Cupcake Cuisine: Lemon Cream Cheese Yumminess!

My dearest Miss Cupcake is quite thrilled about the arrival of spring!  She has been diligently tending her flower garden and enjoying all the fun the season has to offer.  This weekend when she cried "cookies" (aka anything that requires baking) I decided that we would capture a bit of sunshine in yummy lemon cupcakes. 

Let me begin by saying that I make no claims to having any extraordinary decorating skills.  While perfection was nowhere in sight, our evening was just too much fun not to share!

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

• cream cheese 16 ounces (room temp.)
• unsalted butter 16 tbsp (cubed)
• icing/confectioners sugar 2 cups
•  vanilla extract 2 tsp

Instructions:

• In a medium mixing bowl, soften cream cheese with a rubber spatula.
• Add butter slowly, and continue mixing until incorporated.
• Sift in the sugar, and continue mixing
• Stir in vanilla and mix until smooth.

Lemon Cupcakes:

While I had every intention of making the cupcakes from scratch, bedtime was looming.  We settled for Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix.  

The following are a few tips to enhance a box cake mix:

• Replace the oil with melted butter (salted or unsalted, just not margarine).
• Use apple sauce, fat-free yogurt, or fat-free sour cream instead of oil to make your cake low fat
• Add an extra egg. Use the amount of eggs in the box recipe, but then add in one more. 
• Replace the water in the recipe for milk or buttermilk.

*To make your own buttermilk (makes 1 cup): mix 1 cup milk and 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Let stand for 5 minutes.

We topped each cupcake with a fourth of a lemon slice.  This was my little love's favorite step in the process.  She took great pride in placing them just right!  While they are far from perfect, I have not seen Cupcake giggle so hard in a very long time.  She enjoyed every second of our baking experience.  In my humble opinion, that makes our little evening dessert a HUGE success.

I wish you all a lemony, sunshiny spring! J

NOTE:  This photo was taken by special request of my little goofball who cried "PICTURE!" and then made this face for the camera.