Winter Lemon White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Welcome, 2015!

 These are all things I should have said weeks ago--but you know how it goes. I made these cupcakes for Christmas at my parents' house, and they went over well. I like the idea of lemon during the winter because it's a bright, fresh change of pace against some of the heavier, nuttier, cinnamon or chocolate-laden holiday dessert offerings.

Like many of my cupcake recipes, this was a doctored-up yellow cake mix with some unique touches to lend to the homemade taste. I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients: 

• 1 box yellow cake mix (and ingredients to prepare it)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 package vanilla pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

For the Frosting:

• 8 ounces (1 block) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
• Powdered sugar (I don't measure mine when I use it, but probably 1-2 cups)
• 2-4 ounces white baking chocolate or chocolate chips, melted
• A pinch of salt
• Sparkling sugar, to decorate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two muffin tins with cupcake liners; spray lightly with cooking pray and set aside.  Prepare cake mix according to directions, and add vanilla, pudding, lemon juice and zest, and chocolate chips until just combined. Do not overmix!

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for exactly five minutes, then immediately reduce the heat to 350 for the duration of cooking time. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: beat the softened butter and cream cheese together until very smooth, then gradually add one cup of powdered sugar. Fold in the melted white chocolate and the salt; tasting as you go. White chocolate is very, very sweet on its own, so I used as little powdered sugar in this frosting as I could. Add a bit more powdered sugar until frosting reaches desired consistency (smooth, but firm enough for piping). Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and decorate with sparkling sugar.