Lemon-Lime Cupcakes

As I mentioned in my intro, I started this whole cupcake bonanza business a couple weeks ago, before I started the blog. The first three recipes I made aren't in here yet, so I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed.

First up we have Lemon Cupcakes with Lime Frosting. These little babies were deeeeelish if I do say so myself! It's been stifling hot here in DC recently (yes mother...I know the weather's always perfect in San Diego...no bragging needed) so these cupcakes were completely refreshing. I got the recipe for the cupcakes from the food network, and the frosting I just kind of made up. They are so light and fluffy- in my opinion they don't need any frosting at all...but I'm pretty sure that's some type of cupcake sin that I'd be terrified of ever committing. The lime was pretty tasty on top, though. It kind of tasted like a margarita, which if you switched out the lemon for lime in the cupcake, I'm pretty sure you could pull off pretty easily!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lime Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 C cake flour (if you sub AP flour here, look up how to, it's not the same!)


• 2 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened


• 1 1/2 C granulated sugar


• 2 whole eggs at room temperature


• 3 large egg yolks at room temperature


• 2 tsp grated lemon zest


• 1/4 C fresh lemon juice


• 1/2 C whole milk


• 2 tsp vanilla
  

Preheat oven to 350F, line muffin pan with paper liners, or spray with baking spray

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together with a whisk

In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed about 30 seconds, or until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and increase to med-high speed. Continue about 3 minutes until mixture is light

Add whole eggs & yolks 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla and zest, reduce speed to low, and gradually beat in the lemon juice (the batter will look curdled, that's okay!)

Beat in dry ingredients in 3 additions, and milk in 2. Scrape down sides of the bowl and beat another 10 seconds.

Try to hold back here, because this batter is DELICIOUS. There's that whole raw egg thing going on in there, though, so I can't recommend it to you ;)

Fill muffin pan with batter, about 2/3 full, bake 15-20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in the pan on a rack for about 10-15 min, then invert and cool completely.

Lime Frosting

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened


• 8 oz butter, softened.


• 16oz confectioner's sugar


• juice of one lime


• zest from 1 lime


• 1 tsp vanilla


• 1-3 Tbsp milk (I used 1)

Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes high speed in a stand mixer. Gradually add the sugar, mixing until smooth. Add the vanilla, zest, and juice and mix through. Add the milk, 1 Tbsp at a time until you reach the consistency that you want.

And now for a picture! I didn't go all fancy on these, I just spread the icing on with a small offset spatula. The icing is pretty potent, and when you taste it you'll probably think it's pretty strong, but it really does match up nicely with the lemon cake. I only used a thin layer of frosting for that reason, though, instead of piping it on.

Enjoy!