Lemon Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

I’m still on a lemon roll. After the lemon curd cheesecake I made a few days ago, I made a small batch of lemon cupcakes just before I left for my kukup trip yesterday.

Pinched a bit off one of the cooled cupcakes and thought that they were a bit bland. It’s not the recipe’s fault though. The original one was Triple Lemon Cupcakes and I only used the recipe for the cake itself, without the filling and frosting.

I thought of matching the cakes with chocolate, and so I tried and made a chocolate buttercream frosting for the fluffy little yellow cakes.

Lemon Cupcake
by A Spoonful of Sugar

Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons double-action baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
90g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of two lemons
250ml milk

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Line two muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. Cream butter and sugar together until well blended. Beat in egg, vanilla extract and lemon zest (best to zest directly into the bowl).
4. In three additions, add the milk and flour mixtures alternating between the two.
5. Divide the batter between the tins, filling each hole just over half-full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until risen, springy and slightly golden. Cool 10 minutes in tins; transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

I halved the recipe and got 7 cupcakes.

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Chocolate Buttercream
by Chockylit

Ingredients (makes enough to lightly frost 24 cupcakes):
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
~1/4 cup milk

1. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft.
2. Add cocoa and 1 cup of sugar and beat until incorporated.
3. Add half of the milk and the remainder of sugar and beat until incorporated.
4. Continue to add milk until you get to the consistency you want.

I only used a quarter of the recipe to frost 7 cupcakes.

Verdict?

I thought that it was only alright. I used a quick buttercream which was mainly made up of icing sugar (I was in a terrible rush), making it too sweet and overwhelming the lemon taste in the cupcakes. Maybe next time I’ll try with a frosting that’s less sweet.

The cake itself was tasty right out of the oven. I stuck the frosted ones in the fridge cos I don’t think they will stand up very well to Singapore’s weather. After chilling, the cakes became really dense. Bad idea to chill the cakes…

I still think that chocolate and lemon goes well together though. Am I weird or do you think that it’s a great pairing too?