Vanilla Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Made these again yesterday for Easter...I made them first on Thursday evening and they came out wonderful but I wanted the chance to perfect them. This 2nd time around, I tried a few things slightly differently and they came out better and the bottoms were not burned at all. Yippee.

Lemony Vanilla Cupcakes
(filled with Raspberry jam)

1c cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 stick softened butter
3/4c baking sugar
1 egg and 1 egg white
1/4c milk
1 tblsp vanilla
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp lemon zest
raspberry jam

Sift cake flour, powder, soda, salt in a bowl, set aside. Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add egg and egg white, whip til incorporated well. Add lemon zest, vanilla, lemon juice, milk, whip well. At this point the batter is not smooth looking but slightly curdled (lemon I guess?). Fold in flour bowl, don't overmix.

Preheat oven to 350. Line up mini muffin party cups or use small mini baking pan with liners. Using a canteloupe baller, fill each cup just partway with batter. Add put small dollop of raspberry jam in center, don't let touch sides of liners. Put more batter into cup, fill 2/3 only.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, using toothpick to check. If using regular flat pan with nut/party cups, put silpat liner down to help prevent blackening and bake on middle rack. Let cool on oven rack for another minute with oven open before removing to cool.

This recipe makes 16-18 mini cupcakes. I would imagine it'd make about 6-7 large ones.

Frosting was just cream cheese, confectioners sugar, lemon juice all whipped into a frenzy til I liked the consistency. I added some raspberry jam for texture and a pretty pale pink color. Frost with spatula or pipe.

Garnish... I used raspberries on Thursday's batch which were awesome and cute but they sweat continuously. Some people actually liked the sweating because they thought it looked artsy. Ok. Sweet. Sweating is artsy!!

You could omit raspberry jam in the center if you don't want a filled cuppie. I also created a variation on these with no lemon juice or zest in the batter, and instead just did a vanilla cuppie filled with olallieberry jam that we got in Mendocino. Frosting was just cream cheese, no lemon..tinted pale blue. See picture up above actually. Super cute. Slightly less tarty/fruity.

Batter up, lemon zesty...

This is my 2nd batch from Easter, much better on the 2/3 filling, no overflowing.

Original Thurs cuppies decorated with raspberries.

Sweating!!!

Dissected and Demolished, I love this shot...haha. It's like 'aftermath'.

Below...in the first Easter post, the coconutted picture is this same recipe minus the raspberry, rolled in coconut and with Easter pareils. Super cute...and no sweating. Coconut IS messy though.