Wartime Menu Challenge: May - Lemon Molasses Cupcakes

May didn't turn out like I expected.

Midway through the month, my husband's mom flew in to lend a hand for two weeks, and we ripped out our kitchen! It's been needing it for a long time, and now that we're planning on selling our house we're finally getting around to it. Isn't that always the way? Sigh.

Well, packing up a kitchen to make way for the crowbar doesn't exactly make it easy to do any fancy cooking, or any cooking for that matter. This was really frustrating, but I guess it was to be expected. Last Sunday was a lull in the construction storm, so I took the opportunity to haul out my flour, spices, and muffin tins to make one last recipe from May's menus before June arrived. I am so glad I picked this recipe, because it is the bomb! 

 Lemon Molasses Cupcakes.
The wartime baking method comes into play with using only a 1/2 cup sugar and the other 1/2 cup sweetener coming from the molasses. They don't really scream "try me!" unless you really, really love molasses.  I do like molasses, but it's not my most favorite thing in the world. And pairing it with lemon? I'll be honest. I was really skeptical. The batter tasted promising and my kids approved too. So that was a good start. They baked up nice and lovely. I had some store-bought lemon frosting sitting around, so I put that on top of a warm cupcake and took a bite.

Oh. 

My. 

Goodness. 

It was amazing!!!!!! (How many is too many exclamation marks?) The molasses and cinnamon make for a very warm-tasting cupcake. But then the lemon...I don't know what it is about it, but the pairing was phenomenal and kind of blew me away. It just brightens the whole thing up. I used a dried lemon peel in the batter and that came across as very subtle. I think I'd like to try it with fresh lemon zest instead, and also make a homemade lemon frosting for them too. We loved these so much that I made a second batch to take to the WWII event I'm going to this weekend. I just can't contain the ration cooking love! haha!

The 1940s strike again, people! I just really love how I'm continually surprised by these wartime ration recipes.

I hope you give these special cupcakes a try. They are truly magical!

Lemon Molasses Cupcakes

Westinghouse Health-for-Victory 

Meal Planning Guide, May 1943