birthday cupcakes: lemon curd cupcakes

My mother-in-law chose "lemon pudding" as her birthday cupcake flavour, which really put my mind into a tailspin. Lemon pudding? In a cupcake? How the heck was I supposed to achieve that?

And then, inspiration just dropped into my lap. Actually, it was delivered to my front door in the form of Mackays. You see, the lovely folks from Mackays over in Scotland have put out a #bakingwithmackays challenge to food bloggers and I was lucky enough to be sent a package of their goodies to experiment with. One of the lovely jars I received was their Lemon Curd.

So, confession time - I've never had lemon curd before. I may have had it in a dessert at some point, but if so, I don't remember. So I wasn't sure what it would taste like when I opened up the jar, but I was hoping it would be a suitable lemon flavour to base a cupcake around. Oh. My. God. This stuff is AWESOME! I ate about 3 huge spoonfuls before I had to remind myself that I needed some to bake with. But seriously, where has lemon curd been all my life?

Obviously, you can substitute any lemon curd into this cupcake (or even a different flavoured curd), but for me, it's pretty much always going to be Mackays Lemon Curd (unless of course, it's their Lime Curd...oooohhhh).

lemon curd cupcakes 
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ingredients:

cupcakes:
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup full-fat sour cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup whole milk
250 ml Mackays lemon curd

glaze:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted (plus more if needed)

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (plus more if needed)

directions:

cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add sugar to the flour mix.
4. Add butter to the flour mix and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes. 
5. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
6. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
7. Slowly add the milk and mix on low speed until just combined.
8. Fill each cupcake liner until just over 1/2 full.
9. Bake for 14 minutes and test to see if a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If they are not done, place them back in the oven and test again after two minutes. 
10. When the cupcakes are done, remove from the oven and remove the cupcakes from the tins. Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.

glaze:

1. Gently whisk together sugar and lemon juice until smooth. 
2. If the glaze is too thin, add more sugar. If the glaze is too thick add more juice. (I prefer my glaze to be a little thicker so that it doesn't run as quickly, plus it has a nice white colour to it)
3. Use immediately.

to assemble cupcakes:

1. Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled. 
2. Fill a pastry bag with Mackays Lemon Curd and fit it with an injector tip (if you don't have an injector tip, you can use a medium, rounded tip). Insert the tip into the top centre of each cupcake and slowly pipe in approximately 1 teaspoon of lemon curd (do this very slowly to avoid piping in too much lemon curd and bursting the cupcake - it's okay if it cracks a little as yo'll be covering the top of the cupcake.
3. Next, glaze the cupcakes using one of two methods:
• Generously spoon glaze onto the top of each cupcake, letting it slowly run off the sides. If your glaze is a nice consistency, then it shouldn't run off too quickly. Or,
• Put your glaze into a shallow dish and dip the top of each cupcake into the glaze, ensuring a nice even glaze topping.
4. Let the glaze set (time will vary depending on how hot your kitchen is).
5. Once the glaze has set, use a spoon (or a piping bag) to add a big dollop of lemon curd to the top of each cupcake.

Yields: 16 cupcakes

Disclosure: I was provided with samples of Mackays products so I could develop this recipe. However, all opinions expressed are my own.