Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd

My mixer and I had a grand adventure today. (He really needs a name guys.) We made cupcakes. Little mini cute cupcakes that took me ALL. DANG. DAY. But oh my yum they are so good.

This recipe isn't online so at the end of the post, I'll copy the recipe for the cupcakes and frosting for you guys. :)

Gather all of your stuff. I always forget something for this picture. This time I forgot milk and sugar. But they went in the batter, cross my heart. By the way, those are Country Time Lemonade hard candies and they are yummy.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it looks like this.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix them in. Then the lemon extract. Beat it in.

See. Milk! It was half a cup plus 2 tablespoons but let's just call it 2/3 cup ok?

Beat it in. You should have something that looks like this now.

Pour in the flour (that you hopefully sifted) and baking powder (that you also sifted) and mix it on a lowish speed until it's all pretty like that.

Fill your little cupcake cups. The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes. But I like these little guys and it made 36 of them. I found that one cookie scoop was juuuust about perfect. Bake at 350. The recipe says 8 minutes, turn, then 7 minutes. But for mini ones, it's more like 5 minutes, turn, another 5 minutes.

Here they are. Aren't they cute? (not yet but they're going to be!)

This part isn't in the recipe. Lemon curd. Yum. Put it in an icing bag with a little round tip. Stick the tip in the middle in the top and squeeze. Gently now, or you'll have a mess.

It should look like this if you didn't blow it up. ;) Don't eat 'em yet!! We still have to make the good stuff.

Lemon buttercream icing

Mix the butter and shortening together until it's fluffy. Like this.

Now the recipe calls for vanilla beans. Do it. It's worth it. Cut 1/4 of the bean off. Split it in half with a paring knife. See all that yumminess in there? I took a really close picture so you could see it. Scrape that out and mix it into the shortening/butter mixture. Get it all because ohhh it's good. Then put the vanilla extract and "natural lemon flavoring" in. I don't know what the heck that's supposed to be so I used lemon juice. It's natural, it's lemon flavored. It worked.

Put the powdered sugar in (that you...YES sifted!). Mix it on low to start so you don't powder yourself and then crank it up to high.

Then it'll look like this. Do you see the little specks? Not dirt, I promise. Vanilla bean! Oh yum. (Smells good too.)

Frost your cupcakes however you want and put crushed lemonade candies on the top. See how cute?!?

And there's all that yummy lemon curd in the middle. Such a pain in the butt, so worth it. Have fun!

Lemon Cupcakes

Makes 12 Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups CAKE flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 Tbsp lemon extract

1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl.
4. In an electric mixer, or large bowl, beat the butter and sugar, on medium speed, until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended.
6. Beat in the lemon extract, blending well.
7. Reduce speed to low, add the milk and blend well. Then add the flour mixture and beat until smooth.
8. Pour the batter into the lined cupcake pan, distributing equally.
9. Bake for 8 minutes, rotate, and bake for 7 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
10. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.

This is where you would put the lemon curd in if you want to. Also, note that the bake time is different for mini cupcakes. Now frosting!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

1/4 vanilla bean, seeds only

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp natural lemon flavor (I used a whole tsp of lemon juice.)

1. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds using a paring knife. Discard the husk (or put it in some sugar for vanilla sugar for coffee!), and set the seeds aside.
2. In an electric mixer, or large bowl, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy.
3. Add the vanilla seeds and mix for a few seconds on medium speed.
4. In a separate bowl, sift the confectioners sugar.
5. Add the confectioners sugar to the butter mixture on low speed until it begins to incorporate.
6. Add the vanilla extract and lemon flavor (juice) and beat at medium to high speed until fully incorporated.

Now have fun decorating! Crush up some lemon drops on top. The crunch just adds something special!