If you are familiar with lemon curd, then you have to agree with me that sometimes, okay, most times, you wish to eat it with a spoon. Lemon curd can transform a simple dessert into a classically, irresistible decadent lemon dessert. Every bite of these lemon curd cupcakes is accompanied by delicious oozy lemon curd, which makes you want another one and another one.
If there is a fruit that blends so well in desserts, then that would be Lemon. From lemon pies, curds, parfaits, cupcakes, cookies, loaf cakes or even bread.
As I was listing my ingredients for lemon cupcakes the other day, someone saw I had listed milk as one of my ingredients. And she wanted to know if it was possible to mix milk with lemon juice without cuddling the milk. Well, when milk is mixed with lemon, it will curdle to buttermilk. I often use buttermilk when baking as it softens gluten while balancing the sweetness in baked goods. Resulting in soft, and not overly sweet cupcakes.
Whenever I am making lemon cupcakes, I always avoid using lemon juice in my cupcake batter, the zest works perfectly. Lemon juice only subtly increases the lemon flavour in baked goods, even if you double it unless it is drizzled as a glaze or syrup, as in most travel cakes. In addition, too much lemon juice will make the cupcakes soggy due to the increased amount of liquid, and still, the lemon flavour will be subtle.
You will however need lots of lemon juice to make the curd. Lemon curd is made with just a few ingredients: Lemon juice and zest, egg yolks, sugar, butter and corn starch. The technique plays a big role since we don’t want to cook the eggs, but I find string constantly and straining helps. I also prefer egg yolks which intensifies the yellow colour that screams lemon curd!
How to make Lemon Curd cupcakes.
Make the lemon curd.
Take zests of lemons and mix with sugar then pulse in a food processor. On the other hand, if you don’t have a food processor at hand, simply mix sugar with the zest of lemon and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.
Afterwards, mix the sugar with the yolks, lemon juice, corn starch and a pinch of salt. Mix until everything is combined. Pour over a medium pan and cook over low heat.
Stir constantly 7-10 minutes until well cooked. You will know it’s ready when it starts to thicken and it leaves a heavy coat on a spoon or spatula. Remove from heat and stir in butter, mix until combined. Process the curd in a food processor, strain then set aside to cool.
Make the cupcakes
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 170C. Mix the dry ingredients and set them aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the zest of lemon, sugar and butter and whisk using a hand blender until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing at every turn. Finally, fold the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients alternating with buttermilk until everything is combined. Pour the batter in cupcake moulds and bake in a preheated oven until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
Bake and frost
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and set them on a cooling rack. Afterwards, frost with buttercream around each cupcake to form a ring. Fill the buttercream rings with the prepared homemade lemon curd and serve.
Other Lemon Desserts to check out.
Tips for making lemon curd cupcakes
When making lemon curd cupcakes make the curd a day ahead and refrigerate. This will ease the preparation process the next day.
To learn how to make swiss meringue buttercream which was what I used to frost these cupcakes click here.
User cake flour to make the cupcakes soft and less dense. To make homemade cake flour mix all-purpose baking flour with corn starch. For every one cup flour, remove two tablespoons and replace them with cornstarch.
Avoid adding lemon juice to the cupcake batter. Lemon juice will only increase the liquid content in the batter and will not increase the lemon flavour in the cupcakes. Lemon zest of fresh lemons works perfectly.
When making the cupcakes and lemon curd use room temperature eggs.
To avoid cooking the eggs when making the curd stir constantly and strain to get rid of zest.
LEMON CURD CUPCAKES.
Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy10
servings30
minutes20
minutesIngredients
- lemon cupcakes
180 gms cake flour
100 gms sugar
70 gms butter
3 eggs
70 ml buttermilk
zest of two large lemons
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 salt
- Lemon curd
10 egg yolks
150 gms granulated sugar
80 gms butter
350 ml fresh lemon juice
Zest of two lemons
30 gms cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
Directions
- Lemon cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 170C. Mix sifted flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set them aside.
- In a separate bowl, cream butter with sugar and zest of lemon and mix until fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing at every turn.
- Afterwards, fold the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and bake for approximately 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and set them aside to cool.
- Lemon curd.
- Make lemon sugar. Mix granulated sugar with the zest of lemons with granulated sugar and pulse in a food processor OR mix the zest of lemon with sugar and let it sit for 10-15 minutes before using.
- Mix the lemon sugar with fresh lemon juice, cornstarch, egg yolks, zest of lemon and salt until combined.
- Transfer this mixture into a pan over medium heat and let it come to a slow boil, stirring constantly until it thickens.
- Remove from heat and stir in room temperature butter. Afterwards, process the lemon curd and strain to remove residue. Set aside to cool.
- Frost round rings of swiss meringue buttercream on each lemon cupcake and fill with the prepared, cooled, lemon curd.
Notes
- Make the curd a day ahead and refrigerate.
- Check out my swiss meringue buttercream for tips and flavouring options.
- To avoid cooking the eggs stir constantly when making the lemon curd and strain to remove zest residue.
- cake flour will make the cupcakes softer and less dense.
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