Lemon cupcakes with lemon glaze

I don't know what it is about lemons and its use in sweet, and savoury things that makes me love it so much.  Perhaps its the tang that livens up the dish (and myself), or that by having two opposing flavours, makes each one stand out a bit more.  I had a couple of lemons donated to me from a kind person's tree, and the possibilities of the things I could make were endless:  lemon tart (my favourite dessert of all time), a lemon drizzle cake, lemon muffins, lemon zest cookies ... In the end, I settled on a lemon glaze cupcake.

I made them and took them to a morning tea and they were well received.  These are good.  They're crumbly and they ooze of lemon deliciousness.

Lemon cupcakes with lemon glaze

Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 12

Ingredients

Lemon cupcake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 cup caster sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk or plain low-fat yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
  

Lemon glaze

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  
• 1 cup icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175oC.  Butter and flour a muffin tin or line them with cases.
   
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt.  In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon.  Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk mixture.
4. Divide evenly among muffin cups.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes in tin, then cool completely on a rack.
5. Set rack over wax or parchment paper.  In a small bowl, stir icing sugar with remaining lemon juice until smooth. Pour over cakes, spreading to edges with a small knife.  Let set 30 minutes.