Fresh Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes with Lemon Honey Cream Cheese Icing

These are seriously delicious. Sweet, moist and creamy with a bit of tart freshness. Add these pretty cupcakes to your repertoire today! Your friends will be asking you to bake them for years to come!

Cupcake Ingredients:

Zest of 3 lemons

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries ~ plus more for embellishing

1 tbsp flour

2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup buttermilk at room temperature (I friggin' LOVE buttermilk)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

Get Busy:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Zest your lemons! Toss the raspberries with the tablespoon of flour. Set aside. Sift flour with the baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Beat the butter, lemon zest, and sugar for a full 5 minutes at medium speed until super light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Then add the vanilla and a third of the buttermilk. Repeat, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping well after each addition. Gently fold in the raspberries. Pour batter into prepared muffin pans. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely.

Ice the cooled cupcakes and top each with fresh raspberries.

Icing

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)

1/3 cup honey

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Large pinch of kosher salt

2 cups confectioners sugar

In a mixer, combine all of the ingredients except the confectioners sugar and beat until completely smooth. Add the confectioners sugar (sift first, if lumpy) and beat until well combined and nice and creamy.

RB Note: Raspberries can't hang out too long in your fridge. Buy them. Eat them. Don't buy them today to bake them next weekend, ok? They are delicate and will spoil after being in the fridge for just a few days, so, use the freshest and the best raspberries you can find : )! Look for firm beauties and don't be afraid to open the plastic container to make sure they're perfect berries with no moldy or mushy ones spoiling the bunch.

I wonder if I could get busted if I advertised these beautiful little cakes as FAT BURNING FRESH LEMON RASPBERRY CUPCAKES WITH LEMON HONEY CREAM CHEESE ICING. Raspberries are packed with fiber and manganese. Fiber helps slow the digestive process so you feel full longer. Manganese is a trace mineral that helps keep your metabolic rate high, which in turn burns fat. So, therefore, who CARES about the BUTTER and the CREAM CHEESE, peeps!? The berries will save your ass!

Save YOUR ( | ) today & have one!

Love, Laughs, Lemons & More,

Katie

Katie's Passion Kitchen 2011