Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

I made these for my cousin's godson along with some Red Velvet Cupcakes. It's a simple Vanilla Cupcake recipe.  I got the recipe from the Joy of Baking website.
It wasn't as light as I'd hoped, but they did rise quite well, and they taste good. 
The recipe calls for lemon zest.  I didn't have any, and used lemon extract.  I think I used too much because the lemon taste was stronger than I'd hoped.  Next time, I'll use Vanilla Extract instead.
The recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes, so double if you want more.  I topped them with Chocolate Buttercream.

Vanilla Cupcakes from The Joy of Baking:

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2. 2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3. 3 large eggs
4. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5. Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin)
6. 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
7. 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
8. 1/4 teaspoon salt
9. 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. 

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. If you want flat topped cupcakes then slice off the dome of each cupcake, with a sharp knife, before frosting.