behomeforT: My first post! Lemon cupcakes with lemon curd, lemon frosting and candied lemon

Here we go - this is my first post! I have been cooking up a storm lately, and this is my first attempt at putting it all together on this blog: the recipe, the pictures and the review.

I found this wonderful recipe on the website of Chocolate Suze. She called these cupcakes 'super easy lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting'. I have to admit, I did not find it easy to make these, but it wasn't difficult either.

The Recipe

Lemon cupcakes
1 cup thickened cream
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon + juice

Preheat oven to 180’C. Place 1 cup cream, 1 cup sugar and 2 beaten eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Grate lemon rind and add juice to the mixture. Sift 1 1/2 cups of self raising flour into mixture and whisk until batter is thick and smooth. Divide mixture into cupcake patty cases and bake for 15-20mins.

Lemon curd

1/2 cup lemon juice (approx 3 lemons)
120g butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Heat lemon juice and butter in a saucepan and simmer until butter has melted. Add sugar and whisk until dissolved then turn off the heat. Lightly beat the 1 whole egg plus the 3 egg yolks in a bowl. Pour a bit into the lemon butter mixture and whisk continuously. If the egg starts to cook, leave the mixture to cool for about 2mins before continuing and slowly add more egg and whisking continuously until mixture becomes thick and glossy.

Leave the mixture to cool in the saucepan. According to the recipe, you will need to put the curd through a sieve, but it was too thick to do so. Once the curd is cool enough, cut some holes in the cupcakes and put the curd in the holes.

Lemon frosting

250g cream cheese, room temp
125g salted butter, room temp
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon + juice
Icing sugar (use your judgment)

Make sure your cream cheese and your butter are room temperature. Put everything together and mix it up. Once the mixture is soft enough you can put it in a piping bag and decorate the tops of the cupcakes. This was the first time I have properly iced cupcakes, and I have to say, it was more difficult than I thought.

Candied lemon

The only thing you need to do now is make the candied lemon. The recipe I used did not have candied, but fresh lemon. Making candied lemon is very easy. You just slice up a lemon in thin slices, take out the pits, and put it in some boiling water in which you have dissolved a lot of sugar. I used one cup of sugar in a small pan. You boil the lemon until it’s translucent, and then you take out the lemon to dry. Slice the lemon slices in quarters and put on top of your cupcakes

Voila! Your cupcakes are finished! Make sure you store them in an airtight container (I would always be careful because of the lemon curd) in the fridge.

The Review

These cupcakes were very nice. The curd tasted a bit eggy by itself, however, once it was cooled properly and together with the cupcakes and the cream cheese frosting, it was delicious. The candied lemon was nice and sweet. I would make these cupcakes again!