Lemon Cream Cupcakes with Black Raspberry filling

Last week I had a 'blonde' moment or two at work, (long story there) but eventually ended up making cupcakes for our I.T. department at work to thank them for trying to fix my error..... Anyway, I had this recipe that I found here http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen that I had been wanting to try. So I thought their lemon, which would make good "blonde" cupcakes, so I gave it a shot. The cake recipes was exactly like the raspberry lemon cupcakes I've already posted, it's a good cupcake recipe. I didnt' follow the frosting recipe from 'tasty kitchen exactly, but I will post here what I did, it was yummo! And I filled mine with Smucker's Black Raspberry 'just fruit' seedless jam. I have a cake decorating bag, and a tip that has a long thin end that works great for filling cupcakes or eclairs, so I gave that and shot and it worked great. The flavors were awesome together. YUM!

Lemon Cream Cupcakes with Black Raspberry filling
Makes 24 cupcakes
FOR THE CUPCAKES:
2-¼ cups Cake Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1-¼ cup Buttermilk
4 whole Large Egg Whites
1-½ cup Sugar
2 whole Lemons (just The Zest, But Reserve Juice From One for the frosting)
½ cups Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
½ teaspoons Pure Lemon Extract
1 jar of Smuckers Black-Raspberry Simply Fruit Jelly (for filling if desired)
_____

FOR THE FROSTING:
¼ cup Butter, Softened
1 packages Cream Cheese (8 Ounce Package)
4 cups powdered sugar (approximately)
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Lemon (just The Juice)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted


Preparation Instructions:
For the cupcakes:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tins by using liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place flour, baking powder and salt into sifter and rest on a plate.
3. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Or until it looks like yellow snow. Whatever makes sense to you.
5. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
6. Beat in the extracts, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
7. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
8. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Place the batter into the cupcake tins.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife or toothpick inserted into the centers should come out clean.
10. Cool on wire rack.
11. If filling the cupcakes, you can either scoop out a little cake with a spoon and ad a little filling then put the cake back. Or you can use the tip I was talking about at the top of this recipe with a little jelly in a decorator bag. Insert the long end of the tip into the cupcake and squeeze a little filling into the cake as you slowly pull the tip out of the cupcake. Don't worry if a little of the filling bubbles out of the cake, you can cover that with frosting.

For the frosting:
1. Using a mixer, blend the butter and cream cheese together until well combined.
2. Gradually add in the powdered sugar until fully incorporated. (this will be thick, but just wait)
3. Finally, mix in vanilla and lemon juice. If your frosting isn't thick enough (remember if you are going to pipe it on the cupcakes with a decorator bag, you will want it thick so it doesn't run off the cakes) Add more powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time until you get the right consistency. Whip with mixer for a minute or two till it's light and creamy. Then stir in melted white chocolate.
4. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes. (I used a decorator bag with a 2D tip, I thought they kind of looked like roses!!)

Garnish the top with a little grated lemon zest.
YUMMO!