Single serving sunshine (in cupcake form)

I just made some awesome cupcakes.

I love lemon. And, in this case, I may have gone a bit overboard. This cupcake consists of a base cake with a tiny hint of lemon, lemon curd filling, and lemon cream cheese icing. Anyone playing along at home could easily leave out either of the last two elements and they would still be incredible!

So first comes the cake. I tweaked a recipe (which I originally found at the blog Schweet N Savory) that has become one of the all-time greatest recipes ever and my go-to white cake recipe. All I did was add a little lemon zest and fresh lemon juice cause I wanted just a hint of lemon. And the result was so good that Not-So-Ex ate 2 (or 3?) before I could fill or frost them.

And here is the recipe:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar

Zest of one lemon

Juice of half a lemon
3 egg whites
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make these deliciously scrumptious cupcakes, begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and lightly flour 14 muffin cups.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.

Spoon the batter into cupcake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes.

Now the only reason I started on these cupcakes is cause I had some lemon curd that had been opened and needed used. If anyone ever wants to make their own curd, I'm sure it would be incredible but, as of yet, I have only used the stuff from the jar. But anyway, that is what they are filled with.

The frosting is an old favorite of mine from allrecipes.com, but I'll post it again, just for fun!

INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces cream cheese 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar 4 drops yellow food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Beat cream cheese and butter in a bowl until combined. Beat in powdered sugar and lemon juice.
2.	Beat in 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 cups more of powdered sugar till frosting is of spreading consistency. Stir in a few drops of yellow food coloring.

They were totally awesome and, to my dear friend G, look for me in the morning and I'll share!