Lemon Poppy Crumble Cakes

They're crumb-diddly-umptious! So the crumb topping didn't work out as planned (I imagined the entire top would remain covered in crumbs during baking--I was wrong!) and the texture was more 'muffin' than 'cupcake', but who cares? Wait a minute!?!? Have I just invented the cupffin??? Or muffcake?


Lemon Poppy Crumb Cakes

• 18.25 oz. box White Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker®)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 tsp. lemon extract
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• grated zest from one lemon
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• crumb topping, recipe below

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 12-cup muffin pans or place paper liners in pans. Combine all ingredients except poppy seeds and crumb topping and blend on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl down, then increase mixer speed to medium and continue beating for 2 minutes. Blend in poppy seeds. Batter will be very thick.
Portion batter into 20-22 greased or paper-lined muffin cups and top with crumb topping. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, or until cake tests done and topping is lightly golden brown.

• Crumb topping: recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1-3/4 cups flour
• grated zest of one lemon, optional

Combine melted butter, sugars, salt, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Fold in flour. When cool enough to handle, use hands to break into pieces. This looks like a lot of crumbs, but they will cover the cupcakes nicely. (I rolled some of mine into balls but that ended up producing cupcakes that looked like more like something from Katamari Damacy! The cupffin/muffcake you see pictured above is the result of me breaking apart my crumb balls into jagged pieces after watching the first pan bake up very Bumble Ball-esque.)