Day 6: Drunken Lemon Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream

 The biggest realization I had with this recipe was: I have no interest in eating as many cupcakes as I'm making.  This was the first batch that after I had one and even though it was fantastic, I couldn't stomach another.  That's a good thing for my waistline.  It's also a bad thing, because now I have to start finding people who want my confections regularly.  Any takers?  Cupcakes for a minimum donation to cover costs? ^_^

In process pics of my messy kitchen:

 

 

This lemon cake is AMAZING.  It outshone the frosting to the point that you almost wanted to wipe the frosting off, and just have the delightfully tangy cake.  Really moist and fluffy.  Make sure to really beat the crap out of the butter, so your batter is light.  I bought the cheapest champagne at my corner store, which leads me to my second favorite thing about this recipe: you get to drink all the champagne afterward.  I don't know if I could think of a better night than one consisting of fancy cupcakes and champagne.
The champagne buttercream was just ok.  It didn't taste like champagne, it just tasted like butter.  Just like a lot of different types buttercream just end up tasting like butter.  I'm thinking of experimenting with coconut oil/vegan frostings, to see if I can get some variety of taste in the cupcakes. Also of experimenting with different liquor flavorings.

Drunken Lemon Cupcakes Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 eggs 
1(8-ounce) cartons dairy sour cream
1/3 cup chamagne
 juice of 1 lemon
zest if 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a standard muffin tin with about 14 paper liners.  Combine first four dry ingreedients, mix. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg until combined and moderately fluffy.  Begin to ad dry mix, alternating with sour cream, alternate 3 times.  Batter will be very thick.  Fold in champagne and lemon juice.  Fold in zest.  Fill paper liners 3/4 full with batter.  Bake for 19 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Champagne Buttercream
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup champagne
pinch salt

Whip ingreedients on high until they become light and will hold peaks, about 5-7 min.  Add more powdered sugar or champagne as necessary to get the right.