So while we were in Seattle, we went to the wedding of my husband’s younger brother. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law did all the flowers and they were absolutely gorgeous. See?
Now…at the wedding reception, the limes and lemons in the tall vases were fun and whimsical and colorful, but after the bride and groom drove away, those of us who WEREN’T going on a fun, relaxing honeymoon had to figure out what to do with literally hundreds of limes and lemons. My mother-in-law tried VERY hard to get me to throw some into my suitcase, which I adamantly refused to do because a) I didn’t want unsweetened lemonade all over my clothes when we got home and b) now that the airlines so graciously allow us to pay for checked baggage, I figured I could buy my own dang lemons for another $25. Well, being the mother of seven boys that she is, she was not about to let me go home citrus-free, which led to quite a bit of back-and-forth banter. Finally, I remembered that I had this recipe scheduled for today and told her I would take home a carry-on bag full of lemons and limes, which she was delighted to hear. I was half-expecting someone in security to ask, “Hey, lady, what’s with all the citrus?”, but then I realized that a bag full of limes and lemons was probably not even close to the strangest thing they’d ever seen.ANYWAY. Enough story time. Now…I have a little confession to make. I’m not super crazy about cake. I like it okay, and if I’m at a party, I’m not going to say no. But if it’s nothing special, then I’d just rather have a piece of pie or a tart or a pastry or something like that.
Well, I stumbled across this recipe in a dark, dusty corner of Martha Stewart’s website last year when I was getting ready for my daughter’s first birthday. I wasn’t looking for a lemon cake, and I wasn’t looking for a recipe that was so incredibly poorly constructed and hard-to-follow (seriously, whoever edited that recipe should be fired, or at least flogged aa little), but it sounded delish and I was after the flower cake tutorial.
Well…once I figured out what in the WORLD was going on (the baking time for a 9×13 cake is incredibly off, for starters), it ended up being quite possibly the most delicious cake I’d ever eaten in my entire life. Somehow, it’s a little dense (kind of like pound cake) and yet incredibly light and airy at the same time. I used the lemon buttercream recipe from my Southern Living cookbook and seriously…there are no words.
Since it calls for 3 sticks of butter and 5 eggs in the cake alone, I don’t make it too much, but I figured this time around, I’d give cupcakes a whirl. I think they were even better–the cake can almost be too much, but the cupcakes are perfectly portioned snippets of lemony goodness. And they’re so rich that I only need too eat one and then I’m done, which, when I have a million of these suckers lying around, is definitely a good thing.
Lemon Cupcakes
Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
3 c. cake flour (no substitutions here–you really need the lightness of cake flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons (just zest the other lemons before you squeeze them)
1 c. buttermilk
Preheat oven to 325. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners (I used yellow, although white would also be cute).
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. Don’t go skimping here–you want the mixture to be almost white and super fluffy. This is absolutely essential to the outcome of the cake.
While butter and sugar are mixing, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside. After butter and sugar have mixed sufficiently, With the mixer running, add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Beat in vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
With mixer on low speed, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until fully incorporated.
Using a standard cookie scoop, place about 2 scoops of batter into each muffin cup. Fill these almost to the top–due to the final texture (again, think super-moist and light pound cake), these cupcakes won’t have a nice, curvy crown, but that’s okay–no one will ever know or care.
Bake about 20-25 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. You don’t want to overbake these even a bit, or they’ll start to lose their delicious moisture. Remove from oven and cool completely. Frost with lemon buttercream and garnish with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or fresh mint leaves.
Lemon Buttercream
1 1/4 c. butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 tsp. grated lemon rind
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 c. powdered sugar
Beat butter, lemon rind, and lemon juice in an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating to spreading consistency. Makes 2 3/4 c.
Have we got you in the mood for lemons?
Fresh Squeezed Lemonade
Garlic-Herb Sandwich Spread
Lemon Zucchini Fettuccine
Strawberry-Lemon Face Mask
Lemon Cupcakes
Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
3 c. cake flour (no substitutions here–you really need the lightness of cake flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons (just zest the other lemons before you squeeze them)
1 c. buttermilk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners (I used yellow, although white would also be cute).
