Cupcake Test 12, "Lemon Strawberry Cupcakes"

Mini Cupcakes

Bonus Cupcake this week!!!!  Mark called me from work yesterday and one of their vendors had brought in a bunch of strawberries that were this > < close to being too far gone - and did I need any of them for cupcakes?  Bring it!  Between that and the lemon trees on my deck still drooping with fruit from last fall I was set for a Strawberry-Lemon cupcake.  Or Lemon-Strawberry.  Because they share billing pretty much equally.

I made the Strawberry Lemonade cupcake from Annie's Eats, scooped out a hollow with a melon baller which was then filled with either lemon curd or strawberry jam, and then topped with a fresh strawberry buttercream or lemon buttercream frosting, respectively.

Process Notes the curd:  Since I have all those lemons, just waiting for me to make something, I chose to make a lemon curd from scratch.  I took a look at the recipes from Nigella in How to Eat, and the recipe on Epicurious and decided that a combination of the two was probably the way to go.  I think you could use curd from a jar, but the homemade version does taste much fresher. So:

• 1/2 c fresh lemon juice
• 2 t lemon zest
• 1/2 c superfine sugar*
• 3 large eggs (whole)
• 1 large egg yolk
• 6 T butter, diced (added later)

Curd Filled Cupcake

Whisk together everything but the butter until the sugar dissolves in a heavy bottomed pot.  It should look like a clear pale yellow syrup.  Then, over a medium-low heat , whisk constantly until the curd thickens and turns a more solid lemon yellow.  It goes from not to done in the barest of a blink of an eye.  You'll be whisking and whisking and thinking this is never going to get there, turn your back for a mere second and then you are done.  Once the curd has thickened, take it off the heat and whisk in the butter for a silky texture.  Pour the curd through a strainer (to remove the zest and any eggy bits) and into a bowl to cool.  This needs to cool for several hours to thicken up so make sure you do it first.  (YUMMMMMMMM!)

Process Notes the Cupcake:  I followed the recipe for the cupcake pretty much straight as written.  I do wish I actually had put in more than the two cups of strawberry pieces and/or that I had cut them smaller.  The batter was thicker than the normal box mix, so I splashed in a bit more milk than the recipe called for to ease the folding of the strawberries.  I ended up with 24 regular sized cupcakes and 8 mini-me's.

Process Notes the Frostings:  I used the buttercream frosting recipe from Betty Crocker as a starting point.  I eliminated the milk and vanilla and went with straight up lemon juice in the lemon frosting.  For the strawberry frosting, again, no milk or vanilla, but with a cup of processed strawberries and a t of strawberry extract.   The strawberry frosting was a bit of a slump and required extra sugar (no surprise).  The lemon frosting was super stiff when I went to pipe, so I put it in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften it up. 

A bit slumpy, but YUMMM!

Tasting Notes:  Me - So so so so good.  The cupcake is full of lemon and strawberry flavor.  It's a bit more dense than the regular cupcake from a box.  I didn't try the one with the strawberry jam as I really love the lemon curd.  And the fresh strawberry buttercream.  Serious drool worthiness.  Dare I say it - better than Stein's.  No questions asked, this is going to be one of my favorites of all time.  There are cake balls, curd, and frosting leftover.  But not for long :-)  I probably wouldn't do the strawberry filling for the wedding, just the lemon curd.

Mark - Didn't want to try the curd.  I think it's the word - curd.  curd = crud in some minds.  But once he dipped a cake ball into the curd, he just didn't want to stop. Loved the strawberry frosting, not so much on the lemon. 

Others - do I really care what they think?   But I'll add commentary once it is gathered.

 *Superfine sugar dissolves faster and more thoroughly than granulated sugar. You could use the granulated sugar and either process it in a food processor for a few pulses, or stir longer until it dissolves. Superfine sugar is usually sold in what looks like a milk carton in the baking aisle.