Very Lemony Cupcakes
Another birthday is coming up, and I thought it would be nice to make cupcakes for the party.
Last year I made Lemon Meringue cupcakes. They were very cute. Although my meringue decorating could use some practise, the meringue covered the cupcake in unruly peaks which I thought was perfect for my one year old. Unfortunately, the cakes were sweeter than I like and a bit dry.
So for her birthday this year, I’ve decided to try out a few different recipes beforehand to see which ones I liked the best.
I started out with a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated for a golden cupcake mix called their Best Cupcake Recipe. Although their thoroughness of their testing sounded promising, and the cakes were fairly tasty, but not what I was looking for. They were a bit dry, and a bit eggy, and they didn’t have the longevity I was looking for—they were best the same day.
Lemon Sponge Cupcakes
Then I decided to try Joy of Cooking which I consider to be a stand by. I decided to experiment with their recipe for Lemon Sponge which they said could be baked in a square tin or in custard cups. I figured if I used the metal lined cupcake liners inside a cupcake tin, that would be good enough. It might have been a good idea, unfortunately, I decided to try mixing it in the food processor to save time. This was a disaster. They came out flat and rubbery instead of spongey. The tops were light and airy though. I might give this another go. The recipe said to serve them with whipped cream and maybe a bit of raspberry sauce or just dusted with powdered sugar. Either way ought to be pretty good.
At this point I got lucky and found a recipe for “Aliece Wells Lemon Cheese Layer Cake”. I’d already made lemon curd which I adapted from a recipe in Feast: Food to Celebrate Life by Nigella Lawson and I’d been thinking of making Royal Icing, but I was nervous about using raw eggs, so the Seven-Minute Frosting sounded perfect. I have to say that the cakes came out exactly how I wanted. OK, they would have been better if I’d not used all the batter - the recipe is for 27 cupcakes which I halved, but I couldn’t resist using the extra batter in my 12 cupcakes. But the taste was moist and delicious, and they tasted just as good the next day.
The Seven-Minute Frosting was a disaster. The frosting is supposed to rise when you beat it like normal egg whites, but it didn’t rise at all. It was a humid day, so that may be it. But maybe I should have left the icing on the stove instead of taking it off after it had reached 170°. It tasted nice, but I ended up using whipped cream to ice the cupcakes instead.
So my next quest is for the perfect icing for lemony cupcakes.
Recipes
Lemon Curd
Ingredients
1 cup lemon juice from fresh squeezed lemons
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
Melt the butter in a double boiler. Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together. When the butter has melted stir in the sugar-egg mixture and the lemon juice. Keep cooking, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened. Then take it off the heat.
This makes a very tangy—but in a good way—lemon curd. It’s also a bit runnier than Nigella’s which gets it’s stiffness from using a full stick of butter.
Best Cupcake Recipe
I adapted a wonderful recipe that I found online called Aliece Well’s Lemon Cheese Layer Cake Recipe for the cupcakes. I wanted them more lemony and I didn’t need so many. But I was very happy with the results. See my version of this recipe.
Very Lemony Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting
When cupcakes and lemon curd have cooled, use a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip to push a hole in the top of each cupcake and fill with the lemon curd letting some of the curd flow on the top of the cupcake in a small circle. Use another pastry bag to pipe some whipped cream in a curly, daisy-like border.
Lemon Cupcakes with Whipped Cream on the left and with runny Seven-Minute Frosting on the right
