A Zinger of a Cupcake...

The same weekend I made the tart for my friend’s going away party, I also celebrated my good friend’s new home. It’s a fabulous little walk up with a claw foot tub, a sunroom, and all the charm in the world. I love my house, but to have a little nook like that in the world would be sublime. Since I'm so in love with the place, but I only have one tart pan, I had to settle on making something completely different.

I had a lemon cake mix burning a hole in my pantry so I decided to use it to my advantage. Once again, I scoured the internet for recipes to use this cake mix with and figure out a super sweet pairing. Lots of the recipes had coconut. Thumbs down! I love coconut, but happen to be pretty allergic to it. Lots of the recipes had almonds. Thumbs down! Another ingredient I love, but happen to be pretty allergic to. Lots of recipes had chocolate…magical! An ingredient I loved and happened to be able to eat in its entirety. So the creative process began. Lemon White Chocolate Cupcakes are what we ended up with. They were delicious and had a great zing, but the chocolate was a little lost and overpowered by the lemon.

Here’s how Pegleg Penny made this one go down:
Lemon White Chocolate Zinger Cupcakes
For the cupcake:
1 – Lemon cake mix
6 oz of White Chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
¾ cup of water
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
Zest of one small lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Take a medium saucepan and add water to it. Put it on the stove and allow it to simmer. Put the white chocolate chunks in a large metal bowl, that sits on top of the saucepan without touching the bottom. Creating a double boiler effect. Allow the chocolate to melt, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, turn off the simmering water, and set the melted chocolate aside.
Empty the cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, water, vegetable oil, and lemon zest. Mix until smooth. Using a rubber spatula gently fold the white chocolate into the batter. Fill cupcake pan about ¾ of the way up with batter. (If you’re not using cupcake liners, make sure you grease your pan.)

Bake in the oven approximately 17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting*
1 – 8 oz package Cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Little by little add the powdered sugar until it’s light and creamy. It’s pretty easy and really tasty.
*Recipe adapted from 'Cake Mix Magic' by Jill Snider

The cream cheese frosting compliments and mellows out the lemon of the cake very well. They tasted really good, especially if you’re down with fruity things.
Quite the lemony success. A great pairing with Margaritas. However, the chocolate did get lost in the zing. Next time I'd probably omit the zest and add more chocolate.
This is my friend Lisa. She eats her cupcakes with style.