Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

Hello again.  It's been a while, hasn't it?  I guess that's the theme over the past year.  Well I'm still here and if you're still here it's a real miracle.  How have you been?  What's new?  Are you following the election?  Do you still read food blogs?  Or are you more of a snapchatter these days?

I'm doin' just fine.  As far as blogs, well I do still read a few but I've cut down a lot.  A lot!  When I can't scroll down to read the blog post because it's so bogged down with ads, that's a problem.  I removed my ad a few months ago.  I think it was a good decision.  I'm not so much into this to make money.  If so I really need to start posting more than once every three months.

Also, aren't food blogs sooo much better these days than when we all first started?  Food blogs now have amazing photography and videos and the sites themselves are so professional.  I'm not even going to try and compete!  I'll just occasionally bake a batch of cupcakes, take pictures with my old camera and post whenever I'm feeling creative.  That'll do just fine.

Let's see what have I been up to?  Flying, flying, flying, eating, snapchatting, riding bicycles, baking sometimes, eating, hiking, exploring, reading, traveling, pigging out.

Let's get to the cupcakes:

These are the PERFECT lemon cupcake.  They're perfectly fluffy and I hate the word moist, but they're perfectly moist.  This makes a batch of twelve cupcakes but if you need more the recipe doubles easily.  The buttercream is crazy good and uses crushed freeze dried strawberries.  Freeze dried fruit is amazing for baking because it adds a ton of flavor without too much moisture.  Trader Joes has a lot of freeze dried fruit options.

I've never been much of a decorator (I wish I was!) so I just covered the cupcakes with sprinkles.

Happy Spring!  Happy Easter!

Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
3/4 cup warm milk

Strawberry Buttercream

1 1/2 cups freeze dried strawberries
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt.  In a large mixing bowl using a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in lemon zest, juice vanilla and egg yolks until well combined.  Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in dry ingredients, alternating with milk.

Divide batter into muffin pan.  Bake 12-15 minutes or until well risen and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with moist crumbs attached.  Cool 5 minutes before transferring cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

To make the strawberry buttercream, process the strawberries in a food processor until finely pulverized.  Combine strawberry dust, butter, confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Mix together using a mixer on medium speed until well combined and fluffy.  Frost cupcakes with buttercream and decorate with sprinkles, if desired.

Makes 12 cupcakes