Luscious Lemon Cupcakes

As I have been reviewing our little blog here, I have noticed that I post a lot of dessert recipes. I hope ya'll don't think I sit around eating bon bon's and cookies all day, I just seem to have a lot of opportunity to make & take dessert to people and functions. So again, here is a dessert that I have fallen in love with! When I make these I have to give 95% of them away because, I kid you not, I could eat the entire batch! This is another Lemon recipe, so if you don't like Lemon it may not be for you, but then again, you should really try out this puppy anyway!

This picture was the only one I had that showed

this particular cupcake.

The Lemon ones are the most "boring" looking ones

(the little guy right in the front and center), but easily the tastiest!

Luscious Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Topping-

1 1/3 cups Shortbread Cookie Crumbs ( about 22 Lorna Doone Cookies)

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

4 TBSP Butter, melted

For the Batter-

8 oz. Cream Cheese, @ room temp.

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

2 Large Eggs

1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/4 Cup Water

1 Small Box lemon Pudding, 3.4 oz.

1 Box Lemon Cake mix

1/3 Cup Lemon Curd

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with foil cupcake liners (you could probably use normal paper ones, but the foil ones are awesome with these treats... they just fall right off the cupcake!).

Place shortbread cookie crumbs, sugar and melted butter in bowl and stir until well mixed. Put a heaping spoonful of mixture into each cupcake tin. Smoosh it down with a spoon, bottom of a cup, or your fingers. Save remaining cookie crumbs for topping.

With your electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time until combined. Make sure to scrape down sides of bowl after each egg. Add veggie oil, water, and the box of lemon pudding. Mix together until combined. Add cake mix and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. The batter should be VERY thick by this point.

Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full with batter. It will be a bit hard to get in the cup, but you can use a spoon to smooth it out.

Load your lemon curd into a ziplock bag (I use my pastry bags) and cut off one corner... about 1/4 inch.

Now you will want to make a small well in each cupcake. I find the best way to do this is either with your finger or the handle of a spoon. A great trick is to actually wet your finger and then swirl it in the batter to make the hole. Your finger will come out clean and no batter sticks to it! So easy!

Use the bag of Lemon Curd and squeeze a small amount into each of the holes. Top each cupcake with remaining crumble/cookie mixture.

Bake for 21-23 minutes. I like to rotate the pan halfway through cooking to get a nice even "slight browning" on top of the cupcake. You can eat them warm or cold. I prefer when they have cooled down a bit. They are easily my new favorite cupcake! YUM!

Just try them... you will love them and so will the people you share them with!