Lemon Cupcakes
One of hubby’s coworkers, George, has been asking for Lemon cupcakes ever since I made these lemon cookies. Hubby and I both weren’t huge fans of the cookies, but George LOVED them.
After the January DB challenge, I had about a cup or so of leftover lemon curd. I could have eaten it all with a spoon, but I figured I could mix them into a cupcake instead.
I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added about 3/4 cup of lemon curd to the batter at the end. Then I put a teaspon of lemon curd directly on top of the cooled cupcakes. Last, I topped them with cool-whip frosting with the rest of the lemon curd mixed into it. I also threw some lemon zest into the frosting for texture.
These cupcakes were great. The lemon flavor was subtle and the cool-whip frosting balanced the flavors well. The recipe made 14 cupcakes, 12 of which went to work with hubby. He reported back that George ate 4 and said that he loves me 🙂
Lemon Cupcakes – adapted from Vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over The World – makes 14
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extrat, caramel extract, or more vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
In a separate large bowl, use a handheld mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy, but don’t beat past 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and other extract, if using, then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.
I then folded in 3/4 cup of lemon curd.
Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes until done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
Cool-Whip frosting – not sure of the original recipe, but here’s what I did:
1 tub Cool Whip
1 pkg vanilla pudding
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon curd
2 tsp lemon zest
Combine pudding mix and milk and stir until mostly dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.
To Assemble cupcakes:
After cupcakes have cooled, scoop 1 tsp of lemon curd onto the top of each cupcake. Spread lemon curd with a knife to cover top of cupcake.
Pipe frosting on top of lemon curd.
Sprinkle with yellow sugar.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I am really very terrible at frosting/decorating cake :\ This came out way better than anything I could make!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
Ha – I’m pretty bad too. That’s why I love putting stuff on the sides. Coconut does a good job of hiding my sloppy decorating skills.
Coconut and almond, you’ve already got me reeled in 🙂 two of my favorite flavors rolled into what looks like a moist, fluffy cake. YUM
This cake looks so beautiful and the texture is perfect! I love curd as a filling between cake layers but i never knew the trick for preventing it from seeping out – thanks!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
Yea, it’s definitely very helpful. Even more so when you ACTUALLY do it 😉
We’ve all had those cake experiences. It looks like it turned out well in the end! And it sounds delicious!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking we all need to project that all of our baking/cooking endeavors are hugely successful…
Regardless of any kitchen mishaps, this cake looks divine! Layer cakes always look so special, and the addition of fruit here makes me swooooon!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
I agree. Layer cakes always look special 🙂
Oh this looks amazing. And aren’t we all our own worst critics when we bake? I can’t tell you how many times I say something is terrible and my husband looks as me like I’m crazy.
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
I agree. At the end of the day, it tasted delicious and no one knew about all the issues I had with the cake. I did want to keep it real on the blog and not give anyone any false sense that things are always easy for me…
I always shy away from layer cakes – yours always come out well, I need some more practice I think! Your “mistakes” are great learning points – did not know about the frosting damn, but it makes so much sense!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
That’s why I wanted to talk about them. I definitely could have posted about this cake without mentioning any of the issues I had. I’m hoping they’ll help someone (myself included) to learn something for the next time they tackle a layer cake. Yours will definitely improve with practice. Mine surely are. I really want to make that coconut cake you just posted!
i’m always hard on myself too, but you wouldn’t know by the taste i’m sure! looks absolutely wonderful, not to mention i’m drooling over the flavor combo 🙂
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
I agree, I think we all are. I wanted to keep it real with this post in case anyone else found it to be a difficult set of recipes…
Yum, your cake looks so delicious and I really love the sound of the blackberry lime curd!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:27 pm
Thanks!
I love coconut cake, and blackberries are my favorite fruit. Such a great idea to put them together. This cake is gorgeous! I would happily take a large slice . . . or maybe the whole thing 😉
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Then you would definitely love this cake!
Could anyone post the blackberry lime curd recipe? The link is no longer working.
Thanks!
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:39 pm
Sorry about that. I updated the recipe link, but here it is as well: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2013/03/blackberry-lime-curd.html