Lemon Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Blueberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

As promised: The Best Cupcakes Ever, Part II

(Click here for Part I, Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes)


Yup, it's pretty much the ultimate cupcake.

It's a vanilla cupcake filled with gooey lemon curd and topped with blueberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It's like biting into a little piece of heaven.

Ok so...after finding the second love of my life (Hubby being the first), the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I felt compelled to test it again to see if it was too good to be true. I mean, seeing as I tested out the first love of my life by dating him for seven years before walking down the aisle, logically, this buttercream deserves the same meticulous scrutiny. I don't just give away my love so freely, you know? =) Plus, publicly declaring something as being the ultimate is a pretty big statement to make. Since I'm putting my reputation as a cook and foodie on the line here, I had to be certain that it would withstand different recipe variations.

I saw on Crispy Waffle's site that she had a recipe for Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream on a Grand Marnier cupcake. It served as inspiration for my blueberry lemon ones. On her site, she gives two recipe variations: one for the Swiss Meringue buttercream and one for the Italian Meringue buttercream. I simply substituted the strawberries in her SMB recipe for blueberries. She says that she prefers IMB, which is also something I've been meaning to try. But since this weekend was devoted to the SMB, I went with that recipe. Definitely stay tuned for when I try out the IMB. I plan on doing a full comparison of the two meringues, one of these days.

Step 1: The Lemon Curd Filling
(See below for recipe)

I love lemon curd. It's tangy and has a creamy, smooth, and silky texture. It's sooo delicious. It's slightly tart and sour, so it acts as a great way to balance out the sweetness of the cupcake and frosting. Although, it's entirely necessary. The cupcake and buttercream are subtly sweet and super delicious on its own. I just happen to love the flavor combination of blueberries and lemon, so I decided to go all out and make them lemon-filled. Please feel free to skip this step. The cupcake by itself with the fresh blueberry buttercream can definitely hold its own. The lemon filling just gives it an edge. =)

It's super easy to make. Start by whisking together the eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar. (I couldn't find my whisk, so I went ghetto and used my hand-held mixer beaters. hehe)

Put it over med-low heat & whisk for about 8-10 min until it thickens.

When you take it off the heat, it'll be kinda lumpy from the zest and you might have some tiny pieces of cooked egg, so put it through a strainer. Seems like an unnecessary step, but trust me, you don't wanna skip it. You'll be surprised at all the left over chunks that end up in the sieve.

You'll get this silky & smooth mixture afterward.

It needs to chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Make sure to wrap it tightly, with the saran wrap touching the surface of the lemon curd. This way, it doesn't dry out. When it's well chilled and ready to go, stir until smooth again before using.

Step 2: The Vanilla Cupcake

I stick to this great vanilla cupcake recipe by WS. If you follow the directions meticulously, you should get a super moist and delicious cupcake. It's not too sweet and has a lovely, fragrant vanilla flavor. Make sure not to over mix, and please use real vanilla extract, not the imitation stuff. It really makes a difference.

Step 3: The Blueberry Sauce

The blueberry sauce for the buttercream is super easy to make. You basically puree them and that's it. Since I love blueberries, I doubled what the recipe called for and made it a "more coarse" puree, if that makes sense. I wanted it to still have chunks of blueberry here and there to give it that pretty "blue sprinkles" look. I chilled the blueberry puree in the fridge for about an hour. It will come out congealed, kinda like soft jello. I think this is what made it okay to double the blueberry puree. It didn't make the buttercream too soft to pipe. (See Crispy Waffle's site for recipe.)

Step 4: Fill the Cupcakes with Lemon Curd

I got this little injector/frosting bottle from Crate and Barrel a while back. It allows for a quick and easy way to fill your cupcakes. If you don't have one, simply use any frosting tip you have and a pastry bag. Insert the entire tip into your cupcake and squeeze until the curd starts over flowing, like so:

Smooth out the filling with your finger.


Step 5: The Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Please refer to my prior post: The Best Cupcakes Ever, Part I for details on how to make the frosting.


When the buttercream is smooth and finished, pour in your chilled blueberry puree and mix until well combined. Isn't it pretty with all the blueberry specks?

Step 6: Frost Your Cupcakes!



I usually don't post this many pictures of the finished product...

but they're so gorgeous that I couldn't resist!

They're the best when served right away. If you have to refrigerate them, make sure to let them rest at room temp for 20-30 minutes before serving. The frosting needs time to soften. Chilling it makes it lose its flavor temporarily until it softens again.

I can't even begin to describe how delicious they were! You'll just have to try out this recipe to see for yourself! There's a lot of steps to it, but it's totally worth it. Bring them to your next party and wow everyone with your awesome inner domestic goddess.

