Lemon Kiwi Cupcake Recipes

LEMON MERINGUE CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.
• Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
• To finish, spread 1 tablespoon lemon curd onto middle of each cupcake. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip (Ateco #828 or Wilton #8B) with frosting. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip slightly and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Hold a small kitchen torch 3 to 4 inches from surface of frosting, and wave it back and forth until frosting is lightly browned all over. Serve immediately.

LEMON CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 30 cupcake pan cups with paper liners.
• Sift the self-rising flour and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the unsalted butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated before adding the next. Mix in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
• Gently beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, one third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour. Beat until just combined; do not over mix.
• Fill the prepared cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full, and bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a rack.
• To make the icing, beat the cream in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer set on Low until the cream begins to thicken. Add the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice, a little at a time, beating after each addition, until fully incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to High, and beat until the icing forms soft peaks, about 5 minutes. Spread on the cooled cupcakes. Refrigerate leftovers.

LEMONY CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line one 12-cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon of the salt.
• Beat together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg, yolk, zest and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until a tester inserted in the middle of the cakes come out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in the tin, and then remove and cool completely on a rack.
• Put the lemon curd in a piping bag fitted with a 1/8-inch-round pastry tip. Insert the tip into the center of each cupcake and pipe in equal amounts of curd.
• Combine the egg whites, corn syrup, the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and the remaining pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Beat with an electric mixer until thick and fluffy, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat until the frosting is slightly cooled, about 2 minutes longer.
• Mound the frosting on top of the cupcakes. If desired, use a kitchen torch to brown the frosting and garnish with a lemon candy.

LEMON MERINGUE CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Combine lemon juice, eggs, sugar, and lemon zest for lemon curd in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a spatula or spoon, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain through a sieve into a bowl. Stir in butter until melted; set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
• Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt for cupcakes into a large bowl. Pour milk, oil, vanilla extract, and egg onto the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly with an electric mixer of by hand. Pour in hot water and mix to combine; batter will be thin. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin liners, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool, about 20 minutes.
• Core each cupcake using either a corer or a knife. Spoon in lemon curd.
• Pour sugar and egg whites into a large bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan or pot of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm, to between 120 and 140 degrees F (49 to 60 degrees C) on a thermometer, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• Mix in lemon juice and whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Pipe meringue onto the cupcakes.
• Set an oven rack about 10 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.
• Place cupcakes under the preheated broiler until meringue has browned, about 2 minutes.