Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd

When I was growing up in Edmonton, I used to get cupcakes at our favourite bakery, Bon Ton Bakery. This bakery is still in the same location now but they do not sell the cupcakes I grew up on! The Bon Ton Bakery is still my favourite bakery…they have fantastic breads, cakes, cookies, pastries…all sort of delicious baked goods, plus they have an area where they sell delicious food products…& a cooler with fresh dips…so much! If you are in Edmonton or come to visit, you should check out Bon Ton Bakery on 8720 – 149 street. But this post is not about the bakery!!! It is about the cupcakes!!!

I have been thinking about the special vanilla cupcakes with lemon filling lately that the bakery sold. The tops of the cupcake were off, some cupcake was scooped out, this space was filled with a delicious lemon filling & the tops were cut in half & put on top of teh lemon filling on thier sides..than the cupcake was sprinkled with icing sugar…. the cupcake was moist & sweet, the filling was sweet & tart all at the same time..& I used to eat each half of the top first then bite into that delicious cupcake!

I have made my own version of this wonderful cupcake. The lemon filling recipe I used was simple to make from scratch. The colour is a very pale yellow…the recipe suggested using some yellow food colouring but I did not want to do that, but certainly if you want that bright beautiful yellow colour you would expect seeing in a lemon filling, then put some food colouring into the filling before it cools.

I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart.com. You can use any cupcake recipe you want…even a cake mix would work nicely here.

The lemon filling recipe is from Betty Crocker 

If you want to make these cupcakes with store-bought items you can make a batch of cupcakes from a mix, then buy some ready-made lemon curd for the filling. I do not think a box of Jello lemon pie filling would work as it gets too stiff… don’t use regular Jello as that isn’t right either…so bought lemon curd or maybe use a box of lemon pudding…then put them together this way with the top off….I will explain how to make them  in the method part of this blog

My cupcakes are cute, they do not look as professional as the ones I remember from the bakery, but it took care of my craving for them!

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Lemon Filling 

3/4 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup water

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

( 2 drops lemon food colouring you want)

Cupcake   ***I used a recipe from Martha Stewart, I cut the recipe in half which made 11 small cupcakes …the website says the recipe makes 24 cupcakes which was too many for this recipe of filling…so here are the ingredients for 11 cupcakes!!

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature  *** my butter was cold & I grated it to soften it

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

milk….. *** the recipe called for 1 1/4 cups of milk which is kind of hard to divide in half but it works out to 20 tablespoons so I used 10 tablespoons of milk which actually came out to a scant 2/3 of a cup …

Icing Sugar for sprinkling on top of the cupcakes

Method

***Make the lemon filling first so that it can cool in the fridge while the cupcakes are baking & cooling

Lemon Filling  *** This amount of filling was enough for the ’11’ cupcakes with just a bit left over…you can make the holes in the cupcakes big enough to accommodate all of the filling….if you are going to make 24 cupcakes..double this recipe for the filling

1. Use a medium size saucepan & mix the sugar, cornstarch & salt right in the saucepan. I used a whisk to combine these ingredients
2. Gradually whisk in the water
3. Cook & stir over medium heat until this starts to thicken & boil
4. Continue stirring & boil for another minute. You will see that this gets very thick
5. Remove from heat…I just turned my gas burner off but if you have an electric stove top remove it so it does not burn
6. Now, stir in the butter & grated lemon peel until the butter melts
7. Stir in the lemon juice & food colouring if you are going to use it. Miz well
8. Now this has to chill for about 2 hours or longer…put plastic wrap right on top of  the filling so a scum does not form & put it into the fridge to cool

Cupcakes  

Preheat oven to 350 f

you will need a 12 cup muffin tin…grease it or line the cups with cupcake papers..that is what I did

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder & salt together & set aside
2. In the bowl of a mix master, cream the butter & sugar together until creamy..you have to scrape down the sides often with a spatula since there is not a lot of ingredients in the bowl & it tends not to mix so well…
3. Add the eggs & mix really well, again scraping down the sides often
4. I added the vanilla to the milk….
5. Now, add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing well after each addition.*** Make sure the ingredients are well combined before stopping mixing
6. NOTE: YOU CAN MIX THIS IN YOUR FOOD PROCESSOR IF YOU WANT… mix the butter & sugar well, scrape down the sides, add the eggs one at a time through the feed tube, scrape down the sides. Now add the milk & vanilla, process for a few seconds. Now add the dry ingredients mixing by pulsing the machine a few times. scrape down the sides. Do not over process as this can make the texture of the cupcakes tough
7. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups…as mentioned I only got 11 cupcakes from this recipe
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes
9. When cooked, remove the cupcakes to a cooling rack & let the cupcakes cool completely

Assemble the Cupcakes

1. Once the cupcakes are cool, use a serrated knife & cut the tops off but not right down to the cupcake paper… you want some cupcake showing still, so just cut the domed part off. Set the tops aside…be careful not to break them
2. Now, scoop out some of the cupcake in the middle of the top…I used a melon baller. You don’t need the scooped out part of the cupcake..you can eat it so you don’t waste it!!! haha
3. Take the lemon filling out of the fridge, & give it a stir
4. Fill the holes you made in the cupcake with some lemon filling & have some on come out of the hole & on top of the cupcake but not to the edge
5. Cut the tops in half & place 2 pieces at an angle on their sides on top of the filling..you can put one end together with the other ends out at an angle..kind of looks like butterfly wings
6. Sprinkle the tops with icing sugar… put some icing sugar into a small colander & sprinkle it on

Thats it!

Enjoy!!