like read or work on the presentation I'm giving next week? Of course not. Instead, I go to the grocery store, buy 2 pounds of powdered sugar, a pound of butter, and a few lemons.


I have previously listed a few cupcake recipes I'd like to attempt, and this is one of them. I used my time today to make these lemon cupcakes from mybakingaddiction.com.

Lemon Zest Cupcakes 

with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients (Cupcakes):
2 1/4 cups flour (The recipe actually says "cake flour". Is there a difference? I don't know. I used "regular old flour," and they turned out just fine.)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites (I use eggbeaters or the equivalent. Too much work to separate the whites from real eggs.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
Lemon zest from 2 lemons
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature (I only had salted butter. Again, turned out ok.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. (I don't have a sifter, so just mixed them together in a bowl. If you're using a stand mixer, use a different bowl for this. You'll need your stand mixer in step 4.)
3. Whisk together the buttermilk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in your mixer bowl (or other large bowl) and rub together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
5. Add the butter to the sugar and lemon zest. Then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.
6. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extract.
7. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture still beating at medium speed.
8. Beat in 1/2 the egg mixture.
9. Beat in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture
10. Add the rest of the egg mixture.
11. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat for another 2 minutes to ensure it is thoroughly mixed

12. Place the batter into cupcake tins (Makes 24 large cupcakes. I made 12 large cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes.  And yes, those are aluminum mini-cupcake pans. Someday, I'll buy a real one.)

13. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
14. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients (Frosting)*:
2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz), softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 pounds confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of one lemon


1. Mix the butter and cream cheese together until well-combined (a mixer is definitely helpful for this).
2. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar until fully mixed.
3. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice.
4. Frost!


*This makes enough frosting to thoroughly cover approximately 112 cupcakes. As the recipe doesn't make quite that many, you could probably safely cut this in half.

The wife of my co-worker is due to have their second baby tomorrow. I'm hoping that happens, so these cupcakes can become a bit more celebratory. Everything tastes better with an occasion!