Lemon Cupcakes From Betty Crocker Box Mix

When I was growing up, my mom ran an at-home bakery following Michigan’s cottage foods law. Her lemon cupcakes were always a very popular request in the spring, and most people who have tried them think they are homemade from scratch, when in fact they are from a box mix!

In this Instructable, I’m going to walk you through how my mom makes her lemon cupcakes. She swears by the Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon Cake Mix, so that’s what I will be using.

Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon Cake Mix

Vegetable oil

Water

Eggs

KitchenAid mixer or other electric mixer or beaters

Cupcake pans

Parchment paper cupcake liners (the parchment paper liners work better than normal, but any are fine)

Follow what is listed on the box (vegetable oil, water, and eggs). I’m using farm fresh eggs, but any are fine

Place the rack in the middle of the oven

Crack the eggs into a bowl to make sure you don’t get any eggshells in the batter

Measure the water into a glass measuring cup and add the oil

In a KitchenAid mixing bowl or in a large enough bowl, add your wet ingredients first. Then add the dry mix on top

Use a low/stir setting on the KitchenAid or use beaters to combine ingredients. This should take roughly 30 seconds

Once combined, use a spatula to scrape down the sides

Whip on high for 2:30 minutes. This is the most important step as you will see the texture and color of your batter change. This allows the cake to bake up fluffy and remain moist.

While mixing, place cupcake liners into cupcake pans. Double line the cupcake wells so that they will absorb extra oil while baking. The batter should make between 18-24 cupcakes.

Once the batter is done mixing, use your spatula to scrape the sides down again. Measure ¼ of a cup of batter into each cupcake liner.

Bake at 350℉ for 10 minutes. Rotate the pans and bake for another 4 minutes. Rotating the pans will allow the cupcakes to bake evenly as ovens don’t heat evenly. After the 4 minutes, tap the top of a cupcake to make sure it bounces back up. If it doesn’t allow to bake for another 1-2 minutes and try again. If it bounces back, insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean/with baked cake on it. If it does, take the cupcakes out of the oven and immediately remove them from the pans, and place them on cooling racks until cool to the touch. Removing them from the pans will prevent them from continuing to bake since the pans are hot.

This recipe is very similar to the homemade frosting my mom makes and uses: https://premeditatedleftovers.com/recipes-cooking...

For flavored store-bought frosting, my mom will whip one can of it to one can of her homemade frosting in an electric mixer; this helps to lighten the flavor of the frosting as well as adding a fluffier texture. You will see a change in color and texture. (Any time you use a canned frosting from the store, consider whipping it in an electric mixer prior to use for a lighter and fluffier texture.)

These instructions will walk you through how to frost a cupcake to look similar to these, it also includes a recipe for buttercream frosting:

https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/how-to-frost-th...