The Hubs Birthday

Well, the hubs birthday is tomorrow. He is a Tax Day baby. I asked him, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?? How about a 3 layer lemon cream cake?? What about some kind of cheesecake?? I give him any option in the entire world.

He says "I want Dirt cake." Yes, as in the cake that you put gummy works in to make it look like soil. The cake that consists of crushed oreos, some cool whip, cream cheese & pudding mix. This is of no fun to me! I wanted something fun to make!! But alas, it is HIS birthday after all. So I made him dirt cake. (My husband is turning 31 by the way) We are breaking into it this evening.

Because the dirt take took all of 20 mins, I had time to make something else. So, even though he denied me the layered lemon cake, I forged forward and made lemon cream cupcake. In all truth, I wanted something to put in my cake stand. It looked so sad on my counter, with nothing in it.

These were super easy, but they definitely made more than 12 cupcakes. You could get 16 out of this mixture and my cupcakes were pretty big.

Lemon Cream Cupcake
FoodNetwork
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks unsalted) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 1/4 cups cake flour or all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
3/4 cup cream cheese, softened
Confectioners' sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the muffin tin with cooking spray.
Combine the butter and 1 1/4 cups of the sugar in the large bowl and beat with the mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add the eggs and 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and beat until well combined, scraping down the bowl once or twice as necessary. Mix in the flour, baking powder, slat, and 2 teaspoons of the lemon zest until just combined.

In the small bowl, mash together the cream cheese, the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and the remaining 1 teaspoon lemon zest until combined.

Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the batter into each muffin cup. Place about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture on top of each portion of batter and cover the cheese with some of the remaining batter (the batter should reach three-quarters of the way to the top of each cup). Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning over onto the wire rack to cool completely. Use the strainer to sift the tops with confectioners' sugar before serving if desired.


I decided I wanted some with powdered sugar and some with buttercream frosting, so I used the recipe from the margarita cupcakes, but in place of lime I added lemon juice.