These were supposed to be lemon cupcakes, with a lemon glaze or a lemon frosting of some sort. I was reserving judgment for what kind of frosting until I tasted a full baked one, so when they came out of the oven and had cooled a little bit I was very surprised to find that they didn’t need any frosting.

These cupcakes muffins taste just like lemon curd if it were baked. They are silky smooth and very very lemony. I used Smitten Kitchen‘s yellow cake recipe as a starting point for this adaption. I took out all of the buttermilk (because we neither had milk nor buttermilk) and substituted lemon juice and added the zest of one lemon to the batter.

I quartered the recipe because I didn’t know if it was going to come out well or not. I also made them as mini muffins…because mini muffins are cute. As mini muffins I got 24 muffins out of the deal. If you were to make them as normal sized muffins I’d wager you’d get about 12 with quartered recipe. They aren’t sour muffins, but they are LEMONY and slightly tangy.

See, mini muffins are so cute. In the dreary, gray, overcast days of January these delightfully lemony muffins add a nice pick-me-up. But then you look outside and see it isn’t actually spring, so you have to eat one more.

I’m going to type up the full recipe, along with a halved and quartered recipe so that way when I come looking for the recipe I have them all in one place. The full recipe gives 46 regular sized muffins, the halved 23 muffins and quartered 12 muffins.

Hurry, they go fast!

Lemon Muffins

Full: 46 Muffins                                                          Half: 23 Muffins                                          Quartered: 12 Muffins

4 cups + 2 tbsp cake flour                             2 cups + 1 tbsp cake flour                            1 cup + 1.5 tsp cake four
2 tsp baking powder                                       1 tsp baking powder                                        1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda                                     3/4 tsp baking soda                                         scant 1.4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt                                                              1/2 tsp salt                                                           1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, room temp                         1 stick of butter, room temp                         1/2 stick butter, room temp
2 cups sugar                                                      1 cup sugar                                                           1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs                                                        2 large eggs                                                           1 large egg
2 cups lemon juice                                          1 cup lemon juice                                               1/2 cup lemon juice
Zest of 4 lemons                                               Zest of 2 lemons                                                  Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together until white and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Add 1 egg at a time mixing thoroughly before adding the next egg. Zest lemon into the mixing bowl and add in lemon juice. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined. Dish out using a spoon or scooper into paper lined muffin tins.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick/cake tester comes out clean.

You may also like:

1. Lemon Hazelnut Mini Cupcakes
2. Lemon Dill Basmati Rice
3. Cranberry Orange Muffins
4. Lemon Curd
5. Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon