8.18.17
How does every week feel like it flies by and also like an eternity to complete. Same thing with this summer. June seems like it was ages ago, and yet somehow it’s already mid August? Time, you are a tricky bitch. At least my friends and I went to the beach this past weekend for the first time together in TWO YEARS once we realized that summer was coming to a close. In New York, getting to any beach is an adventure in itself, so by the time you pick a spot to lie in the sand, you are more than ready to relax. I think we all needed a beach day. I think we all deserved a beach day.
This time in August means I’ve missed celebrating the official two year anniversary of my blog. I’ll write a post about it next week, along with some thoughts about blog life, baking as a job, and also some fun announcements I can’t quite put out into public yet. Let’s just stay, for now, the summer of hustling has paid off. But more on that next week.
Summer is also the time for berries to be in everything. Yesterday at work I actually made a strawberry rhubarb slab pie, the first time I’d made the classic combo all summer. How embarrassing, but like I said, these past few months have really gotten away from me. Better late than never. Baking with berries is easy and fresh and delicious. I normally throw some lemon zest in with any berry treat, but I got nuts and decided lime is a nicer partner for blackberries. So when I planned on filling these cupcakes with blackberry curd, I decided lime zest would win out over lemon this time around.
This intro has made me a super chatty Cathy, my bad, enjoy these delicious cupcakes.
It’s hard for me to make cupcakes and not put something in the middle nowadays, it’s such an easy way to level up. Make your cupcakes go to 11, you know? I know you do.
I made these because I had extra curd lying around after making this crepe cake. Which if you’ve never made a crepe cake, it’s time to try it out.
Stay tuned next week for a project I have been talking about since December and finally followed through!
Blackberry Curd Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Blackberry Curd
- 1 pint blackberries
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 egg yolk
For the Cupcakes
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- zest from two limes
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2 cup flour
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
For the Frosting
- 1 cup butter
- 4-6 cups confectioners sugar
- 3-5 Tbsp milk
Instructions
For the Blackberry Curd
- In a small saucepan over low-medium heat mix together blackberries and lemon juice and allow it to simmer 10 minutes to break down
- Push mixture through a sieve into a medium saucepan, pressing all the juice through with a wooden spoon
- Add butter and sugar into medium saucepan over low heat and allow to melt into blackberry juice
- Turn up the heat a touch so it just starts to simmer and add in eggs and yolk, whisking constantly
- Allow the mixture to thicken and then remove from heat, allow to cool, then pour into bowl and place plastic wrap over bowl, directly onto curd to avoid creating a skin, keep chilled until use
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 375 and line two muffin trays with cupcake liners
- Zest limes into sugar, toss gently together so the zest permeates sugar and moistens it a bit
- In a medium bowl, whisk together, flour, baking powder and salt, set aside
- Whisk together milk and sour cream, set aside
- In a stand up mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar with lime zest, about 3-4 minutes
- Add in eggs and vanilla one at a time
- Add in flour mixture and milk mixture, alternating, starting and ending with flour
- Once combined, pour batter into lined muffin tin, filling each about 3/4 of the way up
- Once combined, pour batter into lined muffin tin, filling each about 3/4 of the way up
- Bake about 18-20 minutes
- Allow to cool completely before cutting out center
- Once cooled, take a small paring knife and cut out center of cupcakes, making sure not to cut all the way through the bottom of the cupcake
- Carefully pour cooled blackberry curd into the center of cupcakes
For the Frosting
- Add in butter, 4 cups of confectioners sugar and 3 tbsp of milk into bowl of stand up mixer with paddle attachment and beat until smooth, adding more sugar if its too thin, and more milk if it’s too thick
- Transfer frosting to piping bag and pipe on top of cupcakes filled with curd
- Finish off with extra lime zest or blackberries
Adapted from Amy Sedaris Vanilla Cupcakes
