Monday, April 09, 2007

Cupcakes for the Cuties

Happy Easter! I tackled several recipes for this happy occasion for several different of my favorite people. I love cooking, but I love cooking even more for people that love good food and make special requests as a cooking challenge. I will post some of these recipes separately profiled with the person(s) for who they were made.
This recipe is dedicated to the Zigler boys. These cupcakes are a bite of sunshine for the five little boys who are a ray of sunshine in my life. What better reward than to see a plate filled only with a piece of turkey and one of those cupcakes? Or to see sticky mouths with empty wrappers strewed all over their table? Take a bite and see if it doesn't take you back to those simple joys of childhood's pure sugar highs.
Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Glaze
makes 18 cupcakes

7 oz almond paste
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs, slightly beaten, room temperature
2/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Beat almond paste and sugar on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Add ricotta and beat again. Add softened butter and beat on medium-high until light in color. Add eggs and beat two minutes. Whisk dry ingredients together separately and add to wet ingredients along with milk. Fold ingredients to combine.
Line cupcake pan with liners and fill with batter until 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.

Lemon Curd (from Joy of Cooking) chilled overnight.

To frost: let cupcakes stand overnight uncovered. Take one tablespoon of curd and spoon over tops of cupcakes. Let stand uncovered for several hours, or until ready to serve. Can decorate with lemon zest strips or as desired.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So for Easter I made a lemon layer cake with a lemon curd filling...and all the curd slid off the cake and onto the plate! It was still delicious, but the curd was too thin I think, more like a glaze...any thoughts??? :)
Christina

Unknown said...

Lemon curd is usually thickened by the protein in the eggs. Usually, the eggs and sugar are whisked together, then the other ingredients added and it is cooked until it thickens. Next time, use more eggs and sugar and less butter at the end. Joy of Cooking has two recipes-- one of them being a low-fat recipe- I tried this one. It might be thicker!

iamchanelle said...

oh my GOSH, girl! these sound awesome.
*runs to go make some*

Anonymous said...

I was hoping to get the recipe for "Lemon Curd" as I can't locate my Joy of Cooking cookbook.