Karema - daranaco (the CC member who posted the recipe for this round) decided to pick the person for the next round through kind of a lottery - (which is a great idea, by the way) And I think whoever is our fearless leader each time can decide how to go about it.
Here is what she wrote:

"Iâve been given the challenge of selecting the next recipe contributor. To do this, Iâve decide to ask all those who are interested to PM me with a number between 1 and 1000 before midnight on Thursday August 28th. Iâve chosen a number (which I have shared with Grandma G, just to keep things fair). The person closest to the number will be the next recipe contributor!"

I made this recipe yesterday. Using a #24 scoop, the recipe made 18 cupcakes. They baked for 15 minutes in my oven. They did not rise very much - they didn't even make it to the top of the cupcake liners.

Since this is a scratch recipe, all ingredients used were room temperature. I creamed the butter and sugar for at least 2 minutes. When I added the zest, it was clumped together. It did not separate adequately when mixed in. I had to use a spatula to break up the clumps. I recommend sprinkling in the zest rather than dumping it in. Regardless, the texture of the cupcakes was great. I've attached a photo to show how they look.


The icing came together nicely but was runny. I would either reduce the amount of lemon juice or add more cream cheese. I think I remember the way to thicken a cream cheese icing is to add cream cheese, not powdered sugar. Is that correct?

As for the taste, the cupcake itself had a nice light lemon flavor. The icing also had a nice tangy lemon flavor. The simple syrup was sweet and lemony. I used a spoon to ladel the syrup on half of the cupcakes (which I had poked 5 holes in with a straw first).

I polled 3 of my neighbors to see what they thought of the cupcakes. They tried one without the syrup and one with the syrup. It was unanimous that those without the syrup were better. One neighbor described it as tasting like a lemon wedding cake. Another neighbor (who reluctantly tried it because she doesn't like citrus desserts - not even key lime pie!) said that the non-syrup one "wasn't bad" (a compliment) but the other she only ate one bite.

As for me, I agree that the ones without the syrup were better. A nice lemon flavor but not overwhelming. Adding in some other flavors (raspberry, strawberry) other than lemon-on-lemon would really make a difference. I would make the cupcake part again but I would experiment with adding a filling and changing the icing.

If anyone else has tried this recipe, please share your thoughts too!

Gee Daranaco, they sure didn't rise much did they?? But they seem to have a nice texture judging by the picture. I am anxious to make them and certainly hate this waiting stuff!! Ergh!

daranaco... thanks for the update as to how the recipe worked for you, I hope to get to try these this next week.

okay I don't think I will get to try these but they sound yummy. I can't get the picture to come up so I hope they looked good too.

Daranaco, how full did you fill your liners? Just wondering, if they don't rise very high, how full I need to fill them.
Martha Stewart was saying today that your baking powder needs to be replaced every 6 months and maybe more often if it isn't kept in a cool and dark place. Also Cake Love says to weigh your flour and sugar because not every measuring cup is the same. That might be why we were getting different results from our cupcakes!

Alton Brown always goes by weight, and I think he's on to something. Especially with things like Powdered Sugar. You can be so 'off' in measurements, depending on how fluffy it is when you measure.

You know, I think I may have tried this food network recipe back in April (?) and had the same no-rise problem. I didn't make it again, I found the flavor a little bit boring.
I'm fairly sure this was the one I made, it sounds really familiar and I know I got it off of foodnetwork...

Alton Brown is my FAVORITE chef! His show is just more entertaining than any others, you know?

I still want to hear about how the rest of your cupcakes turn out
I'm going to skip this round.

CCCC bump

Has anyone else tried these yet ?
Mel Were you trying these this weekend ?

Unfortunately I had a request for Chocolate Mocha cuppies, so I haven't made these lemon cuppies yet. Of course...*best southern accent* tomorrow is another day!

Ok Thats one of our fav flavors around here !! please share the top secret recipe !Chocolate Mocha cuppies Oh yummmy !Yes I will beg !!!! Please Please Please !!!!!!Or is it in the files ??? LOL!

