Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Umm….yum. Lame start to this post, I know. I just can’t find the words to describe how much I love this cupcake. Remember that scene in Harry Met Sally? You know the one….in the diner? This cupcake might make you do that. If you don’t know what I’m talking about….you’re like 25 years late in watching one of the best movies ever made. So go rent it. And then make these cupcakes.

I found several recipes on Pinterest for various versions of this cupcake and decided to to stick with my tried and true lemon cupcake base. It’s quick and simple and made with fresh lemon zest and lemon juice. It’s moist but yet sturdy enough to handle a filling.

I used to have a fancy lemon zester, then I broke it. And that was probably good because I kept zesting my fingers with it, gross. Now I just use my mini cheese grater and I love it even more. So don’t go buy something fancy for zesting, just use the smallest grater you have.

Prepare two bowls. One with your dry ingredients, one with your liquids, sugar, and zest. Whisk your wet ingredients until they foam a little and then pour them into the dry ingredients. Mix until the batter (which will be very thin) is pretty smooth and mostly lump free.

Fill your cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full and bake for 15-18 minutes.

Now the amazing part. Homemade raspberry filling. Some call this raspberry curd, gross. I take major issue with the word “curd”. So we will call this raspberry filling. Thank you. Don’t forget.

As with all things delicious and amazing, start by melting butter. Yes… butter. So good…

Add raspberries, fresh or frozen, doesn’t matter. I actually used a combination because I ruined my first batch of raspberry filling. Funny story. This recipe calls for egg yolk, if you pour your egg yolk into this pan and do not combine everything quickly, you’ll have beautiful raspberries combined with an omelet. Insert vomiting sounds here. So my advice: combine all your other ingredients in a bowl so it’s already measured out and you can add it, and more importantly, stir it in quickly.

Let the combination cook on the stove top on medium to low heat approximately 10 minutes, stirring frequently at first and constantly towards the end, until it thickens. While it cooks, use the back of a large spoon to mash the berries against the side of the pan. Somewhere in there, stand back and admire how beautiful this filling is.

After it thickens a bit, pour it into a fine strainer set over another bowl. It will seem a slow process but press the mix against the strainer walls to force the liquid into the bowl until just the seeds and other solid piece remain…

Set the filling in the fridge to cool. Let it cool all.the.way. Give it a couple hours in the fridge at least. It will thicken as it cools. In fact, if you can, just make the day before.

When your filling is cool, core your cupcakes, either with a spoon or a handy corer. Use a spoon to neatly fill your pretty cupcake holes with beautiful raspberry filling (not curd, in case you forgot)

Top, gently, with a lemon icing. I used a lemon cream cheese icing, but if I did it again, I would use buttercream. In fact, I included my preferred lemon icing recipe below. Making cream cheese icing using lemon juice and zest makes for a very running icing. It doesn’t pipe nicely, its very frustrating. So if you are going to make lemon cream cheese, use lemon extract instead. Be careful while piping on your icing not to push the filling out of its cute, neat, little home. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes

Lemon cupcake recipe from loveandoliveoil.com 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• (Option: Use 1 cup and 2 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoons potato starch)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together sugar, oil, milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 the way full. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Core cupcakes when completely cooled.

Raspberry Filling

Raspberry filling recipe from Annie's Eats 

Ingredients:

• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 pint ripe raspberries or 1 12-oz. package frozen raspberries, thawed
• 5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the raspberries, egg yolks, sugar and salt, and cook, mashing the berries.  Stir frequently at first and then constantly at the end, until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Pour the mixture through a coarse strainer set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible.  Cool to room temperature; the curd will continue to thicken as it cools.  Stir in lemon juice to taste.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fill cored cupcakes with cooled filling.

Lemon Buttercream Icing

Lemon Buttercream:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3 – 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons milk
food coloring, optional

Directions:

Cream butter in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture is smooth. Add lemon juice and zest and mix until combined. Add cream and food coloring and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.