Thursday, March 18, 2010

LEMONS!

To begin this post, I feel like I must admit that I do not like lemons. I DO NOT LIKE LEMONS. Lemons and I do not mesh very well. However, that being said, Martha's Meyer Lemon cupcakes and I are best friends. Unfortunately, we couldn't find Meyer lemons (sorry Martha), so really they were just lemon cupcakes. But they were delicious none the less. They were a little time intensive but over all, quite simple. Make the lemon curd in advance though. If anything, do that. The longer it sets up, the better it is. The cupcakes themselves are quite simple to make (Shocking! I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that for every recipe I make).

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted (I always feel like sifting is optional)
2 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon zest plus 2 tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice (OMG FRESH IS THE WAY TO GO! FYI!!!)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (we just used sea salt... it was big.)
1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
7 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Lemon Curd Ingredients:
2 whole eggs plus 8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces room temperature


They are so cute, especially with some confectioners sugar sprinkled over the top. Martha tells you to just put your pipping tip into the cupcake to fill it and then add a dollop of curd to the top. I had a better idea, and used an apple corer to make little holes in the tops of the cakes. That way, you don't get a bunch of cupcake stuck in your pipping tip. They looked so funny with little pieces missing!


They're funny looking, right?



And now they look DELISH!



And trust me, they were! I highly recommend them. The curd was a little too lemony for me, but everything else was super. The cupcakes tasted like poppyseed muffins without the seeds. Martha says that this recipe makes 42 cakes, but we didn't get quite that many. I think if you doubled the recipe, it would be perfect for parties or get-togethers. Everyone will be so impressed with you and think that you spent hours and hours in the kitchen, slaving away. I love making people think that, especially when I didn't take any time at all on them. Is that lying? No. It's letting people believe whatever they want to believe. And making yourself look like a CUPCAKE QUEEN! Enjoy your cakes, your highness.

3 comments:

angrymoose said...

I wonder what happened to all those little pieces of cupcake you had to take out of the top... hmmm..
that Bailey dog must have made off with them right?

Lunette Gleason Fleming said...

I love lemons and I would like to make this recipe. Did I miss something? I saw the ingredients but no directions.

cupcakeidiot said...

the directions for the cupcakes are:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, zest, baking powder, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in cream cheese. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in lemon juice and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 28 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. To finish, dust cupcakes with confectioners’ sugar. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and a medium round tip (#8) with curd. Insert tip into top of each cupcake, and squeeze some curd below top to fill the inside, then lift the tip and squeeze more curd in a pool on top. Filled cupcakes can be kept at room temperature up to 1 hour (or refrigerated a few hours more) before serving.

and the curd:

1. Combine whole eggs and yolks, sugar, and lemon juice in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Add butter, a few pieces at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Strain through a fine sieve into another bowl, and cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).

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