January is the month for birthdays in our family. Two brothers, my husband, and brother in law all have birthdays between January 15 – 31. Add to that I have been talking birthday parties with a friend. How can I NOT have cake on the brain? Last night I was going to experiment with a vanilla bean cake since I have a beautiful vanilla bean in my cabinet….or I HAD a beautiful vanilla bean in my cabinet. Apparently it grew legs. Instead I decided to try a lemon cake. By try, I mean, “here’s a recipe. How can I change it?” I actually used a vanilla bean cake recipe and changed it to make my own (superior?) creation. It must be superior. Their recipe called for shortening which I refuse to use. I topped them with a Blackberry Butter cream Frosting that I am still working on. You will get that later.
Please learn from me.
1. Do not make these at night. You will eat too many and wake up crashed
from sugar. Bad way to start a day.
2. Make these when you can give some away. I ended up with 24 mini
cupcakes, of which I ate too many, and 16 large cupcakes. I believe I would
have around 24 large cupcakes.
3. Do not make these at night. You will have a mess to clean up and at 10 PM
no one wants to do dishes at 10 AM but no one REALLY wants to clean
them up in the morning either.
Melt in Your Mouth Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, salted
- 2 cups sugar (I use raw. It seems to make a moister cake.)
- 5 eggs, large
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Cream sugar and butter until really fluffy. I beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, occasionally scraping the sides.
- While creaming, mix vinegar and milk in a separate bowl or measuring cup.
- Add eggs to sugar and butter, 1 at a time. Mix well before adding next egg.
- Mix flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.
- Add lemon juice and zest to milk and vinegar. Stir.
- Alternate adding flour and milk to creamed mixture, mixing well and scraping the sides.
- Put into cupcake wrappers and bake. Approximately 10 minutes for mini cupcakes and 15 minutes for large cupcakes.