Lemon Cream Cupcakes!

Today, I had the urge to bake. Now, you must understand. This urge doesn't come very often. Don't get me wrong, I like to bake. But cooking is more of my thing. Maybe it has something to do with too much baking as a young teen? Who knows. But for whatever reason, I don't bake often.

I poked around online for a while, trying to find something that didn't use cocoa powder (I'm all out! :( ). I asked some friends and got a very quick 'Cupcakes!' in response. Cupcakes!

I don't think I've made cupcakes since last Thanksgiving...when I baked and frosted about four dozen to take to a party...and I think only three got eaten. Hey, its hard to compete with a pumpkin cheesecake on Thanksgiving.

So I scoured my ever-handy and favorite Allrecipes and found this!

I'm a sucker for lemon.

I pretty much followed the recipe but for the lemon rind as I don't have any. I also halved the recipe...there are only two adults and a toddler here...there's no call for 30 cupcakes! :)

They came together so beautifully and quickly. The batter was so nice and thick. The sour cream is such a nice touch.


Lemon Cream Cupcakes from Allrecipes.com
(recipe and photos by literarymiss. Original recipe from allrecipes.com)
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 C. sour cream

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and add to butter mixture alternately with the sour cream. (Batter will be thick). Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes then move to wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Lemon Cream Frosting
1 1/2 T butter, softened
1 C. + 2 T. powdered sugar
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 t. milk

Cream together butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add lemon juice, vanilla and milk. Beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes.



**ok. I made these following the above recipe. The cupcakes are wonderful! But I will never use this frosting again. It was way too runny and I had to add way too much powdered sugar to make it thick enough to frost. It ended up way to sweet and I ended up scraping it off! Buttercream Frosting next time with some lemon extract!

Liz