okay when it comes to lemon cupcakes they must have two things firstly they should be super
soft of course and secondly they should be super zesty and Lemony and these lemon
cupcakes are exactly those two things so start off by preheating your oven to 160c or 320F
with the fan on also known as convection mode and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake liners
okay now once that's done just set your cupcake tray aside for now and next we're going to sift
together our dry ingredients so I've got 150 grams or one and a quarter cups of all-purpose
flour 11 grams or one and a half tablespoons of cornstarch also known as corn flour in some
countries a quarter teaspoon of baking soda half a teaspoon of baking powder and a quarter teaspoon
of salt and then you just want to use a whisk to mix that all together until well combined
okay now you just want to set this aside for now and next in a medium sized Bowl
add in 43 grams or three tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter 70 grams or a third
cup of unflavored vegetable oil I use canola oil 200 grams or one cup of white granulated
sugar and one tablespoon of lemon zest which is about the zest of one medium sized lemon
and then using a hand or stand mixer on a medium high speed cream that together for two minutes
until it's light and fluffy by adding some lemon zest in with the sugar during the creaming stage
it helps to release more of the flavor from the lemon zest as opposed to adding it later on in
the recipe next you want to add in two eggs one at a time mixing well in between each addition so you
want to make sure the first egg is incorporated well into the batter before you add the second egg
okay now just give your bowl a little scrape down now once that's done add in 90 grams or
a third cup of Greek yogurt make sure it's at room temperature and 35 grams or two and a half
tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice I find that the combination of Greek yogurt and
lemon works really well together and the Greek yogurt helps to amplify that lemon
flavor and then once you've got all of that lemon juice in there just give it a good mix
until it's well combined your batter may look slightly curdled at this stage but that's okay
now you just want to get all of your batter off of your attachments because we're going to be
doing the rest of the mixing by hand now the last step is to add in our pre-sifted dry ingredients
from earlier and using a spatula you just want to gently fold that in until just combined without
over mixing it so you just want to mix until there are no more large chunks or streaks of
flour it's okay if the batter is a little lumpy in the end okay now once your batter is done it
should be really nice and smooth now and no longer be curdled and now all that's left to
do is to evenly distribute the batter into the cupcake tray I end up with roughly about two
tablespoons per cupcake liner and you want to make sure they're filled only till about three quarters
of the way up because if you overfill the liners then your cupcakes will overflow when they rise
okay now once that's done just give your cupcake tray a light tap on the counter to remove any
large air bubbles and now these are going to go into the oven for 18 minutes or until a toothpick
comes out clean so my cupcakes are out of the oven now they've got a wonderful lemony smell
to them they've been calling in the tin for about 10 minutes and now I'm going to place them onto
a wire rack to completely cool now while these cupcakes are cooling we're going to move on to
our lemon curd filling so this is an eggless lemon curd and is honestly so so easy to put together
so to a small saucepan add in half a tablespoon of lemon zest which is about the zest of half a
lemon 80 grams or a third cup of fresh lemon juice which is about two and a half lemons 66 grams or
a third cup of white granulated sugar 10 grams or one and a half tablespoons of cornstarch 80 grams
or a third cup of milk and a quarter teaspoon of vanilla give that a good mix so that it's well
combined and then place it over a medium heat and keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken
in consistency at that point immediately take it off the heat and add in 56 grams or a quarter cup
of cold unsalted butter and stir it every now and then until it's fully melted and well combined
now to make this just that little bit more yellow you can add a very small drop of
yellow gel food coloring or a pinch of turmeric but this is optional now the last step which is
also optional is to strain your lemon curd to make it really nice and smooth which basically
just gets rid of those little pieces of lemon zest okay now that is our lemon curd all done
and now you just want to set this aside to cool for now and the last element which we're
going to be working on is a small batch of my Delicious lemon cream cheese frosting so this
frosting also comes together really easily so you want to start off by adding 112 grams or
half a cup of room temperature unsalted butter to a bowl and using a hand or stand mixer on a
medium high speed cream that together for a few minutes until it's light and fluffy next add in
285 grams or two and a quarter cups of icing sugar also known as powdered or confectioners sugar in
three batches so you want to make sure each batch is mixed in well before adding in the next
now to finish off add in 168 grams or three quarters of a cup of cold cream cheese and you
want to make sure it's a firm cream cheese and then you also want to add in three quarters of
a teaspoon of vanilla and three quarters of a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and then just
mix that in until it's just combined and the frosting is nice and smooth you don't want to
over mix the frosting after the cream cheese has been added in because the liquid and the
cream cheese starts breaking down the icing sugar and the more you do this the less stable
your frosting is going to become okay and that is it our lemon cream cheese frosting is all
done so my cupcakes are all cooled down now and the first thing that I'm going to do is
I'm going to make a little hole in the center of each cupcake to put our lemon curd filling
now you can use an Apple corer for this or even a small knife or spoon or what I'm going to do is
use the back of a large piping tip so all you have to do is push the back of the piping tip
down about halfway through the cupcake give it a little twist and then the center should come
right out if it doesn't you can also use a little spoon to help kind of scoop it out and then I just
use the back of a spoon to push the cake out of the piping tip okay now once you've got all the
little holes in your cupcakes then you want to go ahead and fill them with the lemon curd if
the curd has set up quite a bit and it's a little bit too firm then you can just heat it up ever so
slightly in the microwave to make it a little more liquidy but just make sure it's completely
cooled before putting your frosting on top otherwise it's going to melt your frosting
now next I'm placing a 1M star piping tip into a Piping Bag and filling it with my
cream cheese frosting and then I'm just piping little cupcake swirls on the top of the cupcakes
[Music]
now for this last part which is optional I'm going to place the leftover lemon curd into a
Piping Bag and then cut the tip of the Piping Bag off so I have a very small hole and then
I'm going to pipe some of that lemon curd on the top of the cupcakes in a back and forth motion
okay and that is my lemon cupcakes all done these cupcakes are honestly so incredibly
soft they're bursting with lemon flavor and that lemon curd really adds a wonderful depth
and pop of flavor to the cupcakes and now for the best part a little bit of taste testing
oh that's so good the cupcake itself is just so so incredibly soft and that
lemon curd and cream cheese frosting all just goes so well together it's honestly
probably one of the best lemon cupcakes I've ever had so that is it guys if you do decide
to give this recipe a go then don't forget to leave a review on my blog it really helps
my content out and I absolutely love hearing from you guys I'll see you in the next video