Lemon Cupcakes

...topped with a lemony cream cheese frosting. w00t.

i love birthdays. it gives me a chance to get creative with a gift i'm giving a friend or loved one. i especially love giving gifts to people who enjoy desserts. gives me a chance (and excuse) to get creative from production to presentation.

this year, i decided to bake some cupcakes for my good friend. once again, taking advantage of my coveted texas-size muffin tin, I filled 'em, baked 'em, and decorated 'em. Jumbo cupcakes are the best, because it's like you're getting 4-6 mini cakes. So here we go.


::gathering my raw materials::


Ingredients:

~Cupcake batter~

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sourcream

1/4 cup milk

4 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp lemon extract

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 cup flour, sifted

dash of salt

A few drops of yellow food coloring

~Ingredients for Frosting~

8 oz cream cheese, softened

8 oz shortening or butter

1 box confectioner's (powdered) sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp lemon extract

A few drops of food coloring (depends on how yellow you want; add more)


Directions:

For cupcakes

In a medium bowl, sift flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.


Zest your lemon, then squeeze the juice (using a sieve to catch pulp and seeds) into a small bowl. Set aside.



In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in both eggs. Add lemon zest, juice, extract, and food coloring.



Whisk your milk and sour cream together and set aside in a separate container.


Beat in about 1/4 of the flour mixture into the largest bowl. Beat in some of the sour cream mixture into the largest bowl. Continue to alternate between the flour and the sour cream mixture until both are used.


Scrape down with a rubber spatula. Line your jumbo muffin tins, and spoon the batter into all six spaces.




Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F, or until muffins spring back upon touch. You can toothpick test, if you wish. Allow them to cool before frosting.



Directions for the frosting and piping:

In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese with shortening and powdered sugar until fluffy. Add extract, lemon juice, zest, and coloring. Continue to add more sugar if you want a stiffer consistency. Reserve some icing off to the side for decorations like flowers, shells, etc (if desired).



Scrape around the sides with a rubber spatula to ensure all color is evenly distributed. Fill a piping bag (connected to a large piping tip) with frosting. As I mentioned in my first cupcake post it's best to use a big tip for bigger cupcakes. Looks prettier, and less work. Make sure you have a lot of icing to work with.


Begin with an outer ring, and work your way with an inner spiral, 'til you cover the top of the cupcake. Repeat for all.



So, you can stop here--but I didn't. Drop flowers and leaves and dragees--oh my!
This step kinda requires specific piping tips, and most of the "basic" tips can be purchased at walmart or michael's--either individually, or in a "starter" kit. Really up to you if you want to invest in this kind of stuff. Anyway, I used a drop flower and leaf tip. Colored the frosting a purple and a green, filled separate bags with each tip, and went at it.



First the purple flowers, followed by the leaves.


As final touch, I used silver dragees for the flower "centers." Figured I could put my holiday snowflake cookie leftovers to good use. =) Yes, that is a tweezer I used for placement. There's really just no other way...


Ended them with some finishing touches...just some more leaves around the flowers.


Boxed them up, and they were ready to go. Happy Birthday Veeh = )


So overall, they were good. I liked my frosting a lot more than the cupcake itself--a bit too dense. I think in the future, I'll try 2 egg whites folded in, to the one egg I used. Otherwise, was a fun project for a birthday gift.