Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

I love lemon poppy seed. It was our choice for a wedding cake. However all the recipes I have ever used call for prepared poppy seed, something like a poppy seed jam. In my home town you can buy it in the grocery store, here in Saskatoon, not so much. So I am using a recipe from here. Its a great blog, you should check it out.

When it came down to choosing a recipe I went with this one for two reasons. The first is that most recipes called for plain yogurt and this one called for cream cheese and extra cream cheese is easier to use up (you only need to buy a few bagels). The second reason is that this recipe uses lemon zest and real lemon juice, which is a necessity when making anything lemon related. I decided to decorate the cupcakes with lemon icing and raspberries since I am taking them to a barbeque and want them to look as delicious as they taste.  I usually steal about one cupcake worth of batter and eat another cupcake fresh out of the oven . . . you know . . . for quality control  . . .

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest from one lemon
• lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and the cream cheese and continue mixing until everything is well incorporated.
4. Add the milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest and continue mixing.
5. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and poppy seeds together.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and mix for a few seconds, but do not over mix the batter.
7. If you are not using muffin liners, butter your muffin tray. Pour the batter in each muffin cup, this should be enough for 12 muffins.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffins are done. (The original recipe said 30 minutes, but  I found that this is far to long. My muffins were starting to get overdone at 25 minutes)

Lemon Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

•  1/2 cup butter or margarine softened
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 2-3 cups icing sugar
• 1 Tbsp milk

Instructions

• Mix all ingredients together with a mixer until smooth and a not too thick consistency.
• Pipe onto cupcakes, I used a round rather than a star tip because that was what I was in the mood for. Be creative.
• Top with a raspberry (my friend tops her lemon cupcakes with a lemon candy. It looks super cute)