Lemon-White Chocolate Cupcakes

These are the cupcake version of the wedding cake I made quite a few posts ago. I've been wanting to make this delicious flavor combination in a way that doesn't require the time and effort of the wedding cake. However, I had to make some concessions. For the cupcakes, I used a simple lemon cupcake recipe, modified from a lime cupcake recipe I've used before. Instead of two fillings like the wedding cake, the cupcakes had one: the lemon-white chocolate mousse. The frosting remained the same delicious, fluffy frosting from the wedding cake, thankfully. The fillings and frostings are still a little labor intensive, but the only extra step (compared to my other cupcake recipes) is that it's necessary to make the lemon curd to use in the mousse. Of course, you could use store bought...



Lemon-White Chocolate Cupcakes

Lemon Curd

2 lemons, zested
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
pinch of salt

3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup lemon juice

4 tbsp butter, sliced into 4 pieces

Combine zest, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk to combine. Add egg yolks and whisk until pale yellow. Whisk in juice and set pan over low - medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until thick. Usually, this takes 10 minutes of cooking over a medium low flame. Strain through a mesh sieve into a bowl. Add butter, one piece at a time and stir until combined before adding another piece. Cool. Cover and chill. This makes about 3/4 cup lemon curd (and can be used to make lime curd as well). This can be made up to 5 days in advance.


Lemon-White Chocolate Mousse

3/4 cup Lemon Curd
3.5 oz white chocolate
3/4 cup whipped cream

Warm chocolate in the top of a double boiler until melted. Set off water and let cool slightly. In the chilled bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream until medium peaks form. With the mixer running on low, stream in the white chocolate until incorporated. Make sure not to over mix. Gently fold in the lemon curd in 3 additions. Place in a bowl, cover, and chill. This can be made 2 days ahead.


[Another delicious use of the mousse: piped over blueberries for a nice, decadent dessert. Top it with some whipped cream and it's pure heaven.]

White Chocolate Frosting

3 oz white chocolate

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar, packed

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Remove from water and cool slightly. In the chilled bowl of your mixer, whip the cream and roughly half of the powdered sugar until medium peaks form. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. In the mixer beat the cream cheese and the remaining powdered sugar until fluffy and combined. Stream in the white chocolate with the mixer running on low speed. Remove bowl from mixer and scrape with a rubber spatula. Fold in whipped cream in 4 additions (using the first addition to lighten the cream cheese mixture). Place in a bowl, cover, and chill. Can be made a day ahead.

Lemon Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter. Add sugar and mix to blend. Add eggs, one at a time. Then mix in the lemon juice and zest. The batter may look curdled.

Add the flour in 3 additions alternately with the buttermilk in 2 additions (beginning and ending with flour). Spoon roughly 1/3 cup of the batter into each paper liner, and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely.

Once cooled, core out the center of each cupcake with a small knife. Pipe in the lemon mousse. The mousse is fairly stiff, and these cupcakes should remain chilled once frosted, so it's okay if some of the mousse mounds up on top of the cupcake. Pipe frosting on the top of the cupcake, sealing in the mousse.



This seems like a lot of work, but it's really not. I tend to spread out my cupcake adventures over the course of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so that I'm not doing it all at once. Remember to keep these cupcakes refrigerated and enjoy!