Lemon Love

My BFF, Jenny P, enjoys a good lemon cupcake.  While I was down visiting a couple of weeks ago, I decided to whip up a batch as a little thank you for letting me come down and soak up some of her Arizona sun.  I found a promsing recipe at the Sing for Your Supper blog.  We gave it a try and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.
A while ago I was on a quest for a good white cake, but was unable to find one.  Turns out this recipe fits the bill.  It is light, but dense enough to have that perfect "crumb".  It reminds me of wedding cake and even though it is lemon flavored, it is very light and I think makes the cake refreshing. 
I've tweeked the recipe a bit, but it is simple and pretty straight forward (although, a one bowl recipe it is not).  For even more lemony goodness pair it with a lemon buttercream.
Enjoy
Lemon Cupcakes

• 2C flour
• 1/4 C cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• juice of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 350
Combine sugar and lemon zest, muddle and set aside
Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt
Gently beat eggs whites and buttermilk
Combine sugar and butter and mix until very light in color
Add vanilla and lemon juice
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and then 1/2 of the milk mixture, repeat, ending with flour mixture
Fill cupcake liners half way up and bake ~ they will not brown so test with toothpick
Bake 17 min for mini and 20 for regular

Lemon Buttercream

• 1 C butter
• 4-6 C powder sugar
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/4 milk
• 1 dash salt
• zest of a lemon
• 1/4 C lemon juice
• a few drops of yellow food coloring (optional)

Combine and mix on med high for 3 minutes until light an fluffy

I'm linking up to Sweets for a Saturday