Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

Happy Friday! I, for one, am super excited for this day.  We leave for the beach and I am wayyy overdue for some sand & sun.  This is richly evidenced by my dramatic "oh, woe is me... I'm so overworked" attitude lately and my Casper-the-Ghost-like appearance.  But that all changes today!

Hubs and I on Sunset Beach in Cape May (Tina Markoe Photography)

We go to Cape May every year and let me tell you it is one of the best food towns around.  They have everything from casual sit-down restaurants to white tablecloth fine dining.  It also happens to be the tail end of restaurant week, with some fixed price menus that let me taste a few courses more than I normally might. Yum!  What more could a girl want?  I will have to update you guys on some of my fabulous meals when I get home.

Before I go, I wanted to share this amazing recipe with you from Shugary Sweets.  Lemon is a flavor I just don't get tired of.  My husband will eat chocolate til he's sick, and I sort of feel that way about lemons.  While normal, well-adjusted people order lemon slices for their water at a restaurant, I usually grab them and just suck on them while I wait for my food.  Normally, I'll top my lemon cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese frosting, but Aimee adds this amaaaahzing lemon buttercream to her cakes that is so good it should pretty much be illegal.  You can find her original recipe here.  Make these ASAP for the favorite lemon-lover in your life!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream:
Recipe by Shugary Sweets
Makes 24 cupcakes

5 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 lemons, zested
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 T heavy cream

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare two muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  Mix together the egg whites, 1/4 cup of the buttermilk and the lemon zest in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients until well combined.  Slowly add in egg white mixture and mix again.  Add remaining buttermilk and combine one final time.  Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat butter for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add lemon juice and zest, heavy cream, and powdered sugar (slowly, so the sugar doesn't fly everywhere!) until fully combined.  Beat on high for 3-5 minutes until fluffy.  Pipe frosting onto cupcakes when they are completely cooled.