Cupcakes for several occasions

I'm back on cupcakes and have been baking quite a bit recently. I thought instead of bombarding you with a series of posts about them all I would simply collate them here. 

First we have a new recipe... Lemon cupcakes with Lemon Icing. I made these adapting the recipe for vanilla cupcakes below. They look at bit odd but they are definitely funcation/taste over form. I was very hesitant when I made them at first but I've grown quite found of the look now... like a frosted mountain peak just above some clouds. I need to find something to add to the peak to give just a bit more... character. Thoughts? I'm trying them out on a my softball team tonight... he's hoping they're yummy! Here is the recipe: 

Lemon cupcakes with Lemon Icing

Makes about 12 large cupcakes

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice- add acid to the milk then set aside for 5 minutes before using)

For the icing

fresh squeezed juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)

1-2cups sifted icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350*F.

In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice, zest and oil, beat.

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.

The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.

Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make the icing. Add icing sugar to the lemon juice until it forms a very think but still runny icing (it should coat a back of spoon very thoroughly). I whisk this so that there are no lumps but you can work it with a fork and get the same result. 

Once the cakes are cooled just a teaspoon to spoon on the icing, ensuring that the entire cakes is lightly covered and that the remains run into the sides of the cake wrapper. The icing will drink down into the sides of the wrapper and cake will be come saturated with the very lemony icing. 

Eat! 

Next up is a batch made for a Bridge night. Rob has complained that the frosting I normally use is much to rich for him so I have been experimenting with different toppings (see above). These are just  normal chocolate cupcakes with a new meringue frosting that was light as feather! I used the Martha Stewart Seven Minute Frosting recipe which was delicious but did not keep as well as others. If you use this I highly recommend eating all of it on the same day or making smaller batches and frosting the cakes as you go. I used blue food colouring to make a very light blue topping which I think goes well with the dark cake... delicious! 

Finally, these were made for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebration day which you can read about here. It was not all it was cracked up to be but at least these cakes cheered up the day well. These are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. The frosting was just something I threw together as I didn't really feel like following a recipe. I used one part unsalted butter to two parts icing sugar and beat until it was the right consistency then added a dash of milk to bind it. The frosting was VERY good and kept well, I did half of it in blue just for the hell of it! They turned out well and went great with fresh cherries!