Cupcakes and More Cupcakes

I had the dessert assignment for the February family dinner.  These cupcakes are an adaptation of one of my all-time favorite cakes, Foster's Market coconut lemon cake.

You really can't taste the coconut...it's very subtle.  The lemon curd filling inside the cupcake is tart and tangy and the whipped cream swirl cuts the sweetness of the cake.

A true and funny story:  I stopped by my friend's (the Tablerunner) house last week.  She was making cupcakes and gave me one for the road.  It was fabulous!  I called immediately to tell her so and to beg for the recipe.  She responded..."I got it from you, sort of.  It's Foster's market."  True story.  No wonder I liked it so much.

And we had to have chocolate cupcakes, too.  I've posted these chocolate ganach cupcakes on the blog previously.  The lemon curd cupcakes were the favorite and they went first.

Coconut Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling 

2 ½ cups All-Purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

12 Tab. Unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ C. granulated sugar

6 large eggs, separated

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. sweet butter emulsion

1 ½ C. buttermilk

¼ C. canned coconut cream (such as Coco Lopez)

1 C. Lemon Curd (recipe follows)

2 cups of sweetened whipped cream, whipped
candies for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl with an electric mixer. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and sweet butter emulsion and stir by hand to mix well. In another cup, combine the coconut cream and the buttermilk.  Stir to combine.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk/coconut cream mixture, ending with the flour. Stir just until all the dry ingredients are moist and blended. Do not over mix.

With an electric mixer whip the egg whites in a separate bowl 2 to 3 minutes, until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter.

Divide the batter evenly in the muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cupcakes are done when tested with a wooden skewer. Cool the cakes 10–15 minutes and remove from muffin pans. Cool.

Make the lemon curd and let it cool. 

Cut a small core out of each cupcake.  Fill the hole with cooled lemon curd, piped or squeezed from a bottle.  Place a piece of the core back onto the cupcake to fill the hole.  Pipe sweetened whipped cream onto the top of the cupcake in a decorative swirl and decorate the top as desired.

Lemon Curd:

3 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 C. granulated sugar

1 C. fresh lemon juice (4 to 6 lemons)

2 Tab. Unsalted butter

Place the eggs and yolks in a non-aluminum saucepan and whisk in the sugar until well blended. Slowly whisk in the lemon juice and place over low heat, whisking constantly, 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture thickens.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Cool to room temp.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  This will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Linked to Hearth 'n Soul.