Lemon Cupcakes
One of hubby’s coworkers, George, has been asking for Lemon cupcakes ever since I made these lemon cookies. Hubby and I both weren’t huge fans of the cookies, but George LOVED them.
After the January DB challenge, I had about a cup or so of leftover lemon curd. I could have eaten it all with a spoon, but I figured I could mix them into a cupcake instead.
I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added about 3/4 cup of lemon curd to the batter at the end. Then I put a teaspon of lemon curd directly on top of the cooled cupcakes. Last, I topped them with cool-whip frosting with the rest of the lemon curd mixed into it. I also threw some lemon zest into the frosting for texture.
These cupcakes were great. The lemon flavor was subtle and the cool-whip frosting balanced the flavors well. The recipe made 14 cupcakes, 12 of which went to work with hubby. He reported back that George ate 4 and said that he loves me 🙂
Lemon Cupcakes – adapted from Vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over The World – makes 14
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extrat, caramel extract, or more vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
In a separate large bowl, use a handheld mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy, but don’t beat past 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and other extract, if using, then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.
I then folded in 3/4 cup of lemon curd.
Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes until done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
Cool-Whip frosting – not sure of the original recipe, but here’s what I did:
1 tub Cool Whip
1 pkg vanilla pudding
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon curd
2 tsp lemon zest
Combine pudding mix and milk and stir until mostly dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.
To Assemble cupcakes:
After cupcakes have cooled, scoop 1 tsp of lemon curd onto the top of each cupcake. Spread lemon curd with a knife to cover top of cupcake.
Pipe frosting on top of lemon curd.
Sprinkle with yellow sugar.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
These pancakes look perfect! I don’t make pancakes that often, but this mix would be an easy throw together to keep in the freezer. Yum!
Great idea to freeze the mix. I have been making our pancake batter from scratch for a while now, and it’s nearly impossible to go back to the boxed stuff! They just taste flavorless and cardboard-y. I had been reluctant to make mix ahead of time because I didn’t want it to go bad. Thanks for the idea!
What a great idea to have a homemade pancake mix on hand!
A good substitute for buttermilk – since most of us don’t keep it on hand, but do have milk in the fridge:
1 TBS white vinegar with enough milk added to make 1 cup. Allowed to sit for at least ten minutes, this mixture will clot up and mimic buttermilk sufficiently for most recipes.
Those pancakes look amazing!! Oh my goodness.
i think it is a great idea about freezing milk, too. I buy whole milk for baking only so I need to do that.
Wow. Those look so good I might have to whip some up…..like…NOW.
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
You can also use lemon juice instead of vinegar in the substitute for buttermilk provided by Nancy.
One thing to note about this recipe though. Not only is the buttermilk needed for the chemical reaction, but it also provides a great flavor to the pancakes that I don’t think you get from using the substitute. Also, buttermilk will keep for a very long time in the fridge since it’s acidic.
AB mentioned in his cookbook that there are only four thinks he will not make without buttermilk: cornbread, biscuits, waffles, and pancakes. I tend to agree with him.
What a great idea to make your own pancake mix and then when you want quick pancakes, you can have a healthy mix 🙂
Mmm, these look way better than a mix! Great tip to store the mix in the freezer too!
Yum! I love blueberry ‘anything’. Alton Brown recipes are always winners. If you’re looking for an even healthier pancake recipe, check out my ‘fluffy whole wheat pancakes’ on my blog. I mix batches of the dry ingredients and keep them in the freezer. Thanks for posting – I’m off to buy some blueberries! Oh, and I’m a new follower 🙂
These pancakes look amazing!! Bookmarked!
Hey Jen I am eating these pancakes at this very moment. They are so fluffy and filling! May I borrow this recipe for my blog and link it back to you??