Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

I attempted baking bread for the first time time few days back using a sweet butter bun recipe. Well it was'nt exactly the first bread attempt to be exact. I had made pizza dough prior to that. However I would'nt consider pizza dough to be a proper 'bread'. Before I had time to take pictures of the butter buns, they were all gobbled up. These buns pretty good when they were fresh out of the oven. When the buns were cooled, they did'nt taste as fluffy. This is something I need to improve on when making bread again.

While I looked through the ingredients I had on hand, I was deciding on whether to use the crumbly cream cheese which were meant for my previous blueberry cheesecake. After some deliberation, I decided I would go ahead and use it. The cream cheese might not look appealing physically but it did not mar the taste of the baked goods.

The recipe to work on this time round is lemon cream cheese cupcakes. I love to bake cupcakes. There is much less clearing and washing to be done and the preparation time is kept to a minimum. Just imagine having to wash the beaters for 2 to 3 times just to make a cake sometimes. Thats tedious!

I pretty much looked forward to the end product of the baking session, wondering how a lemon cream cheese butter cake would taste like. The verdict? Truly delicious cupcakes that are soft and fluffy, way softer than the usual butter cakes. Its texture will mislead one into thinking its a sponge cake. I guess the addition of cream cheese works wonders in this recipe.These cupped snackers are kind of like a cross between a lemon butter cake and a light textured lemon souffle cheesecake. Looks like I have found a worthy use for my crumbly cream cheese afterall.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes ( recipe adapted from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw)
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Grater with fine holes
4) Measuring spoon set
5) Muffin tin with holes 5cm in diameter measured from the base
6) Spatula
7) Mixing bowl
8) Cupcake liners/paper to fit
9) Toothpicks, wooden skewers or cake tester
10) Wire rack
Serving size : 11 - 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
135g Self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g butter, softened
90g cream cheese, softened
140g caster sugar
2 eggs (55g to 60g per egg)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon (grate lemon zest over sugar)
1 tbs lemon juice

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2) Sift flour and baking powder into a big bowl. Use a whisk to ensure mixture is evenly distributed. Set aside.
3) Place butter and cream cheese into a mixing bowl. Beat untill creamy.
4) Add in sugar and lemon zest and continue to beat until cream cheese mixture is creamy and fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium high speed.
5) Beat in eggs into cream cheese mixture one by one and continue to beat till smooth and combined.
6) Add in the flour mixture and lemon juice. Beat until batter is creamy smooth and combined on low speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula during the beating process to incoporate stray flour and ingredients.
7) Line muffin tin with cupcake liners. Spoon batter into cupcake liner till 2/3 full.
8) Bake for 18 minutes. Test for doneness using a toothpick or skewer. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in cupcake center comes out clean .
9) Leave to cool on a wire rack. Keep in airtight containers for up to 3 days.

Notes:
1) Grating lemon zest over sugar captures more of the lemon oil that is released while grating.
2) You may want to rub the zest and the sugar to release more lemon oil.
3) For moister cupcakes, fold 3 tbs sourcream or yoghurt to the batter, alternating with the flour