Sweet Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream cheese Frosting

My husband and I both wanted something sweet to eat the other night, so I started browsing the internet for something to make with Lemons. I just bought some fresh ones on my last grocery shopping trip and something lemony sounded good. I came across a couple of lemon cupcake recipes though upon further inspection they required a few ingredients I did not currently have, and If you know me, then you know that I will search for an hour looking for a recipe for what I do have instead of putting on shoes and driving to the local store. Ha. Thank goodness It didn't take an hour to find another recipe, and I'm so happy that I found this one because these are the best cupcakes I have had in a long time. By the way you might want to double the batch because the dozen I made barely lasted a whole 24 hours. I will definitely be making these scrumptious guys again!!!

I want to add that I forgot to take pictures as I was making everything, but I did get a picture after They were done and iced:)

Click here to go to the Website with the Original Recipe

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 Cup of Milk

Frosting

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (I put about 3 tbsp in for a good lemon flavor, you can use more or less)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Make the cupcakes. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl and using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.

 Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter and it looks creamy, about 1 minute. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. If the eggs are cold, the mixture may look slightly curdled.

 Then add the sifted ingredients and the milk and mix until smooth. The batter will be thicker than what you would get from a box. 

Fill each paper liner with 1/4 cup of batter (an ice-cream scoop works well), to about 1/2 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, About 18-25 minutes. Every oven varies, so keep a good watch on them. 

Now Start your Frosting.

 In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed for 1 minute to lighten the frosting further.
If you wish to pipe your frosting on the cupcakes as I did, then spoon your frosting into a piping bag and then pipe onto each cupcake. If not, just use a knife to spread the frosting on. Either way they will be delicious. I did grate some lemon zest on top of each cupcake just for garnish, but you don't have to. You could slice the lemon peel into thin strips and twist then coat in sugar and place a peel on each cupcake. I'm not that fancy, lol.

To store keep these in the refrigerator since the frosting is made with cream cheese.

My finished Product. So Yummy!

If you try these, let me know what you thought of them. 

Leave me a comment below :)