Hello friends. Today I bring you the 8th cupcake in my quest to make 52 cupcakes in the next year to honor my former chemo buddy. We were too sick to eat the cupcakes brought by kind hearted friends to the chemo room, so he stated “If we survive, we need to eat a different cupcake for the rest of our lives.” Sadly my friend didn’t survive but in honor of him and all people who have battled cancer, I am making a different cupcake every week for a year.

Each week I have been searching the internet for great recipes and ideas for the cupcake of the week. However, now that more people than my family are reading my blog, I was given 5 suggestions this week. Hooray!

This week’s cupcake comes from 2 uber talented ladies, Sara and Kate, from a gorgeous blog, Our Best Bites. The suggestion came from one of their loyal readers, Christy Westover. She stated that they had an amazing lemon cupcake recipe and she was so right!

The recipe is extremely detailed and very easy to follow. I love that. I am an amateur at all things including photography and baking. I am learning with all of you, so I am appreciative of as much detail as possible at my level of baking expertise. This recipe didn’t disappoint. And this week I was privileged to have my sister baking with me. So she is now a professional baker of lemon cupcakes.

If you love the smell of lemons, you will be in heaven. The lemon zest made my kitchen smell like it had just been cleaned. I loved it. 

This cupcake doesn’t have the rounded top that some cupcakes have after baking. But that is supposed to happen and Sara and Kate prepared me for that with their recipe. I love the cake part of the cupcake the most. It wasn’t too sweet which is what I prefer. Often frostings are super sweet so I prefer a mild cake to balance it out and I was pleasantly surprised to find that perfect combination in this lemon cupcake.

My girls really enjoy helping me in the kitchen and I had 3 requests this week. Rebecca wanted a picture of her holding the cupcake and Emily wanted these exact cupcake liners. I explained some of the rules of food photography and what is pleasing to the eye. Emily looked at me with her 8 year old eyes and the pink cupcake liners won. So I know that I am not winning a food photography award for this cupcake but I received a “Mom of the Year” glance,  so it all evened out.

And last, Emily thinks that all of my cupcakes should be photographed on the pink cake stands despite flavor, appearance, etc. So I leave you with one last picture.

Thanks again to my sister and baker extraordinaire, Julie, and to Christy for suggesting this wonderful recipe.

And many thanks to Sara and Kate from Our Best Bites for their fabulous recipe! You can find the detailed recipe here.  

If you are new to this site- Welcome! Click here to see how this crazy adventure started.