Lemon Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing

As I've said many, many times, cupcakes always manage to put a smile on my face. They're not the best desserts in the world by any means, but these individually wrapped packs of sweetness always do the trick for me. They put anyone near them in a light, blissful, childish mood - something most of us could use more of.

I like to play around with recipes and mix and match depending on my mood of the day. These matched a lemon/chocolate type of day and the combination of both was just perfect. A tall glass of cold milk in one hand, a frosted cupcake in the other and the world is pretty much as perfect as it's ever going to be.

Lemon Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing
Makes 6 cupcakes
3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt (use kosher)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 stick of room temperature butter
1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon of packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon curd
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Chocolate Icing
Frosts 15 cupcakes

1 stick of butter
1 3/4 cups of confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons of dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl, mix the flour, salt, lemon zest and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, add the sugar and butter. Using a mixer, beat the sugar and butter until the mixture is homogeneous (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one by one, beating until just incorporated. Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon curd and beat until just incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture. Once the mixture is just homogeneous, scoop one ice cream scoop of batter into a cupcake-lined muffin time. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool on a cooling rack while you make the icing.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, transfer to a bowl and let cool. Cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the confectioners' sugar little by little. Mix for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is smooth. Fold in the cooled chocolate and mix until the chocolate is entirely incorporated. Ice the cupcakes as you please. Enjoy!