When life gives you lemons, make lemon cupcakes. As it´s getting colder outside, these bittersweet cupcakes are perfect with a warm cup of tea. This recipe will give you about 15-20 regular cupcakes, or about 25-30 small cupcakes.

Ingredients
175 gram (6,2 oz) softened butter
200 gram (7 oz) sugar
3 eggs
250 gram (8,8 oz) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 lemons (juice and zest)
0,25 dl (2 tbsp) milk

Buttercream frosting
75 gram (2,6 oz) softened butter
190 gram (6,7 oz) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
juice from 1/2 lemon

Decoration
Blueberries, raspberries, white chocolate, sprinkles…

Cupcakes

Zest and juice

Buttercream

How to do it

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 215ºC / 420ºF.
   2. Beat together the butter with the sugar in a large bowl. I use a stand mixer, but you may just as well use an electric hand mixer.
   3. Add the eggs, one by one.
   4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar.
   5. Slowly add the mixed dry ingredients to the mixture.
   6. Zest the lemons, and then squeeze the lemon juice (the lemons should be cleaned before you zest them).
   7. Add the zest and juice to the mixture.
   8. Add the milk to the mixture until you have a smooth batter.
   9. With a couple of spoons, transfer the batter to cupcake liners in a cupcake form.
   10. Bake the cupcakes in the middle of the oven until they have a golden surface. Regular cupcakes take about 15-17 minutes, small cupcakes about 10-12 minutes.
   11. Take the cupcakes out of the oven and the cupcake form, and let them cool down on a cooling rack.
   12. For the buttercream frosting, beat the butter with the powdered sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl until smooth. Use a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer. Slowly add the milk and then the lemon juice and mix until you have smooth, but not too soft, mixture. Keep an eye on the mixture, so that it doesn’t get too fluid.
   13. When the cupcakes have cooled down, cover them with the buttercream using a cake piping tool, a knife or a spatula.
   14. Decorate the cupcakes with berries (fresh or dried), white chocolate, sprinkles…

Bon appétit!

Btw…
Why not be a little crazy and decorate the cupcakes with licorice.