Hubby has the most spoiled palate ever now. And he's a big brat about it too! The other day, when we were in the baked goods section of Safeway, he wrinkled his nose at the cupcakes and remarked that he would never again eat one of those. lol. Later, when we were in the baking aisle and he saw me grab a box of cake mix, he told me in a very stern voice to "put it back," and once again conveyed to me that he would refuse to eat it. (For the record, I wasn't planning on feeding it to anyone, let alone him. I was going to use it as an experiment to practice my cake decorating skills.) When I set out to domesticate him after getting married, I didn't know I would create such a monster! lol. Anyway, consider yourself forewarned. If you make this for your husband/boyfriend, he might turn into a total diva and refuse to eat anything perceived to be sub-par!


Please click HERE for all the recipes shown in this entry.

Blueberry Cheesecake with Hazelnut Crust

I love cheesecake and can never resist when dining at The Cheesecake Factory. I've tried just about every cheesecake on their menu!


As much as I love it, I've never tried my hand at it. So when I saw an awesome recipe for blueberry cheesecake bars with a hazelnut crust, I was super excited and had to try it at once! This recipe is from my new Williams Sonoma Baking cookbook, which is absolutely the best authority on sweet treats!

Peeled, skinned, and chopped hazelnuts, flour, sugar, & butter: ingredients for the best crust ever!

Mix ingredients in a food processor- the best and easiest way to go when making any kind of crust. Pour into a buttered 9x9 pan.

Press crust into the pan; 1 inch up the sides. Bake crust until golden brown. Set aside until the cheesecake batter is ready to go.


And now for the cheesecake batter. First beat the sugar and cream cheese.


The sugar and cream cheese batter will be creamy and shiny! Add eggs, one at a time.

After all the eggs are incorporated, the batter will be super smooth!

And now for the blueberries! I almost always weigh everything out when I bake now a days. I find that it makes everything easier. I like it better than measuring everything out with spoons and cups. Also, it's more accurate. You can never be too accurate when you're baking! =) Super helpful to have one of these scales around the house.

Fold in the blueberries.

Pour into the pre-baked crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the middle is set.


So...the recipe says to loosen the crust and transfer it to a wire rack to cool. But I seriously tried for like 20 minutes to get it out of the pan and couldn't. I tired everything! I even tried using my super giant pancake spatula, to no avail! So I gave up and left it in the pan, covered it up, and stuck it in the fridge to cool. After being chilled for the proper amount of time, it came out super easily!



The crust was SO amazing! Jing took some to work and his co-workers really enjoyed it. Apparently, the crust got a lot of attention! I love corner pieces, they're the best!

I couldn't decide how to serve the cheesecake, so I tried a few different ways! Here, I cut them into small, 1 inch bites. So cute! Great to serve as finger food at a party.


I made these into little individual cheesecakes. I used a round cookie cutter, 3 inches in diameter. These would be great to serve as dessert for dinner.


Lastly, I cut them into square bars! I really can't decide which way is my favorite! They're all so cute! =)

Recipe:

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars with Hazelnut Crust
Essentials of Baking, Williams Sonoma, p. 56

For the crust:
1 1/4 (6.5 oz) cups all purpose flour
1/3 (3 oz) cup sugar
3/4 (3 oz) cup toasted, skinned, and finely chopped hazelnuts
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into 3/4- inch pieces

For the filling:
1 pound of cream cheese, at room temp
3/4 (6 oz) cup sugar
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
3 large eggs, at room temp
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) blueberries

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 325 degrees. Butter a 9x9 square baking pan.

In a food processor: to make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, hazelnuts, and salt and pulse 2-3 times to mix. Add the butter and pulse 8-10 times until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas.

Press crust mixture into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake crust until golden and the top looks dry and firm, 15-20 minutes. set aside.

To make the filling, in a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat together until blended and smooth. Stir in flour until blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the batter is smooth. Stir in the cream and vanilla and almond extracts and stir until incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared crust.

Bake until the center is set when you give the pan a gentle shake, 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and using a small knife, loosten the warm cheesecake square form the sides of the pan. Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or over night.

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Ricotta Pancakes. Sounds super weird, doesn't it? I first came across it while watching Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network. Prior to that, I hadn't ever seen ricotta used as an ingredient in pancakes, and mainly used it for savory foods like lasagna and calzones. Making a mental note that it was interesting, I put it on my recipe to-do list, and forgot about it until recently.

A week ago, my friend Lindsey left me the funniest message. It read:
Are you taking suggestions on what to make next? When I was in LA a few months ago, I had the BEST lemon ricotta pancakes. I have been wanting to make them ever since, but I don't really have the time to play with recipes. Help, Domestic Goddess, help!!!

Sympathizing with her plight, I set out to find a great Lemon Ricotta Pancake recipe to try. Since I love blueberries, I decided to make them into Blueberry & Lemon Pancakes- an amazing flavor combination!

And I am now on a mission to try to inspire her, and fellow Career Goddesses alike, to spend a little bit more time in the kitchen! However much time they can afford, anyway. =)

The recipe calls for pretty simple ingredients. I used part-skim ricotta.


