Angel Food Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 cups of sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 10-11 large whites), at room temperature.
1 tablespoon of water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
If you’re like me and forgot to take your eggs out of the fridge to warm up, place them in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 10 minutes to take the chill off them.

Time to separate the eggs. For those who are as inept as I am at separating eggs in the shells and often drop in pieces of shell, an egg separating tool is very handy!

Sift together flour, salt, and 3/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl.

In your mixer bowl, beat together egg whites, water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and vanilla at a low speed for 1 minute.

Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture increases 4 1/2 to 5 times in volume and resembles a bowl of soft foam. This will take anywhere from 3-5 minutes. Then, while still at medium-high speed, beat in remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, one tablespoon at a time taking 2-3 minutes. When all the sugar has been added, the foam will be creamy white and hold soft, moist peaks that bend over at the points. Do not beat until stiff.

Sift a fine layer of the flour mixture (about 1/4 cup) evenly over the batter and fold gently with a rubber spatula only until the flour is almost incorporated. Do not stir or mix. Repeat this process until all of the flour mixture is folded in and no traces of flour are visible.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.

Spoon in the mixture until the papers are about 3/4 full.

Bake for 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. You can use a toothpick to test it.
Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Note: I did not have enough muffin trays to make all of the batter at once (I only had enough for 18) and tried to do 2 batches but the egg whites became unstable by the time the first batch was out of the oven and I had to discard my remaining batter. So try to make sure you have enough trays for at least 2-2.5 dozen cupcakes.

Frosting

INGREDIENTS
8oz cold cream cheese
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons lemon extract

DIRECTIONS
Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and lemon extract in a bowl until smooth.

Sift the confectioner’s sugar.

Add one cup at a time of the confectioner’s sugar and beat until smooth and the desired consistency. If the frosting is too stiff, beat for a little longer but do not over beat it.

Spread the frosting evenly over the cupcakes. You can use a piping bag to make interesting patterns or you can be lazy like me and just spread it over with a butter knife.