This is a brand new recipe that I found that just sounded so good! At first, I thought that the recipe was a little daunting, but really, it was pretty easy to make. I went to my good friend's house to bake them at our little cupcake baking day before catching a movie and dinner. For some unknown reason, her oven caused our cupcakes to implode on themselves. It didn't really matter too much on mine, as they needed to be a little hollowed out for the lemon curd, but it was a shock to open the oven door to see that they were all craters! After laughing for a good five minutes or so, we just made it possible with what we had available to us. They were still really good, rich, but good!
For the Cake:
2 1/4 cup cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, room temp
4 large egg white, room temp
1 1/2 cup sugar
lemon zest from 2 lemons
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, unsalted, room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
For the Lemon Curd:
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 cup fresh lemon juice (4-5 lemons)
zest of 3 lemons
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
For the Buttercream:
4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted
pinch of fine grain sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh, pureed with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1-3 tablespoons cold milk (add until you reach desired consistency)
Directions for the Cake;
Center a rack in the oven to 350*. Line cupcake tins with paper liners, or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites.
Place the sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of your mixer or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for full 3 minutes, until butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in extracts, then add 1/3 of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, followed by half of the remaining flour mixture until all ingredients are well incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk-egg mixture, beating until the batter is homogeneous.
Add the last of the flour mixture.
Finally, give the batter a good 2 minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Using a large scoop (3 tablespoons), distribute the batter between 24 muffin wells, filling each well 2/3 full.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the cupcakes are springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, hollow out a small circle in the center of each cupcake. You can use an apple corer to be more precise.
Directions for the Lemon Curd:
In a large microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until smooth and thoroughly combined. Whisk in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter.
Cook in the microwave on full power for one minute intervals, stirring after each minute. This process will take about 2-3 minutes, depending on your microwave. You will know when the lemon curd is done cooking when it coats the back of a metal spoon.
Remove from the microwave and allow to cool completely before filling cupcakes.
Pipe or spoon in the curd into each hollowed cupcake and top with buttercream.
Directions for the Buttercream:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add in confectioners' sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.
Add salt, vanilla, lemon zest*, and blueberry puree* and mix until combined.
If buttercream is too thick, slowly drizzle in milk until you reach the desired consistency.
Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
*Notes: In the buttercream, I didn't have enough lemons to use zest so I just added a bit of lemon extract instead.
For the blueberry puree, if you don't have a food processor, as I didn't at my friend's house, I just mashed the blueberries with the lemon juice, which I had to use bottle juice instead of fresh, due to lack of lemons.
If you want more lemon kick, add more zest.
If you want extremely fine zest, use a zester.
Cupcakes are best served the day that they are made, but you can store them cover in the fridge up to two weeks. Bring them to room temperature before serving.
Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment