Lemon filled cupcakes

I don't know if there is a right way to "fill" a cupcake, and I didn't look it up. I just tried something and it worked! Here is what I did:

1. Bake the cupcakes (I made 18 with a white cake recipe). Let them cool.

2. Cut the top off each cupcake, with a knife down into each cake so that you're cutting out some of the centre of the cupcake.

 What gets cut out will be a pointy piece.

3. Cut the pointy part off the "lid", making it flat and giving room to fill the cupcake.

4. Fill the cupcake. I used lemon curd.

5. Put the "lid" back on the cupcake.

6. Decorate the top of the cupcake. I sealed the edges with buttercream icing. Then I just piped the top in a swirl pattern. 

7. And here it is: the delicious, lemon filled, buttercream-iced cupcake.

Lemon Curd  (From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 14th Edition p 292)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel (make it really finely shredded)
6 Tbsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp water
6 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup butter

1. In a saucepan, stir together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice, and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.

2. Stir half of the lemon mixture into the egg yolks. Return egg mixture to the saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Add butter; stir until melted. Remove from heat. Cover surface with plastic wrap. Chill one hour.

We noted that when you freeze the lemon curd, it tastes like lemon sherbet! It was fantastic! I used this recipe in the first place to use up the egg yolks I got from the white cake recipe that I had used previously. It was genious how well the lemon curd worked as a filling for the white cake.

Happy Canada Day!

Sorry, I'm a little late, but Happy Canada Day! I celebrated with a big bash and this awesome cake!

I actually made it to celebrate my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary. It was a labour of love. Each rose took about an hour to make. The three cakes took about 4 hours to bake. Then the buttercream, fondant and decorations took about 8 hours to do! The small cake was a white cake with a lemon curd filling. The medium cake was a carrot cake with a cream cheese icing filling and the large cake was chocolate with chocolate fudge filling. They were all so good. Only 5 pieces of cake were left at the end of the day. We shared it among the 43 of us.

Father's Day cake!

Today, I think I found what I was looking for - a beautiful looking, easy to bake, yummy tasting white or yellow cake. This one is called Buttermilk White Cake. It comes from an old copy of the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine - February 2008, page 158. I did a repeat of last Friday and made a 6" round cake and (this time) 12 cupcakes.

The cupcakes stuck to the silicone wrappers a bit, but the cake came out easily from the pan which had been greased and floured. Then I split the cake in two.

I made my favorite chocolate fudge icing and filled it. While that was setting up and cooling a little more, I whipped up some buttercream and gave a quick swirl to the tops of the cupcakes. Then we tried them! Moist and delicious, soft, delicate and flavourful.

Now, for the cake, I wanted something simple that said "Father's Day", at least symbolically. Even though my dad only wears ties on Sundays, I chose to make him a tie. A little green fondant and gumpaste cut in a tie shape and another piece cut in a semi-circle and wrapped around the top of the tie was all it took to make the tie part. The collar was just rolled gum paste cut into the right quadrilateral shapes. (A 2" by 6" rectangle was my starting point. Cut it in half, but actually cut out a triangle where the top of the tie will fit. Then trim the bottoms of the collar pieces on a slight angle up away from the middle area.) Lay the collar pieces over the tie and drape them down the back of the cake, trimming off anything that overlaps onto the cake platter.

Then I stuck "#1" on it. Not too original, but cute enough.

Happy Father's Day Weekend everyone!