Lemon Cupcakes with French Vanilla Buttercream

Has Spring sprung in your neighborhood?  It certainly has here.  We have beautiful blooms everywhere and the bright sunshine reminds me that I need to share these cheerfully scrumptious lemon cupcakes with you.  Be careful though... they're addictive.  Happy Spring!!!

Lemon Cupcakes with French Vanilla Buttercream

makes 24 cupcakes using a #20 scoop (recipe may be halved)

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour (see substitution below)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (see substitution below)

• 4 large egg whites (reserve yolks for French Vanilla Buttercream below)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon pure lemon oil (see notes below)

Directions (no need to preheat oven at this point - the cupcake batter needs to rest for 20 minutes before baking so turn the oven on after you finish mixing the batter)

1. In a small bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg whites, vanilla extract, and lemon oil; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes.

4. Turn off the mixer and add 1/3 of the flour mixture; mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

5. Add 1/2 of the wet ingredients; mix just until incorporated.

6. Repeat process with 1/3 of the dry, remaining half of the wet, and remaining third of the dry ingredients, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.

7. Set mixture aside to rest for 20 minutes.

8. Preheat oven to 350F.

9. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

10. Fill each liner with a level scoop of batter using a #20 scoop.

11. Bake for 15 minutes, cool completely.

12. Pipe with French Vanilla Buttercream (recipe below)

Notes

• To substitute 1 cup of cake flour - combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch and enough all-purpose flour to equal 1 cup (bleached all-purpose flour is preferred)

• To substitute 1 cup of buttermilk - combine 1 tablespoon vinegar and enough milk to equal 1 cup

• Be sure to use culinary grade lemon oil. To substitute 1 teaspoon culinary grade lemon oil - use 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract plus the zest of 2 lemons

French Vanilla Buttercream

makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 75 grams egg yolks (about 4 egg yolks)

• 100 grams sugar (1/2 cup)

• 110 grams light corn syrup (about 2 2/3 tablespoons)

• 300 grams unsalted butter, softened (about 2/3 pound)

• 4 grams pure vanilla extract (about 1 teaspoon)

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks until light yellow in color; turn off the mixer until you're ready to add the hot sugar syrup.

2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the sugar and corn syrup together, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil.

3. Immediately pour a small amount of the hot syrup into the beaten egg yolks and turn the mixer on right away for a few seconds; turn off and scrape the inside of the bowl with a spatula.

4. Repeat the process using 1/2 of the remaining sugar syrup; mix again for several seconds, turn off, and scrape bowl.

5. Add the remaining sugar syrup and turn the mixer back on, this time allowing it to continue to mix until the egg mixture is completely cool, about 5 minutes (feel the bottom of the bowl to gauge the temperature of the mixture).

6. When the egg mixture is completely cool, beat in the softened butter and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

7. Pipe buttercream onto completely cooled cupcakes.

8. Garnish as desired and serve cupcakes at room temperature.

9. Refrigerate unused buttercream - allow to come to room temp before using (you may need to whisk the room temp buttercream to restore its creamy texture).

Coeur a la Creme

Ooh-la-la! Coeur a la creme is an amazingly creamy and delicious dessert. Plan ahead, this French delicacy has to be made ahead.

**This post contains affiliate links.

The cast of characters - cream cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean seeds - Hello! What's not to love?  I can't think of a more perfect dessert for Valentine's Day.

You'll also need some cheesecloth and a coeur a la creme mold. Alternates for both listed further down, so keep reading.

This is a traditional French porcelain coeur a la creme mold. I'm not at all fond of the shape of this porcelain mold (too pointy and kinda weird).  So I decided to make my own.

I found this plastic candy dish at Wal-Mart for $1.50. I simply drilled holes in the bottom and voila, a coeur a la creme mold in a more pleasing puffy heart shape.

But hey, you don't need a heart-shaped mold to make this yummy dessert. You can use a mesh sieve.

The porcelain molds have little feet on the bottom. My homemade mold doesn't, so here I'm using a mixing bowl to suspend the mold and catch the liquid as it drains.

A bird's eye view of the set-up.

