National Cupcake Day

Today is National Cupcake Day, and this coming week is National Cupcake Week, so if there was ever a week to be baking, buying, frosting, decorating, tasting, serving, sharing and enjoying cupcakes, this is the one!

I actually spent a week baking cupcakes in September in order to take pictures for a new product. As you can imagine, it's a really tough job, made even harder by the fact that we can't eat them until I've gotten just the right photo. This took several dozen cupcakes over many days, along with constant complaints from my "staff" who had to keep eating the props: "I can't believe you're making cupcakes again, Mama...didn't you just make them yesterday?" The poor kids.

We all OD'd on sugar that week, but I did find my favorite cupcake recipe (so far). I have to admit that I had mostly baked cupcakes from mixes before (horrors!), but after my cupcake week, I'll never do that again. Here's our favorite lemon cupcake recipe:

Lemon Cupcakes
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon oil

Preheat oven to 350°, and prepare your muffin tins with liners. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir in the oil and milk and beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs and lemon oil and beat for another 2 minutes. Divide into muffin tins, filling each about halfway, then bake for about 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then place on a rack to cool.

These are delish with no frosting at all, but to make them even more amazing, mix 1/3 cup softened butter with about 2 cups confectioners sugar, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon or two of milk, and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon oil. Beat until fluffy, then frost.

Here are a bunch more cupcake recipes if you feel inclined to fill the week with these tiny bites of sweetness. I'm tempted to start my week with another round of these citrus cakes...off to the kitchen! Happy cupcake week!