I have baked all my life, well, most of it anyway, and I’ve never combined the flavors of lemon and chocolate!  What rock was I under! Wow, the flavor combination, the sweet with the tart is a combination  I’ll combine again and again now.  I had planned on making lemon cupcakes with a lemon icing, but my boyfriend said, “How about chocolate icing instead?  Lemon and chocolate…together!  Are you crazy?  Hmmmmmm, how wrong I was! lol  I thought about it and decided, why not, I’ll give it a try, after all, by boyfriend thought it sounded great, maybe the gang at work would think so also!  After the cupcakes were done, I was still not convinced the flavors together, but I was wrong, they tasted great! 

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

 Fudge Frosting…see below

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.  Frost with Fudge Frosting.

Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Fudge Frosting:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Cocoa
4 cups confectioner sugar
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla (real)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
pinch of salt

Mix Cocoa and sugar. Cream part of cocoa mixture with butter. Blend in vanilla and 1/2 of milk. Add remaining Cocoa and sugar mixture and blend well. Add remaining milk and beat to desired consistency.