Mini Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

Desserts in miniature are some of my favorite treats. These mini lemon poppyseed cupcakes, here modeled by Georgia, were 100% her call. Much inspired by her love of Cupcake Wars and The Great British Baking Show, she was just dying to bake something. She researched flavor combinations and recipes before settling on lemon, one of her all-time favorite flavors.

She was pretty proud of the results.
I love getting my kids into the kitchen. It’s so good for them to be comfortable measuring, mixing, and creating. I missed the boat, a little, with my oldest. Sure, he loves to eat, but he’d rather eat 6 granola bars than make his own sandwich 🙂 The other two love to experiment, though, and have been frequent sous chefs recently.

We found a great lemon poppyseed cupcakes recipe from Eating Well and made them mini so they’d (presumably) last longer. I don’t know — is it reasonable that 24 mini cupcakes were gone in 3 days? In our defense, we did dole them out to a few family and friends.

The cupcakes were light and lemony and my girl did most of it herself. We had a great afternoon of measuring, whipping, mixing, folding, pouring, and decorating. I would not be surprised at all if Georgia ends up wearing a pastry chef’s hat in her future!

A few notes where we differ from the original recipe:

We used all-purpose flour only (it called for some pastry flour, which is finer). To amend for this, I did sift all of it to lighten it up a bit.
The recipe calls for buttermilk, something I never have on hand. We substitute by adding about 2 teaspoons of white vinegar to low fat milk and allowing it to sit for a few minutes to ‘sour.’
We used 3 whole eggs instead a combination of whole eggs and egg whites. I hate wasting the yolks full of so much nutrition!
We chose to lightly frost with a vanilla buttercream – recipe included below.

Recipe adapted from Eating Well
Yield: Makes about 24 miniature cupcakes

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup poppy seeds, toasted*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup lowfat milk plus 2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar

Do Ahead:
*Toast poppy seeds: Gently cook in a small dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line each well of a 24-cup miniature muffin pan with miniature cupcake liners (or, lightly grease with butter and dust with flour)

Grate lemon zest from the peel of washed whole lemons; then, juice one half to get 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Prepare the batter:
Whisk flour, toasted poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Combine the soured milk, canola oil, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice in a glass measuring cup.

Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until thickened and pale, about 5 minutes.

By hand, gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture with a rubber spatula, a third at a time, alternating with 2 additions of the milk mixture.

Portion the batter into the prepared mini cupcake pans, filling each well about 2/3 full. Bake until the top springs back when touched lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons milk or half-and-half

With an electric mixture, beat butter on high speed about 3 minutes, until lightened. Add the sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating about 10 seconds on high each time. Add the vanilla and one tablespoon of milk, and beat until well combined. If necessary, add the final 1/2 tablespoon of milk to reach desired consistency. Pipe a small decorative dollop of frosting onto each mini cupcake. Sprinkle with additional lemon zest or colored sugar sprinkles if desired.