Let me begin by stating one simply reality – I am not a baker!  I like to cook, do not like to bake – I hate measuring exact ingredients and watching timers.  And what I really hate most of all is baking some deliciously sweet treat and having to wait 45 minutes for it to cool before I can even eat it – talk about masochism!

That said, for some unknown reason I was feeling in the mood to bake and decided to make some cupcakes (must have had something to do with the alignment of the planets or the full moon).  Not just any old cupcakes – I wanted to make lemon cream cupcakes.  Of course I had none of the ingredients (not even cake flour)… so these should really be called $50.00 Lemon Cream Cupcakes

These cupcakes were super easy to make and super delicious to eat.  The cupcake was not too dense and the frosting/icing was lemony perfection!

Cake Recipe
(makes about 26 large cupcakes) – adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Cream-Cupcakes/Detail.aspx

• 1 cup butter (room temp)
• 2 cups fine sugar (like caster sugar or superfine sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 3 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups cake flour (if you cant find it, all-purpose flour is ok too)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sour cream

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add lemon peel and vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients (fold as much as possible to avoid over mixing); add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Frosting/Icing Recipe

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 5 cups icing (aka confectioners, aka powdered) sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon rind, and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy. Add icing sugar in 2 additions. Beat until creamy. Add more icing sugar or juice as needed for easy spreading. Makes about 3 2/3 cups.

I added a sprinling of yellow sugar a raspberry and piece of lemon zest to the top of mine– but you could use anything, sprinkles, blueberries, strawberries or plain!