Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes

The last time I made lemon cupcakes, they were vegan. They were actually quite good, despite my misgivings, but I didn't feel like getting soy milk and margarine and not using eggs, so I decided to use a different lemon cupcake recipe. Chiffon cake sounded about right, I wanted something light and airy, rather than the pound cake type cupcake. I also felt like playing with my electric beater things more. I modified a pretty generic orange chiffon cake recipe, and this is what I ended up with. They were good, but didn't sell as well as the margarita or car bomb cupcakes. Because people like their booze.

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes
1.5C flour
2 tbs corn starch
1C granulated sugar, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3C vegetable oil
4 large eggs, separated
1/3C water
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4C lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extra
1/4tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325F. Sift together the flour, corn starch, 3/4C of the sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, put the egg yolks, water, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. In a third bowl, put the egg whites and cream of tartar.

First, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Once you've beaten your whites, use the egg beater to beat the yolk mixture. Once that is beaten, add it to the flour mixture, and combine. Once that is mixed, add about 1/3 of the egg whites to the flour/yolk mixture, and just stir it to incorporate the whites and lighten up the batter. Then add the rest of the whites and fold them in, using the fewest number of strokes possible. Fill the lined muffin tins 3/4 full, as these cupcakes won't rise that much in the oven without something to cling to. Bake the large ones for ~15-20min, and the small ones for ~8-12 minutes. Keep checking them, these times are approximate...

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

If its not obvious yet, I far prefer cream cheese frosting to buttercream...

1 stick (1/2C) butter
4oz (1/2 package) cream cheese
2-6C confectioner's sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2-6tbs lemon juice
food coloring as desired

Beat the butter and cream cheese. Add some sugar. Add the lemon zest and juice, and a couple drops of food coloring if you're using it. Add more flour. Beat. Taste. Adjust as necessary.

Allow the cupcakes to completely cool before you frost them.