Eggless Lemon cupcakes – when your garden gives you oodles of lemons, you make soft, fluffy, moist and delicious saffron infused lemon cupcakes for an exotic and citrusy fervor to your palate! With fresh lemon juice, a dash of lemon zest, no artificial colors, no eggs, no butter and no beater needed, these so easy to make cupcakes will be your favorite treat to make for an instant dessert/snack gratification!
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My family (especially my boys) love anything with chocolate (muffins, cakes, desserts etc.) but these lemon cupcakes “take the cake” if I may say so! Every since my husband had been requesting for lemon cake instead of the oft repeated chocolate ones, I was eager to jump into the lemon dessert/snacks/pickles etc. bandwagon for a change. And especially after moving into this gorgeous house with a backyard full of lemon and orange trees (along with loquat, pomegranates, grapes, passion fruits etc.), there was no excuse not to make a lemon cake anymore!
With simple pantry friendly ingredients and a couple of fresh lemons, making these gorgeous, golden yellow, citrusy, moist and scrumptious lemon cake/cupcakes is a breeze! Just mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients, fold them together and pour into a baking pan to make cake or into lined muffin/cupcake pan to make lemon cupcakes! My first attempt was this beautiful birthday lemon cake I made for my husband with candied lemons (cake inspired by BakewithShivesh lemon cake; but omitted the artificial color and used saffron to tinge the cake a beautiful golden yellow color and reduced the sugar). Came out super soft, luscious and heavenly and was gone in no time; same recipe as below but baked in a 9-inch pan for 30 minutes at 350 F (180 C). Made a super creamy frosting of butter, icing sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract and a dash of whipping cream and roughly slathered it on the top. With so many Meyer lemons, sliced up a few, simmered them in a sugar syrup until almost dry and those lemon slices turned into candied avatars of their previous selves, topped this special cake with those along with fresh blueberries and some fresh mint leaves from our garden.
EGGLESS LEMON CUPCAKES RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
Here is what you will need to make these delicious eggless lemon cupcakes:
Lemon juice and lemon zest: preferably use fresh lemon juice and zest (the yellow portion of the skin; not the white which is bitter. Use a stainless steel grater or zester to do this and then squeeze out the juice). Just rub the grater against whole, washed and wiped dry lemons and grate just the yellow portion of the skin, rotating the lemon as needed. Flour – use all-purpose flour/maida here. Using a whole wheat flour would not only take away from the texture but change the lemony and saffron color of these cupcakes. Spoon flour into measuring cup and then level to avoid packing too much flour. Baking powder and baking soda – helps bring rise to the cake. Remember, we are not using any eggs here. Plain milk – some liquid is needed to make for a flowy cake batter and milk is used here in the form of sour milk (like buttermilk) with a dash of lemon juice. Using sour milk in place of plain milk adds a lovely fluff to any cake. Oil – no butter needed here and using oil in cakes keep it moist even when refrigerated as opposed to using butter. Sugar – again, to maintain the color of the cupcake, I have used fine white sugar here as a sweetener. If diabetic or watching your sugar, you can use any sweetener like Monk fruit sweetener or Stevia. Plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt – adding yogurt in cakes adds a lovely moistness and as we are not using eggs, yogurt is a good substitute especially when combined with baking soda to give it that beautiful rise all cakes need. If you cannot find Greek yogurt, you can use hung curd/yogurt (just drain all the excess water from plain yogurt through a cheese cloth for a few hours and then use the drained portion; liquid whey can be used to make paratha dough, dilute soups and curries etc.) Lemon extract/essence and vanilla extract – try and use the pure variety; avoid artificial extracts and essences. Salt – always add a dash of salt to any dessert; this accentuates the sweetness of any dessert; trust me.
You can find the full recipe with step-wise instructions below.
HOW TO MAKE EGGLESS LEMON CUPCAKES:
Super easy to make and needs no beater or any fancy appliance; just a couple of bowls, a whisk, measuring cups and spoons, cupcake/muffin pan and liners for ease in removing the cupcakes from the pan and of course the above mentioned ingredients. First, prepare the baking muffin pan. Line a 12-cup muffin or cupcake pan with paper liners; this recipe makes approximately 12 cupcakes. Start preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 degrees Celsius. In a cup or mug, mix 1/2 cup room temperature milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice. Using a mortar and pestle, crush or powder a few strands of authentic saffron (a little goes a long way). Add this to the milk-lemon juice mixture. Gently stir and set aside at least 5 minutes.
Next step is to make the batter. In a small bowl, mix the dry ingredients (except baking soda): 1 ½ cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Whisk this together. You can sift flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and then gently whisk in the lemon zest if you feel like that is more comfortable. To make the wet ingredients: In a larger bowl, add ½ cup oil (any odorless cooking oil) and 1 cup white, finely granulated sugar. Beat well with a whisk for a couple of minutes. Then, add the Greek yogurt (1 cup), 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon extract and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; use the whisk to make a smooth mixture and avoid any lumps! Add ½ teaspoon baking soda to this wet mixture and gently mix. You will notice that the mixture bubbles up; a good sign that the cake will rise well.
Add the milk-saffron mixture and gently fold in the dry flour mixture using a whisk first to dissolve the lumps and then fold in just until you do not see any dry mixture. DO NOT OVERMIX or you will form gluten in the flour mixture and then the cake will be chewy or dense.
Using a ladle, pour or spoon into the cupcake lined muffin tin, filling them 2/3rd full. Divide the batter evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until fully baked (a cake tester like a toothpick when inserted into cake should come out clean). Start checking only after 20 minutes. Remove the pan from oven and let cool on wire racks for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool directly on wire racks to cool completely!
Enjoy these delicious, citrusy, soft, moist and scrumptious golden yellow, naturally colored eggless lemon cupcakes plain or if you feel like it, slather some icing (sweetened whipped cream or butter cream icing with a dash of lemon juice) and enjoy! These were so scrumptious, both the 9-inch birthday cake and these golden yellow, saffron laced, lemony eggless cupcakes were gone in no time! Happy Baking Foodies!
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
Like all cakes/cupcakes, these taste the best the day they are made but do stay fresh on the countertop (in cooler weather) for a couple of days in a loosely covered container. We loved these gorgeous golden beauties fresh and plain but they taste amazing with any frosting and icing especially if they have some more lemon juice in them!
For longer storage (or if the room temperature is warm), store in airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days and for longer storage (if any leftover), you can freeze them for not more than a month. Any dish should be eaten fresh. You must try making these eggless lemon cupcakes soon; you and your whole family is going to love it, as did mine! And if you do happen to, I would be thrilled to hear about it; please leave your thoughts and comments below (do not forget to give it a star rating) and/or share your version on Instagram using #curryandvanilla16 and @curryandvanilla16 and on my Facebook page.
If you are a big fan of dainty cupcakes or muffins, you must try baking these delicious ones too:
Easy Blueberry Muffins Super Moist Eggless Cocoa Cupcakes Super Moist Carrot Cupcakes 2-Ingredient Ice Cream Muffins Muesli Banana Muffins (Eggless)
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