I Dreamed a Dream, White Cake with Lemon Raspberry Buttercream

This past weekend I had a dream about Ohio. In my dream I wanted had to make a friend cupcakes. Of course I had to figure out how to get them to her because I live 2,000 miles away. Finally I came to the conclusion that I had to fly home to bring her the cupcakes. I imagined how perfectly my cupcake carrier would fit under the seat. I think my brain was trying to tell me that I needed to make cupcakes.

So, when I woke up I knew that I would be making some. I decided I wanted to make classic white cupcakes with a lemon raspberry butter cream, in honor of spring. The recipe that I usually use for making white cakes is awesome, first it calls for butter instead of oil, butter makes everything better. Second, the way the ingredients are brought together is unique and does not require beating egg whites to stiff peaks and then folding it into batter, which makes my arm tired! The result is an incredibly light but still flavorful white cake.

White Cake with Lemon Raspberry Buttercream

(Source: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)
(Recommended recipe for cupcakes)

White Cake

1 cup whole milk, room temperature
6 egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (6 oz), softened

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease two 9 inch cake pans with vegetable shortening, line the bottom with parchment paper, grease the parchment paper and flour the pans.
Combine milk, eggs whites and extract in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in an electric mixer and mix at slow speed with a paddle attachment. Add butter. Continue beating at slow speed until mixture looks like wet sand (If you’re doing this by hand, sift the dry ingredients together and rub in butter).
Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining milk mixture and beat for an additional 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Do not overmix.
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and gently shake to smooth batter. Bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes then invert onto racks to cool completely before frosting. Unfrosted cakes can be frozen for 1-2 weeks.

Lemon Raspberry Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
2 tbsp half and half
2 tbsp seedless raspberry preserves
1 cap full lemon extract (~1/2 tsp)
(I think a tsp or 2 of lemon zest would be a wonderful addition however I did not have any lemons on hand)

Beat the butter in a mixing bowl for 1-2 minutes or until very pale yellow and creamy looking. Slowly add the confectioners sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time. Half way through adding the confectioners sugar add the half and half, raspberry preserves and lemon extract. Continue to beat until the frosting is a smooth spreadable texture, but not too soft. If it appears to stiff or dry add a little more half and half. If it appears too wet or runny add more confectioners sugar.