Okay ladies I will try the recipe today when I get off work. But I may change up the icing recipe since it is runny. I have a lemonade syrup that I got at TJ Max I might try and mix with cream cheese instead. Will let ya'll know how it goes.

Okay Ladies,

This is what I did. I did the batter just like the recipe and used a scoop to fill the liners. I filled them almost up to the top and set the oven on 400 untill I put the cuppies in and then turned it down to 325. I only got 12 cuppies out of the batter so next time I will leave the recipe like it is on Food Network instead of 1/2ing it. They cooked for about 28 minutes untill a toothpick inserted in the middle can out clean. They domed beautifully and they looked great. I took photos and will post them either Monday or Tuesday but they will have to be in my photos because I can never get them to post on here. Okay now for the icing. I used 2 of the 8oz. cream cheese, 2 sticks of butter, 4 tbl. of lemon syrup that I got at TJ Max, and 6 cups of powdered sugar. It taste heavenly. It still kinda of soft but I think once I take them out of the fridge they will be fine. It was thick enough to do the swirls and I also filled them with the same icing. Yummy.
I will post the pictures as soon as I can and will let you know what everybody thinks of them Monday. Okay everybody get to baking.

Oh buddy buddy buddy ! Mel I am so going to be you when I grow up ! Thanks a bunch ! You are just my bestest CC buddy ever Its a darn good thing I dont live close enough to you to just happen to need to borrow a cup of sugar and then have to stay all day to watch you do all of your creations Just in case you really cant spare that cup and need to use it
I promise to entertain the kiddos while Im watching to !

Mel Do you have a picture of the choc mocha cupcakes?

I'm sorry, just for accuracy sake, my Kahlua syrup is NOT Torani... it's DaVinci!! I have so many different brands in there, I can't remember without looking! But I was in there this morning and thought, OH NO!! What if Torani doesn't make Kahlua?? She's going to be searching for it!! I'll admit, the visual in my head was humorous... you cursing my name while fruitlessly searching the internet, but I decided it would be better to let you in on the secret!

Yes please email me, You dont have to ask ..Email me anytime !( just for future reference) Yes Im sure you had the right visual LOL! Thanks

O.K. I'm swooning at the luscious lemony smell in my kitchen right now as the cupcakes are in the oven. I'm dissolving the lemon juice and sugar on the stove, and I have a quick question: How do you pour this syrup over the cupcakes without it dripping down and getting the side of the paper all sticky? Any suggestions? Did everyone who has already tried it used the syrup?
Thanks!

Sweet Dream,

I didn't use the syrup on mine because she said the people that tried hers didn't like them with the syrup. Everybody tried mine today and loved them they even said they liked them better than the carrot. Hope everybody else is trying them.

I have a quick question... are we only doing cupcakes in the CCCC or are we interested in muffins? I have this new book... it's called 500 Cupcakes, and it has a whole section on muffins, both sweet and savory!

As I posted in my first post, I decided to give everyone a chance to be the next recipe submitter by choosing a number between 1 and 1000 and having anyone interested PM me. Well, now that the PMing is over I thought I'd announce the next recipe submitter.

....(drum roll)....

Melvira!

Given how many recipe suggestions she has contributed on the "seriously" thread I am certain we are in for a tasty treat!!

Thanks to everyone who PM'd me! There were a couple of people who were really close but not as close as Melvira! BTW, the number was 777.

Thank you, thank you, Thankyouverymuch! Nothing like winning with a lucky guess! Hehehe.

So, I am ready to start the new thread, but I am wondering about the question I just asked about muffins. I don't want to disappoint by doing something stupid!

So, these cupcakes were the most delicious, light, moist, lemony cupcakes I've ever tasted!! They are definitely a keeper. I used the guidelines that Meemawfish posted. I also didn't end up using the syrup, since my husband and I thought they were perfect the way they were without it. I think I'm going to use this recipe for my big cupcake debut - I'm making a cupcake stand to fill for parent's night at my kids' school. Wish me luck.
Melvira - Either cupcakes or muffins work for me - I'm easy. Also, isn't there still another week for the lemon cupcakes ... till Sept 9th?