I've kept out of this thread, as I love my cupcakes and haven't tried many other vanilla recipes other than mine. I will now try Amy's though... as I just wanna :P. I will probably do it my way (nearly the same as yours/Martha's Rouge). The only difference I think is I put the vanilla paste in with the eggs/beaten butter/sugar mix rather than in the milk. I haven't used the lemon yet, but I actually love the flavours of lemon and vanilla together....so its not something I'm against doing.

I use rice milk and nuttlex as we have a dairy allergy in the house, but sometimes I mix the rice milk with coconut milk/cream if I want a more dense cupcake.