Citrus season!
It’s winter, so while it’s very dark and dreary at times, it also means it’s citrus season. Oranges, lemons, mandarins, and grapefruits are at their peak between late autumn and early spring. While I’m sure you can get these fruits at your grocery store year-round, they’ll taste best around now, in January/February. That’s why we always get inspired at this time of year to develop recipes centered around citrus. And while there may not be much sun outside, at least these bright and beautiful citrus fruits can bring some sunshine to your day. Or at least we hope that’s exactly what this recipe for lemon poppy seed cupcakes can do!
Our new lemon curd recipe
We recently posted our recipe for lemon curd and gave it its own spot on the blog (rightfully so!). It had been used in a few of our recipes, but we thought it was about time to let it shine on its own during the winter months. It’s also a crucial part of this recipe! If you’ve never made homemade lemon curd before, don’t worry, it’s incredibly easy. It might feel a little wrong to combine eggs and lemon juice, but luckily, it turns out delicious if you keep whisking and end up with a super smooth curd. The lemon curd is also beautifully tart, making it the perfect partner to the sweet cake and buttercream in this recipe. Yum!
Lemon and poppy seed combination
Why lemon and poppy seed? To be honest, we’re most familiar with a lemon poppy seed muffin, which is a classic baked good found in American bakeries. However, we wanted to incorporate our tart lemon curd, which demands something sweet to balance it out. We brainstormed and came up with this perfect combo of fluffy vanilla and lemon poppy seed cake, a tart lemon curd center, and a sweet American buttercream swirled on top. The poppy seeds add a deliciously subtle flavor and a great texture, but you can omit them if you don’t have them or don’t want to use them. Make these lemon poppy seed cupcakes for a party or just as a little baking project to enjoy for no particular reason at all!
Other lemon recipes for you
If you’re a huge lemon fan, you’re in the right place! It’s one of our favorite flavors to work with, so we have plenty of recipes for you to explore. If there’s any lemon recipe in particular that you want to see, feel free to leave us any suggestions in the comments!
- Mini pavlovas with lemon curd and blueberry compote
- Lemon bundt cake
- Citronroulade (Lemon roulade)
- Citronmåne (Lemon moon cake)
- Citronsnitter (Lemon bars)
Ingredients you’ll need
These lemon poppy seed cupcakes consist of 3 parts: lemon curd, cupcake batter, and buttercream. For the curd, you’ll need eggs, sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemons, and butter. You can definitely use store-bought lemon curd if you find it easier. You can also make the curd a day before, which will save you a bit of time. For the batter, you’ll need eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, milk, butter, flour, baking powder, salt, lemons, and poppy seeds. Finally, for the buttercream, you’ll need butter, salt, lemons, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. To decorate, it’s up to you, but we like a few poppy seeds sprinkled on top and some lemon zest. Sprinkles are always a good choice too!
How to make our lemon poppy seed cupcakes
Start by making the curd and letting it chill in the fridge as you prepare the cupcakes. Melt the butter and milk together on the stove just until combined, then let this cool so it’s no longer hot to the touch. In the meantime, whip the eggs and sugar together until very light and fluffy, then add the vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt – in a separate bowl. Alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture, gently mixing with each addition. Finally, fold through the lemon zest and poppy seeds. Divide this batter evenly between 12 cupcake liners, then bake. Let these cool before carefully cutting the center out of each one and adding the lemon curd. Whip up the buttercream until light and fluffy, adding any remaining lemon curd, and decorate however you like. Enjoy!
Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes
Ingredients
CUPCAKE BATTER
- 2 large eggs
- 135 grams granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 165 ml milk
- 42 grams butter
- 165 grams all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- Zest from 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
FILLING
- 1 portion lemon curd
BUTTERCREAM ICING
- 226 grams unsalted butter, softened
- Pinch of salt
- Lemon zest from 1-2 lemons
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 grams powdered sugar
- Leftover lemon curd from the filling! (optional)
DECOR
- Poppy seeds, lemon zest, sprinkles, candied lemon, etc.
Instructions
- Make the lemon curd in advance (here's our recipe) so it has enough time to cool down, or you can use a store bought lemon curd!
- Preheat oven to 350F (176C).
- Melt butter and milk together on the stove. Let the mixture cool a bit, until it's not burning hot but just a bit warm.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Beat eggs and sugar together, either in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, with a hand mixer, or by hand with a whisk. The eggs and sugar should about double in volume and become light in color and a little bit thicker than liquid. When you lift the whisk out of the mixture, the mixture that flows back into the bowl should sit on the surface for just a second before sinking back in – that's ribbon stage, and it should be ready for the next step!
- Add the vanilla extract to the eggs and sugar and mix together.
- Now you are going to add your cooled wet ingredients and dry ingredients into the fluffy egg mixture in batches. You can do this by hand or with a paddle/whisk attachment on your stand mixer. First, sift in half of the dry mixture and fold together gently or run the mixer for just 10-15 seconds on low.
- Then, add half of the wet mixture and fold together gently, or run the mixer for another 10-15 seconds on low. If you see dry ingredients stuck on the sides of the bowl, make sure to use a spatula to fold it in.
- Repeat the process of sifting in the rest of the dry ingredients, mix, then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix together, either by folding the ingredients together or running the mixer.
- Add in the poppy seeds and lemon zest and mix together until just combined.
- Finally, fold everything together a few times at the end with a spatula until you have a smooth cake batter, making sure nothing is stuck on the sides or the bottom of the stand mixer bowl.
- Add cupcake liners to a 12 cupcake muffin/cupcake pan.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake liners – it should fill them about 3/4 of the way. Try not to fill them all the way to the top as the cupcakes could then overflow.
- Put the cupcakes in the oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester, skewer, or knife inserted in a cupcake comes out clean.
- Let cool for a few minutes before moving the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool down fully.
- When the cupcakes are almost cooled down, make your buttercream by adding softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl.
- Run the mixer with the whisk attachment for a few minutes just to get the butter whipped slightly.
- Add in about half of the powdered sugar and whip the mixture until the sugar is incorporated.
- Add in a pinch of salt, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Whisk together to incorporate.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar to the buttercream mixture.
- Whisk well for at least 5 minutes, or until the buttercream is airy and light in color. Set aside until ready to decorate, but don't remove it from the bowl yet!
- Once the cupcakes have cooled down, cut out a hole about an inch wide from the center of each cupcake to make room for lemon curd. They end up coming out sort of cone shaped, but you could also try to use an apple corer or a melon baller for something more uniform in shape! Definitely set these pieces aside to snack on as you're decorating!
- Fill the center of the cupcakes with lemon curd, about a tablespoon or a bit more in each cupcake.
- If you have leftover lemon curd, add it to the buttercream and whisk it together one last time until well incorporated!
- Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and decorate the cupcakes however you would like. We go with a classic swirl using a star tip, and there's enough buttercream to generously ice them all.
- Decorate with poppy seeds, lemon zest, candied lemon, sprinkles, or anything else you would like! Enjoy!