Combine the wet ingredients, along with lemon zest.
Add only the egg yokes, set the whites aside in a separate bowl.

Combine the dry ingredients separately. Then sift over the wet mixture. Mix well, but gently. Stop mixing immediately when everything is combined. Set aside.

Now, go back to the egg whites and beat until white and frothy.
Add salt and beat continuously until soft peaks form.


The whites should look like this when you're done.
It's really pretty and creamy, similar to whipped cream.

Very gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Add 1/3 of the egg whites, fold, then add the rest, and fold until combined. It's really important to fold gently and to be really careful during this step. If you over mix, you will destroy the air in the egg whites. When this happens, your pancakes will be dense and heavy. The whipped egg whites gives it body and makes the pancake light and fluffy.

It should look like this when combined, you can still see the air bubbles in the batter.

And now for the blueberries! Feel free to skip this step. =)


Onto the griddle they go! 1-2 minutes on each side.

And there you have it!

Lindsey was right! These were by far the best pancakes I have ever tasted! They had a rich, creamy taste to them and they were so light and fluffy! We didn't even use syrup. It was really delicious on its own, with a little bit of butter and powdered sugar!

I think I've only ever made pancakes out of a Bisquick box and I can say right now that once you've had these home-made ones, you'll never go back!

To those of you who are skeptical about the ricotta, I strongly encourage you to give these pancakes a try. I think it will win over even the toughest critic!

Blueberry Tart

I've always wanted to try my hand at tarts! They're just so pretty, if nothing else! I love the beautiful scalloped edges and the concept of a delicate pastry shell functioning as a fruit bowl.

Jerr casually mentioned the other day that tarts aren't very different from pies. And since then, I've obsessed over finding the perfect recipe and tart pan. Now that I'm pretty confident in my pie baking skills, I thought I'd move onto something that's seemingly more difficult. Baby steps, right?

I'm slightly ashamed that I didn't know this before...but while shopping for tart pans, I realized that most of them conveniently had bottoms that popped out, making it super easy for removal! This was something that I had worried about, that kept me from attempting it sooner. The scalloped edges seemed so delicate and I was convinced that I would break the pastry before I could get it out in one piece. But apparently the Baking Gods thought of everything when they created this perfect, user-friendly piece! But just to be on the safe side, I took extra precaution by getting a non-stick one (the Baking Gods can only do so much when up against my clumsiness).

Ok anyway, enough babbling. Here's documentation of my tart baking adventure:
The dough is pretty straight-forward and "easy to understand," once you've worked with pie dough. The two are quite similar in texture and you work with them in the same way. The tart dough was maybe a taaaad less fragile. (Refer to these two posts for tips: Blueberry Pie and All About Pies.)

Form into a ball to refrigerate. The recipe said to chill for 30 mins, but that was definitely not enough time! Even with my non-stick mat, the dough was too warm and difficult to lift off without breaking. I'd say chill for at least 1-2 hrs.

Next, roll out the dough and press it into the tart pan. Pretty easy, if you've chilled it sufficiently. If you find it to be too difficult to work with, roll it back up and stick it in the fridge for longer.

Before baking, cover the pie crust with wax paper or foil and pour a bag of beans or pie weights into the pan. I've been meaning to get a jar of ceramic pie weights, but haven't gotten around to it.

So I used beans. This step is necessary because it keeps the crust from blistering or producing air bubbles while baking. Also, the ceramic ones are nice because it allows the crust to bake evenly.


After baking with the beans for 5 minutes, remove them and poke the crust with a fork before putting it back into the oven. Poking it also makes sure it doesn't puff up and break your crust.



The crust came out a perfect golden brown...






...and I had no trouble popping it out of the pan! Thank you, Baking Gods!



Next, onto the filling! It was pretty straight-forward and the instructions were easy to follow. It turned out to be a pretty, soft yellow color, with the consistency of vanilla pudding.


The recipe said to refrigerate the filling before spreading it into the tart crust. However, when I pulled it out of the fridge, it had become super solidified and difficult to spread (think play-dough consistency). But I was able to thin it out by mixing 1 Tbsp of cream (or milk) at a time, until it thinned out enough to spread. About 2-3 Tbsp total.




It was pretty easy to spread once the cream was well mixed.





In the recipe, they used a mixture of berries, but since I've been on this summer-induced blueberry craze... =)



Spread the blueberries over the tart filling. I like a lot of berries on my tarts, so I piled it on until it practically overflowed!

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and here you have it:

This recipe was fantastic! My family went crazy for it and it disappeared within a few hours. The filling was especially great! It had a custard-like consistency and was light on the palate...not too sweet, but just sweet enough. The dough wasn't especially heavy and buttery like pie crusts are, which added to the lightness. In the summer, when I crave sweets, I usually want something on the lighter side. This was the perfect kind of dessert for those hot summer days! The sweetness of the berries was the highlight of this treat!