Happy Monday everyone, I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend - how incredible has the weather been, so so summery and warm! We celebrated a friends birthday with a little friendly(ish) paintball fire, so much fun, and we all have a few battle wounds to show off. I find that while the weather is so warm it can be a little uninspiring to bake, but there is nothing like a lemon curd cupcake to make you persevere with the heat - plus they don’t take long to make which is wonderful! I’d love to hear what yummy things you’ve been baking during summer. x
Click read more for the recipe.

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

1/4 cup milk
125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons lemon curd
Preheat oven to 180°C, combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat for approximately 6 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Spoon the mixture into 3/4 of a lined cupcake pan, and bake for around 20-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and allow to cool completely before icing.

lemon curd swiss meringue buttercream

5 large egg whites (30g each–total 150g)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar
500g butter, cut into cubes to soften
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Lemon curd to taste
Wipe the bowl and beater of an electric mixer with paper towel and vinegar, to remove any trace of grease. Add thee egg whites and sugar,  place the bowl over a pot of simmer water (not boiling). Whisking the egg and sugar mixture constantly, until temperature reaches 140 degrees F, if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot to touch.

With a whisk attachment on a electric mixer mixer, begin to whip on a medium speed until the mixture is thick, glossy, and the bowl is cool to touch. Switch over to paddle attachment and, while mixing on continuous medium speed, gradually add softened butter until combined, mix until it is silky smooth – this icing can curdle, if it does, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth.  Add the vanilla essence and mix well – now add the lemon curd, you can add a tablespoon at a time so you can control how sweet it will taste, continue beating the icing while adding the curd.

assembling your cupcakes

Once your cupcakes are cooled, gently cut small cone shaped  hole in your cupcake and drop a teaspoon or so of  raspberry curd into the hole. Don’t worry about if it looks a little messy, it will be covered with icing. Fill your icing bag with lemon curd swiss meringue buttercream and using a 1M tip pipe a generous swirl a top your cupcake, top with a little lemon rind – enjoy! x