Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

I'll be honest. I was sort of saving this recipe to cook in my mom's kitchen instead of at school. Not only does she have nicer cooking appliances than I do, her refrigerator is much more well stocked than mine is and the ingredients in this recipe were a little on the expensive side. Strawberries, mascarpone, lemon extract, which are all rather expensive, went into this recipe and that didn't exactly sit well with my grocery budget at school. But, money aside, it was lovely to be cooking with my sister in a kitchen with ample stove and counter space for this recipe. These cupcakes were so luxurious. They were originally blueberry cupcakes filled with lemon curd and topped with a lemon mascarpone frosting but Gracie doesn't like blueberries so I made strawberry  instead. But the original recipe was from There goes the cupcake.

Weirdos. Like mother like daughter. 

STRAWBERRY LEMON CAKE:

2 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

3 cups chopped fresh strawberries

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

2 T vanilla

3/4 t lemon extract

1 T lemon zest

2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a tablespoon of the flour mixture, coat the strawberries and set aside. In a small bowl, mix sour cream, milk, vanilla, lemon extract, and lemon zest. In another bowl, large or one belonging to a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until well combined. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the batter and mix until combined. Gently fold in the strawberries. Divide among lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 22 minutes. Let cool completely before filling and frosting.

LEMON CURD:

2 sticks butter

1 cup lemon juice

Zest of 2 large lemons

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 t cornstarch

pinch of salt

9 egg yokes 

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and zest. Mix together the sugar, salt and cornstarch and add it to the saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs yokes until broken and combined. Add the egg yokes to the saucepan and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. The mixture should be think and smooth. Don't allow it to boil. When the curd has thickened, strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Chill in the refrigerator completely before using. 

Using a small knife, remove the middles of the cupcakes. Pipe or spoon the lemon curd into the center of the cupcakes.

LEMON MASCARPONE FROSTING:

8 oz. mascarpone cheese

2/3 cup lemon curd (or whatever you have left after filling the cupcakes)

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and blend until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the lemon curd and mascarpone. Gently fold in the whipped cream mixture. Spoon or pipe onto the lemon curd filled cupcakes.

This was a pretty labor intensive recipe but so much fun. The textures of the strawberries, cake, lemon curd, and frosting came together really well. These were super rich though. I could barely finish one! But super delicious. I think they would be good with other fruits as well, like blueberries or blackberries. It seems as though all of my recipes just open doors for even more recipes to try! Not that I'm complaining about that!

 Happy eating, friends!

xoxo,
KG