Featured Recipe

I have had a craving for lemon cake for about a month now and nothing I've tried has quelled this craving (Liberte brand lemon yogurt almost worked) so I gave in and made lemon cupcakes tonight. You're welcome.

I've tweaked my Grammie's "Good Cupcakes" recipe and figured out how to make lemon buttercream without it curdling, which is quite a feat as citrus and dairy don't play well together. These are really fairly simple to make and ready in about 30minutes.

Lemon Cupcakes

1/4 cup plus 3 TBSP lard or shortening
2 tsp lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon (this is a good use of a micro plane)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice and pulp (approx. 3 lemons worth)
1/2 cup milk
3 tsp baking powder

1. Beat lard, lemon zest, lemon extract, sugar and eggs together until creamy.
2. Sift together salt and flour into a small bowl. Add 1/3 of the flour to the batter. Stir to mix. Add the lemon juice and stir. Add 1/3 of the flour and mix well. Add the milk and stir to mix (it will curdle a wee bit, but that is okay). Add the rest of the flour and mix well.
3. Sprinkle baking powder over mixture and stir in.
4. Grease silicon muffin tins (metal works too but I like the silicon ones), or line with muffin papers, and fill about 2/3 full with the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. When they are done the edges and tops should be a tiny bit golden and a toothpick will come out clean when inserted in the middle.

The recipe will make about 15 cupcakes (it's a weird amount, I know. My Grammie's original recipe says it makes 24 cupcakes, but it never makes that many). If you end up with a weird number and you're not able to fully fill a muffin tray, put about 1 cm of water in each of the empty holes to promote even baking and to prevent your pan from burning.
These cupcakes are not super yellow but you could add a few drops of yellow food colouring if you wanted that yellow colour. Same goes for the icing. 

Lemon-Lime Buttercream

1/3 cup butter, softened (do not substitute butter for anything)
zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp lemon extract
3 TBSP lemon juice (can use bottled lemon juice if you want)
1 TBSP lime juice (can use bottled lime juice)
2-3 cups (or more) icing sugar

1. Mix butter, lemon zest and lemon extract until fully incorporated.
2. Sift in 1/2 cup of icing sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. Add 1 TBSP lemon juice and stir until smooth. Continue adding icing sugar and lemon/lime juice alternately until you have a thick but spreadable icing. It may take a bit of practice to get the right ratio of icing sugar, just keep tasting the icing and checking the consistency. You will be able to tell when you get that perfect combination of sweet and tart and the perfect consistency.
4. Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!