Ask and you shall receive, my friends! After posting the Raspberry Lemon Ruffle Cake a few weeks back, the number one question was “Can I turn this into cupcakes?”
In my world cupcakes are always a good idea, like when I think about them, I hear Taylor Swift singing “we never go out of style, we never go out of styyyyle.”
Also, turning that cake into cupcakes meant making THE raspberry buttercream again. Oh, the torture…. (Grabs spoon and calls it a day!)
The lemon cake recipe I use for the ruffle cake is very light and dainty, and for the cupcakes I wanted something with a little more substance.
And just like that I made my poor cake sound like a flake!
So I used my favorite lemon cupcake recipe that is dense enough to hold a filling, yet still light and lemony and buttery, and all that good stuff a cupcake should be. To fill the cupcakes with lemon curd I used tip #807, and my best tip is to freeze the cupcakes first. When the cupcakes are room temp, they can crumble, but when frozen, are so much easier to work with. If you’d like a visual, you can check out these meyer lemon cupcakes. My other big tip is to make the cupcakes and lemon curd a day ahead or the night before. This way the cupcakes can freeze and the lemon curd has plenty of time to chill.
Once that’s taken care of, we can finally get to the raspberry buttercream! THE raspberry buttercream! Do you think I like it? I was wondering if one batch would be enough and to my delight, it was. Even if you’re heavy handed and think you should “taste” it 25 times, there’s still enough. Also, I would know nothing about that tasting it a million times business….
I really hope you guys try these and don’t forget to share your pics with me on Facebook and Instagram! I love to see what you guys are baking up! Last, but certainly not least, happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, especially mine! And you should definitely bake these up for dad this weekend because everyone knows real men eat cupcakes!
Happy baking!
Everyone's favorite lemon cupcakes filled with bright lemon curd and topped with the best raspberry buttercream!
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
- 6 egg yolks
- 5 ounces unsalted butter
- Zest of 3 lemons
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 & 1/2 cups AP flour
- 1 & 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Tip #826 for piping the buttercream
- Tip #807 for filling the cupcakes
- Fresh raspberries for garnish
Instructions
- In a medium size saucepan, melt butter with lemon zest. When melted, remove from heat.
- Whisk in sugar, lemon juice, pinch of salt and egg yolks.
- Place saucepan back over medium-low heat and cook until thickened, whisking continuously. This should take about 5-7 minutes. Keep in mind you want the curd thick enough that it coats the back of a spoon, but do not let it boil.
- Immediately remove from heat and strain the curd.
- Place plastic wrap directly on top of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. When curd cools down a bit, refrigerate until ready to use. Curd should be refrigerated a minimum of 8 hours, I prefer overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Add vanilla bean paste.
- Alternate adding dry ingredients with sour cream.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes rotating once halfway through.
- Allow cupcakes to cool to room temperature, then store in an airtight container and freeze until ready to fill. Note: I find it much easier to fill cupcakes when they're frozen.
- Using the top of tip #807, make a well in the center of frozen cupcakes. Do not pierce through the bottom.
- Fill a piping bag or ziploc bag with lemon curd and pipe into the cupcakes.
- Fit a piping bag with tip #826 and fill with raspberry buttercream. Pipe buttercream on top of cupcakes and garnish with fresh raspberries.
Notes
Cupcakes can be made ahead of time and frozen. As mentioned above, I prefer to fill cupcakes when they're frozen.
Lemon curd can be prepared a few days ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use.
Once frosted, cupcakes should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Cupcakes are best eaten at room temperature.
Joan in VA says
Ummmmmm … if you gave the directions for inserting the lemon curd, (other than in the description) it didn’t get to me.
Liz says
I’d need a spoon, too! Gorgeous buttercream topping these incredible cupcakes!
Beverley says
Why are cupcakes so special and your recipe defines the answer…happy weekend xoxo
mary says
LOVE THESE AND LOVE YOUR POST!!!!!!!!!