I know I've only posted about cupcakes thus far, but really, I make more cookies than anything. Part of the reason why is that my family doesn't eat cakes or cupcakes very much. I mean, they like cake, they just don't eat much of it, so it ends up getting thrown away.
But cookies. That is an another story. They usually end up being eaten within a day or two. Except when I made those butterscotch graham cracker crumb cookies...those were weird. But they still got eaten.

Anyway. Another cupcake post!

A few weeks ago I made lemon cupcakes with vanilla cream frosting from Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcake Recipes. They were very good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the lemon. I guess real lemon isn't the same as that lemon cake from Wal-Mart with about a gallon of yellow food coloring in it that screams LEMON CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well.

ingredients.

Dishes for my mom to clean up. muhahaha.

Naked and cooling.

Frosted. (Aren't those balloon liners classy? Very sophisticated, I think).

Cupcake and his family, lurking in the background.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp.
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp lemon oil or extract
• 1/3 cup buttermilk [I used 2% milk because that's all I had. The world didn't explode, so I figure that was okay.]
  
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until well combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add lemon zest and lemon oil, beating well. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beating until smooth. Add lemon Juice, beating until just smooth.
4. Scoop batter into pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

Vanilla Cream Frosting
Makes 1 1/2 cups, enough to frost 12 or more cupcakes

• 1 1/3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• A pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla

1. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat together sugar, butter and salt until creamy. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Add cream and vanilla paste, beating until frosting is smooth.
2. Spread icing on cooled cupcakes with a knife or transfer to a pastry bag and pipe decoratively over cupcakes.