Lovely lemon cupcakes.

{our lil' meyer lemon tree}

                     

As I confessed here, I've got a "slight" cookbook obsession.  As if I didn't have enough, I accumulated even more over the holidays.  Suuuuuure, I have enough books to cover all bases- from feeding picky eaters- to becoming a domestic goddess, but then a new one comes along... with new promises, new chefs, new recipes, new strategies...  Oh, and don't even get me started on my magazine problem.  And the pile just keeps getting bigger... and BIGGER.

           

 The thing is- I love 'em.  All of them.  Love reading the accompanying stories, tips, variations, menus, approaches... Love the pictures... the styling... not to mention- the actual recipes, and of course- the end result (... the food!!).

So, in order to justify my growing library of cookbooks, I'm making a commitment to pull them off of the shelf (as well as- off of the pinterest board or the magazine pile or the bookmarked list)- and cook up a storm :).

  ...most likely more than weekly, but I'll share at least one a week... and guess what?  Stephanie's doing the same.  And this week- she made cupcakes as well... specifically- "a ridiculously sinful oreo cupcake" recipe (that my husband will die for).  Do you want to join us?  Nothin' too formal.  In fact, we may post on different days... at different times of the week...  But I started this blog as a place to share (literally), so the more sharing- the merrier.  Not only will we pass along great recipes, but we'll discover some amazing cookbooks in the process.  Just what I need, right?

First up-

Meyer lemon cupcakes.

...& they were GOOD.  Too good.

lovely lemon cupcakes 

*adapted from organic and chic (one of my new favorite baking books, discovered here)

makes 26-28 cupcakes

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

grated zest of 4 Meyer lemons (heaping tbsp)

3 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice

simple lemon glaze (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 (mine is a convection so I heated it to 325).  Line muffin tins with liners.

Cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until mixed.  Then add the vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.  Set aside.

Mix the buttermilk and lemon juice together in a small bowl.  Set aside.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients in three separate additions, beating until combined.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners (3/4 full).  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the tins and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Once they are fully cooled, top with the lemon glaze...

 

simple lemon glaze

{you may need to 1 1/2 this, depending on how much glaze you prefer}

                       

 2 cups powdered sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice (I used Meyer)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Once the cake has cooled, spoon the mixture on top of each cupcake, using the back of a spoon to drip down the sides in the direction you desire.

*disclaimer: the whole premise of this book is to utilize organic ingredients, hence the name "organic and chic"... I did not, so I left the 'organic' part out of the recipe.