Before we begin mixing the ingredients together, let's line our mold with cheesecloth. No cheesecloth?  No problem - you can use coffee filters or paper towels instead.

Time to mix the ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the softened cream cheese and sift the confectioner's sugar on top.

I always sift clumpy ingredients like powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I LOVE my BeaterBlade attachment.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. If you own a stand mixer, you need to get one!  

Okay, combine the sugar and cream cheese and beat on high for 2 minutes.  Next we'll add the pure vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds.

I love using vanilla beans - cut it down the middle with a sharp knife...

...and scrape out the seeds.  Easy!

Mmmm.  Look at all of that yummy flavor!

Don't throw that vanilla bean away - make vanilla sugar by submerging the pods in granulated sugar and store in an airtight container.  Keep adding bean pods and sugar and you'll always have a supply on hand to make cookies, desserts, beverages... really great stuff!

Back to our Creme - Beat in the vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. See all those yummy vanilla specks?

Add the heavy cream and replace the paddle with the whip attachment. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.

Pour the mixture into the prepared mold - it will shrink a bit as it drains.

Wrap the excess cheesecloth over the top and place the mold in a container to catch the liquid that will eventually seep out.

I ran into an unexpected problem when I placed my filled mold in the mixing bowl to drain. The mold was kind of top heavy and kept tilting sideways - I solved the problem by placing plastic wrap around the rim of the bowl which acted like a gasket and kept the plastic mold from tilting.

Dairy products are notorious for absorbing refrigerator odors (not that there are any in MY refrigerator), but you never know when one of the teens is going to put an open container of leftover Chinese take-out in there. So just to be on the safe side, I wrapped it well with plastic wrap.

Here we are after 24 hours. See how the creme has compressed a bit. You can't tell by looking at the photo, but the cheesecloth is completely saturated with liquid that drained out of the Creme.

And look at how much liquid collected in the bottom of the bowl.

Enough with that - time to unmold our glorious creation.

Place the Creme on a serving platter and lift the mold straight up so as not to mar its soft surface.

Carefully peel away the cheesecloth - I love the impression it leaves behind.

If I was serving this dessert on a white platter, I would probably have made a strawberry or raspberry sauce, but since I'm serving this one on a red platter, I thought chocolate sauce would be more appropriate. I made a simple sauce by combining 1 part dark chocolate with 2 parts heavy cream; stirring constantly over med heat until combined.  Cool before using.

I garnished with some wild black raspberries I had stashed in the freezer.  Voila!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• coeur a la creme mold https://amzn.to/2E5uWKi

• sieve https://amzn.to/2vVX4Lq

• cheesecloth https://amzn.to/2vX8TB0

• vanilla beans https://amzn.to/2EhmZSn

• Barefoot in Paris https://amzn.to/2HgXzpC

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Coeur a la Creme

makes 4-6 servings

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar, sifted to remove lumps

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, cold

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla bean

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment (or better yet, a BeaterBlade attachment), slowly combine the softened cream cheese and the confectioner's sugar until the risk of spewing powdered sugar all over your kitchen has passed.

2. Increase speed to high and beat for 2 minutes.

3. Turn the mixer off; add vanilla extract and vanilla seeds, combine on low.

4. Add cream and continue to combine on low until incorporated (scrape sides of the bowl if needed).

5. Turn mixer off and replace the paddle attachment with the whip attachment.

6. Whip mixture on high until stiff peaks form.

7. Pour mixture into a cheesecloth lined mold.

8. Place mold in a bowl to catch the juices that drain.

9. Cover well with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. unmold, garnish, and serve.

Chocolate Sauce

makes about 1 1/4 cups

Ingredients

• 4 ounces bitter-sweet chocolate

• 8 ounces heavy cream

Directions

1. In a heavy bottomed pan over med heat, melt chocolate and cream together; stirring constantly. Cool before using.

Notes:  

• Cream cheese will dry out quickly if exposed to the air, so be sure to keep it wrapped while coming to room temperature.

• If you're pressed for time, you can quickly bring cream cheese to room temperature by placing it in a sturdy zip-top storage bag and knead it with your warm hands for a few minutes. It will soften up in no time flat.

adapted from Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten