Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a friend last month for her birthday. The cupcake recipe itself was too die for! I love making cake batters from scratch now. It's really hard to go back to a box mix once you find some really yummy recipes that turn out really good from home. If you have some good recipes on hand, then you can always make a cake batter whenever you need one. Lemon just happens to be one of my most favorite cake flavors and when I came across this recipe, I had to try it. Especially when I saw that it had buttermilk as one of its ingredients.

The flowers on top of these cupcakes are made from melting candy chocolates. The were so easy and of course, my mind flooded with tons more ideas for future chocolate creations. I saw the idea online on one of favorite baking blogs. Here's the link for the instructions: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/05/wow-your-mom-on-mothers-day.html You should scroll through her blog and see all the cute stuff she creates. Clicking on the blog title will bring you back to the most current post and scroll from there.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teas. salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk (Note: Buttermilk is better with the lemon extract or use whole milk with 1 teas. vanilla extract for a plain white cake.)
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teas. lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners or grease two 9" cake pans.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl with a whisk attachment at medium speed, cream butter and sugar together until soft and creamy. Add in 1/2 of milk and egg mixture. Mix until combined. Slowly add in 1/3 of flour mixture and alternate with milk mixture and flour mixture until the batter is thoroughly combined and homongenous. Finally, give the batter another 2 minutes of mixing to make sure all lumps have been removed. Divide the batter into the cupcake liners or cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes and 30-35 minutes for 9" cake pans. Bake until a light golden color and test with a toothpick to make sure the insides are completely baked. Transfer to a cooling rack. Make sure that cakes are cooled before frosting.

Lemon Buttercream frosting

3/4 cup softened butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until smooth.