When I was a kid in the late 60’s and early 70’s (I was born in ’64 so I guess I can claim kid-dom up until about 82 or so but I mean little kid here) the music that was around was much simpler and dare I say much more innocent most of the time. I grew up listening to country or “Country and Western” as it was known back then. In those days, it wasn’t the trendy music it is now. You listened to it because you loved it. I also was exposed to AM Pop music; artists like Gilbert O ‘Sullivan, Simon And Garfunkel, Carly Simon, James Taylor and Bobby Goldsboro. They are still singers that I love to be honest. I remember Bobby Goldsboro having a song called “Honey”. It is the worlds saddest song (with REM’s “Everybody hurts” still in first place for worlds most depressing song) about a man whose wife dies while he is at work and how he misses her. The romantic child I was then thought it was so cool that she died and he loved her enough to nurture some stick of a tree for her and I just knew I would grow up to have that kind of love. I conveniently forget about the part where she dies. Alone. By herself. No one there to help. Dead as a doornail. You get the point. I still love the song though. My dad always told me that it reminded him of my mother and made him think of her when he heard it.

I heard that song today on my media player. No, you do not want to know what other songs are on there. It would simply clarify my extreme old age and senility for you. I prefer you believe I have all sorts of modern songs with the modern attitude that goes with them and that I spend my days getting cool tattoos and having people come up to me and say “I just had to tell you that I hope I look as good as you when I’M 25!”. I do not, I repeat do NOT, have Donny Osmond singing “Go Away Little Girl” on my media player. I swear I don’t. If it is there, my husband must have put it there.

As I was saying though, I heard the song Honey today and decided to make something with honey in it in honor of the worlds saddest song. So I made cupcakes. Lemon Honey cupcakes with a lemon honey frosting. The recipe originally comes from Womans Day I took the liberty of making some changes to the batter because when I tasted it (Hey! It’s quality control!) it had minimal lemon flavor. To be honest, it had minimal flavor period. No offense to Womans Day. They do however have a nice tart sweet lemony frosting that I loved. perhaps too much since I ended up with three cupcakes with no frosting. Oops. If you like Lemon, you’ll like these. :-D  While you’re cooking these you should go to youtube (*points to link below) and listen to the song Honey.  You can listen to it and weep while you wish you had a love like that. Minus the dead part. The dead part sucks.

Lemon-Honey Cupcakes Recipe

• Cupcakes-

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 3 Tbsp grated lemon zest
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs

• Lemon-Honey Frosting
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 7 to 8 tsp lemon juice
• Few drops yellow food color

1. Cupcakes: Heat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sour cream, milk, lemon extract, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl until well mixed.

3. Beat butter, honey and sugar in large bowl with an electric mixer 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended.

4. With mixer on low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture. Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Frosting: Beat butter, honey, lemon extract  and lemon zest in large bowl with an electric mixer until creamed, about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in confectioners’ sugar until blended. Beat in lemon juice and a few drops food color until mixture is fluffy and pale yellow.  Taste about 47 bites of the frosting to make sure it’s lemony enough. Vow never to eat sweets again. Eat more anyway.

7. Spoon into a large ziptop freezer bag, snip off one corner and pipe onto cupcakes, or just spread frosting onto cupcakes. Or just eat it all and tell everybody that the cupcakes are really lemon muffins thus they don’t need frosting.

*Points down to song link*

Honey