Lemon Cupcake with Lemon ButterCream Frosting

Lemon Cupcake with Lemon ButterCream Frosting, a delicious ,soft & moist cupcakes with wonderful citrus flavor. I had tasted lemon cake from starbucks often and really love the flavor of the cake, the lemon flavor is so subtle  in the cake and the tartness from the lemon balance out the sweetness of the cake which i like the most. So I have been wanting to bake this cake at home for a very long time and i was expecting perfect occasion too. Since ST's birthday was last week and he loves all types of citrus fruit, so thought this could be the perfect time to bake this wonderful lemon cake.  
But i don't want to bake lemon cake with simple lemon & sugar glaze on the top. So tried out the lemon flavored buttercream, to be honest , it turned out the way better than i had expected. Simply wonderful with burst of lemon flavor. Those who love the lemon flavor in the cake, trust me, you have to try this out to believe what i'm saying here. For cake recipe, i referred joyofbaking, in the original recipe it calls for 2 eggs for the given measurement, but i was afraid that it may have egg smell in the cake which i don't like at all, so added just one egg and 1/4 cup of milk. It turned out soft & delicious without any egg smell and even the cake has good raise.  

For the frosting, nothing fancy, in the ordinary buttercream frosting, i have added some lemon juice and zest to bring out the lemon flavor. Over all ,the cake turned out so delicious and it can be served as it is or i guess it tastes good with a cup of coffee or tea too. Though it tastes good on the day it was baked, it stays well at room temperature for a couple of days too. 

Lemon Cake with Lemon ButterCream Frosting

Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 22 mins | Makes : 6 
Recipe Category: Cake | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
For cake
Butter - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg -1 
Milk - 1/4 cup
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Lemon Zest - 1/2 of a lemon
For frosting
Butter - 1/4 cup
Lemon Zest - 1/2 of a lemon
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Yellow food color - few drops(optional)

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 350F. Take all the ingredients for the cake, in a bowl,add the butter and sugar.

Add the vanilla extract and whisk it all together until it becomes creamy.

Then add the egg & the milk whisk it all together well.

Add lemon juice and lemon zest, mix it well, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt together into the wet ingredients.

Whisk it all together until the batter is smooth. Line the cupcake tray with paper liner and pour the batter evenly into the paper liner.

Put it in the preheated oven and bake it for 22-25 mins at 350F or until tooth pick inserted in the center will come out clean. Transfer the cupcakes into wired rack and let it cool completely.

Once the cupcake is completely cooled, let's prepare the frosting, take all the ingredients for frosting, in a bowl, add the butter and whisk it until it's smooth.

Add sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest into the butter.

Whisk it all well together  until it's smooth. At this stage add few drops of yellow food color if you're using 

Mix it well with the frosting. Transfer the frosting into piping bag/zip lock cover, use round nozzle or just cut the edges off and start piping the frosting as swirl on top of the cupcakes.

Grate some more lemon zest on the top and the cupcake is ready to serve.

Notes:

• Butter,eggs & milk should be in room temperature.
• The cake batter may look like curdled once you added the lemon juice, that's ok, the batter will be smooth at the end.
• For frosting, you may need 3/4 to 1&1/4 cup of powdered sugar.
• If you want very mild tartness in your frosting, then add just 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice.