Lemon Curd Poppy Seed Mini Cupcakes

My mother-in-law Pat put me in charge of making something for a Tea she was hosting (A Tea is like a bridal shower in the West). Of course I was up for the challenge and love doing this sort of thing. I tossed and turned over what I was going to make and finally I decided to essentially make the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with lemon curd but alter the recipe to make mini cupcakes. I made 200 cupcakes, filled them with lemon curd and topped them with a whipping cream frosting. I even ordered pink cupcake holders to go with Emily's(the bride-to-be)colors. The process was a lot of fun, the finished product turned out fantastic and the cupcakes were like a little bit of heaven in your mouth.

So here is how I made these light and delicate treats.....


For this recipe I made the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake batter, click here for the recipe. I simply made the recipe and distributed the batter evenly in the mini-cupcake pan. I filled each cup a little under two-thirds full; baking at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven), making sure they did not over cook. One batch of the batter makes about 100 mini-cupcakes.



Next for the filling, I made lemon curd, click here for the recipe. Once the lemon curd is made let it cool, then place in the refrigerator until completely chilled.



Using a pear knife cut a small and thin round hole in each cupcake. You want to have the hole go down as far as possible without making a hold in the bottom of the cupcake, to prevent the filling from linking out the bottom of the cupcake.


After the holes are made, take an icing bag, fill it with chilled lemon curd and using a standard round tip, lightly and carefully fill each hole with the lemon curd until the curd is even with the top of the muffin.


Meanwhile, this is what Thad did all day Saturday while Pat and I were inside cooking.....which I can't really blame him for doing(We were at Pat and Ray's house)


Lastly, for the frosting, I used a Butter Cream Frosting that I found at Tidymom and loved the creamy texture of this frosting, especially with this lemony cupcake. See the recipe below. Make sure that before you pipe the frosting onto the cupcake you chill the frosting for at least 30 minutes. Also another tip my mother-in-law taught me was to not put too much frosting into the icing bag at one time because as you hold the bag your hand will warm the icing making it hard to work with.



Here are the cupcakes all ready to take to the Tea.

Butter Cream Frosting
1 cup real butter (not margarine) *room temperature
1 cup vegetable shortening
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
1/4 - 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer) thoroughly cream butter and shortening . Beat in the vanilla, mixing well. Add sugar, one cup at a time, stopping after each cup to scrape down the sides; mix until blended. When the sugar is completely beaten in and the sides of the bowl are scraped down, add the whipping cream, beating at the highest speed until super fluffy, for one to two minutes. Because of the whipping cream in this recipe it works best when chilled slightly but not too long. This is a great and light frosting, probably one of the best I have found.

So I hope you enjoy this great light dessert which is perfect for a bite size treat.

Bon Appetit!