Thursday, June 10, 2010

When life gives you lemons...

Actually it was my sister who gave me the lemons. A few months ago, she informed me that she wanted red velvet for her birthday which was this last sunday, lo and behold, saturday rolls around and she decides to inform me that she'd much rather have white cake with lemon curd.

Not only that, but she wanted white cake with lemon zest in it, lemon curd surprise in the cupcake and white icing. A rather simple and doable order, except that I had prepared for red velvet and had no lemons what so ever.

She happily informed me that she had gotten some lemons for me. Now I assumed she had gotten me maybe 4 or 5 lemons from the local grocery, oh no, she went to Costco and got a 7 pound bag of lemons.

I have no idea what she thinks I'm going to do with all those lemons, but I'm sure I'll think of something, get ready for some lemony recipes from me!

Anyhow, here's the finished product, doesn't look like much does it? Just another plain ol' vanilla cupcake, right?
So you bite into the soft, sweet confection only to get an explosion of lemony flavor bursting across your tongue! Mmmmm...

Here's how it looks on the inside (sorry for the terrible quality, I took a ton of photos and this was sadly the best I had...) And this was one that had less filling than most, all of the others were demolished by the time I reached for my camera. This recipe only makes a dozen, so feel free to double it.

White Cupcakes (with lemon zest)
Adapted from Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcake Recipes
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt (only if using unsalted butter)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
2/3 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, use you regular milk and add 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar, stir and let sit for 10 minutes)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2.in a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
3. in a larger bowl, beat butter until smooth, beat in sugar completely. Add in egg whites one at a time, beating after each until smooth, add in extract
4. alternate adding in the flour mixture and the buttermilk, mix just until smooth
5. scoop batter into lined cupcake pans, bake 20-25 minutes, turning pans halfway through if needed. Cool 10 minutes in pan before finishing cooling on a wire rack.

Lemon Curd
I used a really simple but delicious recipe from a website I love:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Curd/Detail.aspx

You'll need a piping bag or a plastic sandwich bag with one corner snipped off (just a tiny bit!)

1. When both the cupcakes and lemon curd are cool (the lemon curd should be maybe lukewarm at most, room temp is best though) fill your piping bag with about a cup of the lemon curd. Make sure to seal or twist it shut as to avoid messes.
2. Poke a small hole into the top of each cupcake with a chopstick or cake tester, push tip of piping bag into the hole and squeeze gently until you feel the cupcake swell slightly or get a little heavier. Gently remove piping bag. Repeat with all of the cupcakes.
3. Gently wipe off any overflowing curd from the cupcakes and lightly frost the cupcakes, making sure to hide the holes.
4. Unwrap and take a bite!

The icing was just a basic vanilla buttercream, the cupcakes are pretty sweet so you don't need much icing to finish them off or it'll be too much.

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