Lemon curd cupcakes

This recipe transforms classic white cupcakes into lemon curd cupcakes! Anything filled with custard or cream is bound to be delicious, even more so when it's lemon flavored!

Classic white cup cake 

Recipe from reciperoll.com

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: about 3 8x2 inch cakes

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups cake flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

8 large egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Sift the dry ingredients and set aside. In another bowl, combine milk and vanilla extract.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients on low speed alternating with milk mixture, beat until smooth. 
4. Using clean beaters, in a separate bowl beat egg whites with cream of tartar and sugar until stiff but not dry. Using a rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly. This recipe will yield almost 3 8x2 inch cakes. 
5. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving (total of 15 servings per loaf):  327.7 calories, 8.4g fat (4.6g saturated, 0.9g polyunsaturated, 2.4g monounsaturated), 59.5g carbohydrates, 0.5g fiber, 11.9g protein.

Lemon Curd

Adapted from joyofbaking.com

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

3 eggs

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

Directions

1. In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.
   

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving (1/2 cup):  203.3 calories, 3.7g fat (1.2g saturated, 0.5g polyunsaturated, 1.4g monounsaturated), 39.3g carbohydrates, 0.1g fiber, 4.8g protein.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

When I was looking at recipes for lemon curd, I saw that they all included butter, but I wasn't sure what the purpose of adding this fat was so I omitted the butter. When I made lemon curd at the restaurant, I only remember the 4 ingredients listed above, no butter, so I went with my gut and sure enough, the lemon curd ended up perfectly fine without it.

For a slight twist, you can use meyer lemons for the curd. Above all, remember to use fresh lemon juice, not the bottled!

Keep an eye on those egg whites when you are beating them to a stiff peak. They can easily go from stiff peaks to over whipped, when they lose their moisture. As you see below, you still have peaks that can stand on their own but it still looks "wet."

Since the original recipe is for cakes, not cupcakes, I wasn't sure how much they would rise so I filled the muffin cups a little more than 3/4 full.

Wow did they rise up! Be careful when removing them from the pan because some of the cupcake tops stuck to the pan. The cupcakes are very delicate so they can easily break apart if manhandled inappropriately. 

Now, if you have a cake plunger, the tool will be very handy for making these cupcakes. I lack this fancy tool so I used a knife. Very carefully and gently, cut a circle in the center of the cupcake, but do not cut down to the bottom. 

Again, very carefully pull that center piece out of the cupcake. You don't want the hole to be too deep; you want to aim for about 1/3 of the cupcake deep. The cupcake itself is very light so you don't need that much lemon curd.

Now, fill a ziplock bag with the cooled lemon curd. Cut a small opening in one side and carefully squeeze the curd into the holes of each cupcake. The lemon curd will very easily come out of the bag so be careful not to spill everywhere (like I did with my first cupcake. Lemon curd overload!)

I first topped the cupcakes with the removed top but it looked messy and honestly, a bit strange, so I left it out (great for snacking on) and exposed the lemon curd. Dust with powdered sugar and you have your dessert! 

This cupcake is great on its own, reminiscent of angel food cake, but made even better with lemon curd. Store the remaining lemon curd to make lemon curd parfaits (layers of curd and whipped cream topped with fresh berries) or use for braided lemon bread, a recipe I will have for you in the near future!