Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes

I've previously mentioned that I received Food & Wine magazine as a gift for my birthday. Well, for Christmas, my brother sent me a subscription to bon appetit!, so I should have no excuse for not eating well, right? This month, bon appetit! featured a lemon-raspberry cupcake as their cover shot. This gave me a perfect excuse to use one of the last remaining lemons from our lemon tree, as well as breakout the cupcake pan, which hadn't been used in awhile.

The texture of the cupcakes is more dense than a typical light cupcake--more like a pound cake. I think the recipe could easily be adapted for lemon poppyseed muffins or bread, with a lemon glaze instead of icing. As is, though, they were quite delicious. I say were, because they are already gone--since Lucas is out of town, I didn't want to be stuck home with a tray of cupcakes for only myself to devour, so I doled some out to our neighbors and coworkers. After saving a few for me, of course =]

The recipe had 2 versions of the icing (lemon and raspberry), and I made both. It would be a tough call to pick a favorite of the 2, but if there are raspberries involved, that is where my vote will always tend to go. The lemon icing would be good to use on sugar cookies, though. Very summer like.


lemon-raspberry cupcakes
from bon appetit!, April 2008

Ingredients:
3/4 c. unsalted butter at room temp.
3 c. powdered sugar, divided
4.5 tsp. grated lemon peel, divided
2 large eggs
1.25 c. self-rising flour
1/4 c. buttermilk
4 T. fresh lemon juice, divided
12 tsp. plus 1 T. seedless raspberry jam, divided
fresh raspberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with liners.
2. Beat butter, 1.5 c. powdered sugar, and 3 tsp. lemon peel in large bowl until blended, then beat until fluffy.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, until blended.
4. Beat in 1/2 of flour. Add buttermilk and 2 T. lemon juice, beat to blend. Add the rest of the flour and blend.
5. Drop about 1 T. of batter into each muffin liner. Spoon about 1 tsp. jam over the top of the batter. Cover with the remaining batter.
6. Bake until tester inserted 1/2 into cupcake (to avoid jam) comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack (I removed them from pan after 5 minutes for faster cooling).
7. Whisk remaining powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel in small bowl. (note--I had to use more lemon juice, because 2 T. just produced a big pasty glob. Make sure you have extra in case you need more, too. Also--this makes waaay more icing than needed. You might start off with less powdered sugar, or find something else to ice, like cookies).
8. Spoon icing over 6 cupcakes. To the rest of icing, whisk in 1 T. jam. Spoon over remaining 6 cupcakes. Let stand until icing sets. Garnish with fresh raspberries (note--it is best to place the raspberries on the cupcakes before the icing sets, otherwise, they tend to fall off).

Delicious!