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. Don’t go skimping here–you want the mixture to be almost white and super fluffy. This is absolutely essential to the outcome of the cake.
While butter and sugar are mixing, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside. After butter and sugar have mixed sufficiently, With the mixer running, add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Beat in vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
With mixer on low speed, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until fully incorporated.
Using a standard cookie scoop, place about 2 scoops of batter into each muffin cup. Fill these almost to the top–due to the final texture (again, think super-moist and light pound cake), these cupcakes won’t have a nice, curvy crown, but that’s okay–no one will ever know or care.
Bake about 20-25 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. You don’t want to overbake these even a bit, or they’ll start to lose their delicious moisture. Remove from oven and cool completely. Frost with lemon buttercream and garnish with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or fresh mint leaves.
Lemon Buttercream
1 1/4 c. butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 tsp. grated lemon rind
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 c. powdered sugar
Questions & Reviews
Carson, either I give most of the treats away or I eat them all and tell my husband I gave most of the treats away. Neither of which he's particularly keen on, lol!
And thanks a bunch for sharing the blog! 🙂 I'm sitting here drinking Brazilian lemonade right now, yummmmmm…
Those look sooo refreshing and sound DELICIOUS!
yummy!!!
Ah now Carson, you've never met us in real life. How do you know we don't just photoshop all the pictures of ourselves?? Don't let out our little secret! Haha.
How is it that you and Sara don't weigh 300 pounds each with all these fabulous, fattening dessert recipes you post? I gain weight just looking at the pictures!!
BTW, I shared your Brazilian lemonade recipe at our Enrichment night last night and gave the credit to your website.
I check your site several times a week and have tried several of your recipes, but this is the first time I've posted a comment.
Those look like Heaven! Mmm….
see, i knoew the lemons were meant to go with you!!
love ya!
I love cake! I love lemons! Sounds like a perfect combination to me 🙂
OOh Kate I really don't like cake either. I LOVE cake batter but the actual cake…not so much. But I love lemony things and these looks super yummy-especially the batter. LOL.
Sara's going to think I'm an alien now. No doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, pizza, spaghetti and now cake. Yeah I'm pretty much un-American.
Ingrid, I imagine you could. The only concern is that the batter quantity is pretty large, so you just need to make sure it gets light and fluffy enough while you're mixing.
So if I don't have one of those fancy-dancy electric mixers fitted with paddle attachments, will just a regular hand mixer work?
I just made some lemon ricotta muffins..This frosting would have been delicious!
THANK YOU!! Every year we wonder what can we make with all the lemons our tree puts out… I am adding this to the rotation this year! 🙂
YUM!I love anything lemon and I would break out the mixer and try these right now, but I made your strawberry cupcakes for my daughter's birthday and I got 3 dozen cupcakes out of the batter!
Kate, these look perfect for a summer treat! yum!
So wait, you mean you didn't use all those lime to make a ton of key lime tarts?! Those are a new favorite at our house.
But anyway, these look so yummy! Lemon is one of my new favorite flavors for desserts. Mmmmmm… 🙂
Thanks for giving me my weekend dessert! yum!
Oh I SO wish I still lived near you so I could take a couple dozen of those off your hands! They look divine.
These look so delicious! I love lemon desserts in the summer 🙂
Such beautiful little cupcakes!
Looks deeelish!
What cute tables at the wedding! Those cupcakes looks so good and refreshing. This recipe is in my "to do" pile!
Such pretty pictures Kate! They sound great!
You know I'm a sucker for anything lemon. These are so cute and summery!
Yep, Erin, you can just find it at a regular grocery store! 🙂
Yum! Do they sell cake flour at regular grocery stores, or only specialty stores? I have never even looked for it before.
Those sound delicious!
Cookie Girl, my son won't touch these because he thinks they're "too sour," if that helps… 🙂 They aren't as tart as say, lemon curd, but it definitely has a little zing! 🙂
mmmmmm…..Yum! I love almost anything Lemon. They look delicious. Were they at all tart? I love the tart lemon desserts.
those look yummy! i LOVE lemony desserts. i'll have to try these out soon.
So pretty and I'm certain yummy! Wish I could have taken some of those lemons and limes off your hands! I just bought some of both yesterday!