Meyer Lemon Curd Filled Cupcakes with Whipped Lemon Frosting, 6 Points+

I LOVE Cupcakes and just about any dessert that contains lemon.  As you all know I am a tad bit obsessed lately with Lemon Curd  If you have never had lemon curd, it tastes just like the filling in a Lemon Meringue Pie ~ the BEST Part in my opinion.  I have honestly only eaten lemon curd on top of my Greek yogurt and ummm, straight off the spoon.  I wanted to venture out and try cooking with it so I created these cupcakes for our Easter dessert.

I really think it is the Lemon Curd that puts these dense cupcakes over the top.  It’s FUN to bite into a cupcake and find, gooey, tart lemon filling on the inside.

These Meyer Lemon Cupcakes are packed with lemony goodness from the cake to the filling to the frosting.  They are worth every single point, calorie and bite!

MEYER LEMON CURD FILLED CUPCAKES WITH WHIPPED LEMON FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

Cupcake

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 lemon juiced and zested (outer yellow skin)
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup nonfat milk

Filling:

• 12 tsp lemon curd (I used Trader Joe’s!)

Frosting

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon curd, optional
• 1 tbsp sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

2.  In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, yogurt and  sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract, lemon and lemon zest. 

3.  In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4.  With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5.  Fill the muffin cups with batter. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, cut a hole in the center of each cupcake, using a melon baller or the end of a large pastry tip. Fill each hole with a heaping teaspoon of lemon curd.

6.  Frosting: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, lemon curd and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form. Spread frosting on each cupcake with a knife or spatula, or if  you want to pipe the frosting,

If not serving the cupcakes immediately, cover and place in the refrigerator until serving time.

Makes 12 cupcakes, 6 points+ each

Nutritional Information Per Cupcake

STEP-BY-STEP

The BEST Lemon Curd, I’ve ever eat is Trader Joe’s.  You could make your own, but, I figure if you have something you love, it’s one less step in make these lemononlicious cupcakes.

Mix cupcakes and bake according to the instructions above.  I use my 1/2 cup ice cream scooper to make sure that I even scoop my cupcakes into the pan.

To make my “Lemon Curd”  buckets, I used the small end of my melon baller.  You can toss or eat the tops

Spoon about 1 teaspoon in each bucket. I thought it was sorta cool that they looked like “eggs” and I served them on Easter

I stored them all in the fridge and waited to frost them until I was serving them.

Frost ~ add sprinkles if you want them to look fancy and dig in.

NOTE ~ If you don’t want lemon, lemon, lemon flavor, you can omit the lemon juice and zesty making it just a vanilla cupcake filled with lemon curd and whipped lemon frosting.

I will be back tomorrow night with a full recap of our Spontaneous Road Trip adventure and my weekly menu!

Q’s

What is your favorite way to use lemons?

To date, my all time favorite lemon recipe is the 1 Points+ Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies and to put lemon slices in iced cold water.