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Moroccan Lemon Cupcakes: My Favorite Lemon Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Updated on December 16, 2011

I love baking, and I love cupcakes. That said, I am rather tired of scratch cupcake recipes that:

  • Require a bunch of hard-to-find, single-purpose ingredients (that won't be good for anything else I make)
  • Take hours to make
  • Are so sugary / fattening that I only feel justified eating one after working so hard to make them

My go-to lemon cupcake recipe, thankfully, involves none of these all-too-common cupcake plagues! These cupcakes are made with simple ingredients, can be prepared very quickly, and are light, fresh, and delicious without being super high in fat or sugar.

I hope that you enjoy making (and EATING) them as much as I do!

For the Icing

This is a light, sunny lemon glaze that adds a nice gloss and finish to the top of the cupcakes.

Ingredients:

  • Lemon zest from one lemon
  • Lemon juice from the same lemon
  • 115 grams of powdered sugar (roughly one cup)

Directions:

  1. Add the lemon zest to the powdered sugar
  2. Using a fork or a whisk, mix in the lemon juice VERY gradually (you can always add liquid, but never take it away)
  3. Keep adding and mixing in the lemon juice until you get to a dipping consistency
  4. Dip the top of the cupcakes into the icing, twisting to keep the icing from dripping down the sides (if you don't want icing to drip down onto your serving platter, let the cupcakes sit on a rack over a baking sheet lined with old newspaper)
  5. Let the icing set

For the Cake

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 140 grams of sugar (3/4 cup)
  • 2 ounces of canola oil (1/4 cup)
  • 140g flour (1 cup)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 oz skim milk (1/2 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • Zest from one lemon
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. Beat your eggs and sugar until thick
  3. Add in the canola oil
  4. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl
  5. Mix in your flour, baking powder, and salt mixture into the wet ingredients
  6. Mix in the milk
  7. Mix in the lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest
  8. Put the mixture into 12 cupcake cups (I find it easiest to first move the mixture into a measuring cup with a spout. My entire mixture fit into a 2-cup Pyrex glass)
  9. Bake the cupcakes for 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean
  10. Let the cupcakes cool for ten minutes
  11. Remove the cupcakes from their silicon cupcake holders (if that's what you baked them in- if not, leave them in the papers) 1
  12. Ice the cupcakes (see the icing directions to the right)

Weigh In!

When did you first start enjoying lemon as a flavor?

See results

Lemon: Is it an acquired taste?

While I love these cupcakes, and lemon cake in general, I did not enjoy lemon as a flavor until college. This makes me wonder if it is more of an acquired taste, or if it is something that develops as our palates age.

Did you always like lemon? And if not, when did you first start enjoying the flavor? Let me know in the poll to the right!

I hope you enjoy this recipe- it certainly is fun to whip up, and it makes my kitchen smell positively heavenly.

Happy baking!

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